For class today, we read poetry by Anna Laetitia Barbauld. I found her writings striking in that they are able to use such beautiful language to describe the issues facing society at this time. She touches on imperialism, women’s rights, familial structures, and the social structures. The poem that I found the most interesting was either “Eighteen Hundred and Eleven” or “Washing Day.” The two titles seem distinct from one another, however; I realized that when you looked closer, there are connections between the two. Barbauld is able to take something as simple and mundane as washing clothes and use it to paint a picture of the issues the society was facing. “Eighteen Hundred and Eleven” blatantly shows the reader how the speaker views the political structures of the time, and how misinformed and volatile they could be.
Lines 241 to 248 in “Eighteen Hundred and Eleven” were my favorite lines of poetry we ready by Barbauld. In the short amount of words that she devotes to this idea, she shows the greed and rashness that the British imperialists/politicians were showing around her. Barbauld builds up to this moment by describing the sinful nature of past empires and how these periods will always fall. The idea of Britain always rising above the rest of the world does not seem to work for Barbauld and without explicitly stating her views, she seems to hold a very strong opinion. Barbauld is tying together art, politics, and history in her poetry in ways that prove that the female mind was not incapable of this high-level thinking. She proves the points she makes in “The Rights of Woman” by writing such powerful words here.
Romanticism Blog 