A Century of Sonnets: The Romantic-Era Revival, 1750-1850

by Paula R. Feldman, Daniel Robinson

Overview

Expertly edited by Paula R. Feldman and Daniel Robinson, this volume is the first in modern times to collect the sonnets of the Romantic period—many never before published in the twentieth century—and contains nearly five hundred examples composed between 1750 and 1850 by 81 poets, nearly half of them women. A Century of Sonnets includes in their entirety such important but difficult to find sonnet sequences as William Wordsworth's The River Duddon, Mary Robinson's Sappho and Phaon, and Robert Southey's Poems on the Slave Trade, along with Browning's enduring classic, Sonnets from the Portuguese. The poems collected here express the full sweep of human emotion and explore a wide range of themes, including love, grief, politics, friendship, nature, art, and the enigmatic character of poetry itself. Indeed, for many poets the sonnet form elicited their strongest work.
A Century of Sonnets shows us that far from disappearing with Shakespeare and the English Renaissance, the sonnet underwent a remarkable rebirth in the Romantic period, giving us a rich body of work that continues to influence poets even today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195115628
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	12/20/2002
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	9.18(w) x 6.20(h) x 0.88(d)

About the Author

Paula R. Feldman is C. Wallace Martin Professor of English at the University of South Carolina. Daniel Robinson is Assistant Professor of English at Widener University.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	xxi
	Introduction	3
	Suggested Further Reading	21
	Editorial Principles	23
1.	On a Family-Picture	25
2.	'Tongue-doughty pedant'	25
3.	On the Death of Mr. Richard West	26
4.	'While summer-suns o'er the gay prospect played'	27
5.	To the River London	27
6.	'As when, to one who long hath watched'	28
7.	Written at a Farm	28
8.	On a Frightful Dream	28
9.	On Christmas	29
10.	'The partial Muse has from my earliest hours'	29
11.	Written at the Close of Spring	30
12.	To a Nightingale	30
13.	To the Moon	31
14.	To the South Downs	31
15.	To Sleep	31
16.	Supposed to be Written by Werter	32
17.	By the Same. To Solitude	32
18.	By the Same	32
19.	From Petrarch	33
20.	'Blest is yon shepherd, on the turf reclined'	33
21.	Written on the Sea Shore.--October, 1784	34
22.	To the River Arun	34
23.	To Melancholy. Written on the Banks of the Arun, October 1785	34
24.	To the Naiad of the Arun	35
25.	'Should the lone wanderer, fainting on his way'	35
26.	To Night	35
27.	Written in the Churchyard at Middleton in Sussex	36
28.	The Captive Escaped in the Wilds of America. Addressed to the Hon. Mrs. O'Neill	36
29.	To Dependence	37
30.	Written in September 1791, During a Remarkable Thunder Storm	37
31.	On Being Cautioned Against Walking on an Headland Overlooking the Sea	37
32.	'Where the wild woods and pathless forests frown'	38
33.	The Sea View	38
34.	Written Near a Port on a Dark Evening	39
35.	Written at Bignor Park in Sussex, in August, 1799	39
36.	On Dreams	39
37.	'No more by cold philosophy confined'	40
38.	To Mrs. Hayley, On her Voyage to America. 1784	40
39.	'Ah! let not hope fallacious, airy, wild'	41
40.	To Twilight	42
41.	To Hope	42
42.	To the Moon	43
43.	To the Strawberry	43
44.	To the Curlew	43
45.	To the Torrid Zone	44
46.	To the White Bird of the Tropic	44
47.	To a Friend	45
48.	'Languid, and sad, and slow'	45
49.	Written at Tinemouth, Northumberland, after a Tempestuous Voyage	45
50.	Written at Bamborough Castle	46
51.	To the River Wensbeck	46
52.	To the River Tweed	47
53.	To the River Itchin, Near Winton	47
54.	On Dover Cliffs. July 20, 1787	47
55.	To the River Cherwell	48
56.	'Oxford, since late I left thy peaceful shore'	48
57.	To Valclusa	49
58.	'Dear Babe, whose meaning by fond looks expressed'	49
59.	To the Spider	49
60.	To the Owl	50
61.	'I hate the Spring in parti-colored vest'	50
62.	To the Visions of Fancy	51
63.	Sun-Rise: A Sonnet	51
64.	Night	52
65.	'Now the bat circles on the breeze of eve'	52
66.	Storied Sonnet	53
67.	To the Bat	53
