Charlotte Smith

Charlotte Smith was an English poet and novelist of the late eighteenth century. Her poetry is noted for its melancholy sensibility and detailed natural imagery, particularly in sonnets that anticipate Romanticism. Biografi ↓Mer ↓

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Charlotte Smith

Sonnet XLIII: The Unhappy Exile

The unhappy exile, whom his fates confine To the bleak coast of some unfriendly isle, Cold, barren, desart, where no harvests smile, But thirst and hunger on the rocks repine; When, from some promontory's fearful brow, Sun after sun he hopeless sees decline In the broad shipless sea—perhaps may know Such heartless pain, such blank despair as mine; And, if a flattering cloud appears to show The fancied semblance of a distant sail, Then melts away—anew his spirits fail, While the lost hope but aggravates his woe! Ah! so for me delusive Fancy toils, Then, from contrasted truth—my feeble soul recoils.

Charlotte Smith

Sonnet XLIV: Press'd by the Moon

Press'd by the Moon, mute arbitress of tides, While the loud equinox its power combines, The sea no more its swelling surge confines, But o'er the shrinking land sublimely rides. The wild blast, rising from the Western cave, Drives the huge billows from their heaving bed; Tears from their grassy tombs the village dead, And breaks the silent sabbath of the grave! With shells and sea-weed mingled, on the shore Lo! their bones whiten in the frequent wave; But vain to them the winds and waters rave; They hear the warring elements no more: While I am doom'd—by life's long storm opprest, To gaze with envy on their gloomy rest.

Biografi

She was born in 1749 in London and began publishing to support her family after an unhappy marriage. Her 1784 collection 'Elegiac Sonnets' revived the sonnet form in English and was widely admired. Her works often evoke landscapes of the Sussex Downs and River Arun, blending personal sorrow with observations of nature. Smith's style is characterized by emotional directness and a focus on solitude, loss, and the transient beauty of the natural world. She also wrote novels, including 'Emmeline' and 'The Old Manor House,' which brought her financial success. Her poetry influenced William Wordsworth and other Romantics, who admired her innovations in lyrical voice. Despite facing legal and financial hardships throughout her life, she maintained a prolific literary career. Smith is now recognized as a key transitional figure between the sensibility of the late Enlightenment and the Romantic movement. Her most ambitious poem, 'Beachy Head,' published posthumously, exemplifies her mature meditation on history, nature, and the self.

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