Charlotte Smith - A Revolutionary Female Romantic Poet
Location
CSU 204
Start Date
5-4-2010 1:00 PM
End Date
5-4-2010 3:00 PM
Student's Major
English
Student's College
Arts and Humanities
Mentor's Name
Mary Johnston
Mentor's Department
English
Mentor's College
Arts and Humanities
Description
Despite the turmoil, turbulence, and strain of her life as a young mother of twelve children married to an abusing and exhaustive husband, Charlotte Smith made a poetic persona out of her real life. She found the opportunity as a writer to strive for a deeper understanding of life, living, and society by immersing herself in nature. Through using her vantage point as an observer, Smith displayed and described in her works the aspects of melancholy, mortality, isolation, suffering, restraint, and the effects of war. Smith wrote with abhorrence towards the oppression and exploitation of women, slaves, and laborers alike, and she reflected on the tendency of mankind to ruin what is perfect and beautiful. She demonstrated her social criticisms in her work and gave readers a different set of identities to relate to and ultimately emphasize with. Her radical viewpoints, which had often been deemed questionable or dishonorable, were unheard of from a woman writer. However ground-breaking and controversial her works were for the society in which she lived and wrote, Charlotte Smith helped to revolutionize both the Romantic Period and 19th century poetry.
Charlotte Smith - A Revolutionary Female Romantic Poet
CSU 204
Despite the turmoil, turbulence, and strain of her life as a young mother of twelve children married to an abusing and exhaustive husband, Charlotte Smith made a poetic persona out of her real life. She found the opportunity as a writer to strive for a deeper understanding of life, living, and society by immersing herself in nature. Through using her vantage point as an observer, Smith displayed and described in her works the aspects of melancholy, mortality, isolation, suffering, restraint, and the effects of war. Smith wrote with abhorrence towards the oppression and exploitation of women, slaves, and laborers alike, and she reflected on the tendency of mankind to ruin what is perfect and beautiful. She demonstrated her social criticisms in her work and gave readers a different set of identities to relate to and ultimately emphasize with. Her radical viewpoints, which had often been deemed questionable or dishonorable, were unheard of from a woman writer. However ground-breaking and controversial her works were for the society in which she lived and wrote, Charlotte Smith helped to revolutionize both the Romantic Period and 19th century poetry.
Recommended Citation
Lettow, Brittaney. "Charlotte Smith - A Revolutionary Female Romantic Poet." Undergraduate Research Symposium, Mankato, MN, April 5, 2010.
https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/urs/2010/oral-session-07/2
