Charlotte Turner Smith
"Elegiac Sonnets"
Composition
- Born
May 4, 1749 to Nicholas Turner and Anna Towers
- Anna
died a few years later
- In
1765 Nicholas remarries to Henrietta Meriton. At Henrietta’s insistence
Father arranges for Charlotte to marry Benjamin Smith
- At age
15 Charlotte marries Benjamin Smith son of a wealthy West Indian merchant
- Lived
with Benjamin and his parents
- Gave
birth to 12 children
- In
1783, the family (minus the in-laws) was imprisoned in King’s Bench Prison
due to Benjamin’s credit debts
- Escaped
to France shortly after their release from debtor’s prison
- In
1784 Smith formally separated from Benjamin but remained close to her
father-in-law who left her money in his will instead of his son
- Father-in-law’s
will sparked a lengthy lawsuit with Benjamin due to English laws regarding
women during that time
- Died
in 1806 just months after Benjamin Smith
- Smith
reintroduced Shakespeare's sonnet form, however like Bowles; she
experimented with the form and changed it with different sonnets. She is
credited for being the first to do so.
- Since
many sonnets in “Elegiac Sonnets” broke form numerous times Smith received
criticism from poets who adhered to the strict sonnet form.
- Smith’s
sonnets “resemble small tableaux…one poem per page…their intensely
autobiographical quality renders them miniature, verbal self-portraits.”
Smith’s sonnets and much of her later work were greatly influenced by her
own tragic life.
Publication
- Dedicated
the book to William Hayley
- Written
by Smith while with Benjamin in debtor’s prison
- Smith
paid for the publication herself at Chinchester
- Published
for J. Dodsley
- Smith’s
first book of poetry ever published
- First
book contained only 16 sonnets
- By the
time of Smith’s death in 1806 “Elegiac Sonnets” reached its 11th edition
and spawned two volumes
- “Elegiac
Sonnets” provided some small financial support for Smith and her
family(this also included her husband)
Reception
- “Elegiac
Sonnets” was an instant success. The Gentleman’s Magazine and Historical
Chronicle wrote : “A very trifling compliment is paid to Mrs. Smith, when
it is observed how much her Sonnets exceed those of Shakespeare and
Milton”
- “Elegiac
Sonnets” provided inspiration to William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge.
Wordsworth acknowledged Smith in an explanatory note in “Stanzas Suggested
in a Steam-boat Off St. Bees' Heads.” Coleridge acknowledged Smith’s
revolutionary use of sonnet form in “Introduction to the Sonnets”.
- Smith’s
book was so popular that its’ second edition occurred within the first
year it was published.
Works Cited
Mullane, Janet and Wilson, Robert-
Thomas. "A review of 'Sonnets'." The Gentleman's Magazine and
Historical Chronicle 56.4 (Apr. 1786): 333-334. Rpt. in Nineteenth-Century
Literature Criticism. Ed. Vol. 23. Detroit: Gale Research, 1989. Literature
Resource Center. Web. 7 Oct. 2012.
Document URL
Napier, Elizabeth R.
"Charlotte (Turner) Smith." British Novelists, 1660-1800. Ed. Martin
C. Battestin. Detroit: Gale Research, 1985. Dictionary of Literary Biography
Vol. 39. Literature Resource Center. Web. 7 Oct. 2012.
Document URL
Ravin, Kate. "Charlotte
(Turner) Smith." Eighteenth-Century British Poets: Second Series. Ed. John
E. Sitter. Detroit: Gale Research, 1991. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol.
109. Literature Resource Center. Web. 7 Oct. 2012.
Document URL
Zimmerman, Sarah M. "'Dost
thou not know my voice?': Charlotte Smith and the Lyric's Audience."
Romanticism and Women Poets: Opening the Doors of Reception. Ed. Harriet Kramer
Linkin and Stephen C. Behrendt. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky,
1999. 101-124. Rpt. in Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism. Ed. Jessica
Bomarito and Russel Whitaker. Vol. 160. Detroit: Gale, 2006. Literature
Resource Center. Web. 7 Oct. 2012.
Document URL
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