Charlotte Smith’s poetry was an interesting read to me, it is full of symbolism and also well-defined images of the world she experiences. I believe that the crux of Smith’s poetry is the fact that it is her who is behind all the images and the speech presented. She is found in each of her poems because of her use of self-reflection in the Romantic tradition.
I found Smith’s biography intriguing because of how powerful it was, she went through so much strife and pain. But she shows how she has triumphed in Beachy Head and shows her control in her modulated verses and attention given to the Muses in the Elegiac Sonnets. It was surprising to me that more of her poetry doesn’t directly reflect the economic and domestic issues that ran throughout most of her life. I would attempt to answer this by saying that she somewhat avoids these topics because her writing was a self-reflective escape for her. Within poetry, she had control. Smith made a living off of her work, even though the property ultimately went to her husband, she still had that ownership for however long.
As a woman and a scholar, Smith is empowering. She set a precedent that we’ve seen acted on in the other poetry we have read and I believe we will continue to she her style as we read throughout the course.
Romanticism Blog 