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.

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Apr 5th, 1:00 PM Apr 5th, 3:00 PM

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