Thousands of poems by women writers of the British Isles in the Romantic era

August 26, 2009 7:28 PM

British Women Romantic Poets Projectis a collection of poetry written by women from the British Isles between 1789 and 1832. Over a hundred female poets are represented. Women rarely feature in literary histories of the Romantic period but there is treasure if you search (some poems are, frankly, terrible). A few places to start are Charlotte Turner Smith's Elegiac Sonnets, and Other Poems, Christian Ross Milne's Simple Poems on Simple Subjects and Mary Robinson's sonnet cycle Sappho and Phaon. The oddest works to modern readers may be Elizabeth Hitchener's Enigmas, Historical and Geographical and Marianne Curties' Classical Pastime, which are collections of verse riddles (the answers are at the end of the text).
posted by Kattullus (5 comments total)

I forgot to mention that there are usually good quality scans of title pages and frontispieces.
posted by Kattullus at 7:30 PM on August 26

*pounces* This is brilliant, thank you!
posted by jokeefe at 9:50 PM on August 26

Excellent, cheers
posted by dng at 1:16 AM on August 27

I've always liked Jane Taylor's poem The Squire's Pew:

A slanting ray of evening light
Shoots through the yellow pane;
It makes the faded crimson bright,
And gilds the fringe again:
The window's gothic frame-work falls
In oblique shadow on the walls.

And since those trappings first were new,
How many a cloudless day,
To rob the velvet of its hue,
Has come and passed away?
How many a setting sun hath made
That curious lattice-work of shade!

It could almost be one of John Betjeman's poems.

Meanwhile, the award for Most. Depressing. Title. Ever. goes to Elizabeth Sarah Garrington for Spiritual Recreations in the Chamber of Affliction: or, Pious Meditations in Verse, Written During a Protracted Illness of Thirteen Years.
posted by verstegan at 2:18 AM on August 27 [1 favorite has favorites]

Orlando: Women's Writing In the British Isles
posted by organisciak at 10:14 AM on August 29 [1 favorite has favorites]