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

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

Kattullus — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:28:33 -0800

British Women Romantic Poets Project is 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).

By: Kattullus

Kattullus — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:30:43 -0800

I forgot to mention that there are usually good quality scans of title pages and frontispieces.

By: jokeefe

jokeefe — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 21:50:15 -0800

*pounces* This is brilliant, thank you!

By: dng

dng — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 01:16:11 -0800

Excellent, cheers

By: verstegan

verstegan — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 02:18:33 -0800

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.

By: organisciak

organisciak — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 10:14:51 -0800

Orlando: Women's Writing In the British Isles