68.	To Echo	54
69.	To the Moon	54
70-80.	Sonnets on Eminent Characters
70. No. I.	To the Honorable Mr. Erskine	55
71. No. II.	Burke	55
72. No. III.	Priestley	56
73. No. IV.	La Fayette	56
74. No. V.	Kosciusko	57
75. No. VI.	Pitt	57
76. No. VII.	To the Rev. W. L. Bowles	58
77. No. VIII.	Mrs. Siddons	58
78. No. IX.	To William Godwin, Author of Political Justice	59
79. No. X.	To Robert Southey	59
80. No. XI.	To Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Esq.	59
81.	To the Autumnal Moon	60
82.	On a Discovery Made Too Late	60
83.	To the River Otter	61
84.	To a Friend, Who Asked How I Felt, When the Nurse First Presented My Infant to Me	61
85-87.	Sonnets, Attempted in the Manner of 'Contemporary Writers'
85. I.	('Pensive, at eve, on the hard world I mused')	61
86. II.	To Simplicity	62
87. III.	On a Ruined House in a Romantic Country	62
88.	To W. L. Esq. While He Sung a Song to Purcell's Music	62
89.	Fancy in Nubibus. Or The Poet in the Clouds	63
90.	Work Without Hope	63
91.	The Old Man's Sigh. A Sonnet	64
92.	Life	64
93.	Pantisocracy	64
94.	To Winter	65
95.	On the Approach of Autumn	65
96.	To Tyranny	66
97.	To Ancestry	66
98.	The Vanity of National Grandeur	67
99.	On the Rapid Extension of the Suburbs	67
100.	To Dreams	68
101.	Anxiety	68
102.	Friendship	69
103.	To Time	69
104.	To My Pen	70
105.	On an Early Spring	70
106.	'Was it some sweet device of faery land'	71
107.	'We were two pretty babes'	71
108.	'O! I could laugh to hear the midnight wind'	71
109.	'If from my lips some angry accents fell'	72
110.	The Family Name	72
111-154.	Sappho and Phaon
111. I.	Sonnet Introductory	73
112. II.	The Temple of Chastity	73
113. III.	The Bower of Pleasure	74
114. IV.	Sappho Discovers her Passion	74
115. V.	Contemns its Power	75
116. VI.	Describes the Characteristics of Love	75
117. VII.	Invokes Reason	75
118. VIII.	Her Passion Increases	76
119. IX.	Laments the Volatility of Phaon	76
120. X.	Describes Phaon	76
121. XI.	Rejects the Influence of Reason	77
122. XII.	Previous to her Interview with Phaon	77
123. XIII.	She Endeavors to Fascinate Him	78
124. XIV.	To the Eolian Harp	78
125. XV.	Phaon Awakes	78
126. XVI.	Sappho Rejects Hope	79
127. XVII.	The Tyranny of Love	79
128. XVIII.	To Phaon	79
129. XIX.	Suspects his Constancy	80
130. XX.	To Phaon	80
131. XXI.	Laments her Early Misfortunes	81
132. XXII.	Phaon Forsakes Her	81
133. XXIII.	Sappho's Conjectures	81
134. XXIV.	Her Address to the Moon	82
135. XXV.	To Phaon	82
136. XXVI.	Contemns Philosophy	82
137. XXVII.	Sappho's Address to the Stars	83
138. XXVIII.	Describes the Fascinations of Love	83
139. XXIX.	Determines to Follow Phaon	84
140. XXX.	Bids Farewell to Lesbos	84
141. XXXI.	Describes her Bark	84
142. XXXII.	Dreams of a Rival	85
143. XXXIII.	Reaches Sicily	85
144. XXXIV.	Sappho's Prayer to Venus	85
145. XXXV.	Reproaches Phaon	86
146. XXXVI.	Her Confirmed Despair	86
147. XXXVII.	Foresees her Death	87
148. XXXVIII.	To a Sigh	87
149. XXXIX.	To the Muses	87
150. XL.	Visions Appear to her in a Dream	88
151. XLI.	Resolves to Take the Leap of Leucata	88
152. XLII.	Her Last Appeal to Phaon	88
153. XLIII.	Her Reflections on the Leucadian Rock Before She Perishes	89
154. XLIV.	Conclusive	89
155.	Laura to Petrarch	90
156.	To--	90
157.	Elegiac Sonnet to a Mopstick	91
158.	'My pleasant home! where erst when sad and faint'	91
159.	'Oh, I have told thee every secret care'	92
160.	Written at the Hotwells, near Bristol	92
161.	'Erst when I wandered far from those I loved'	93
162.	'Oh, she was almost speechless!'	93
163.	'Whether thou smile or frown, thou beauteous face'	93
164.	Metaphysical Sonnet	94
165-170.	Poems on the Slave Trade
165. I	('Hold your mad hands! for ever on your plain')	94
166. II	('Why dost thou beat thy breast and rend thine hair')	95
167. III	('Oh he is worn with toil! the big drops run')	95
168. IV	(''Tis night; the mercenary tyrants sleep')	95
169. V	('Did then the bold slave rear at last the sword')	96
170. VI	('High in the air exposed the slave is hung')	96
171.	To a Goose	97
172.	Winter	97
173.	Written in Tintern Abbey, Monmouthshire	97
174.	To Love	98
175.	To Freedom	99
176.	'When Life's realities the Soul perceives'	99
177.	To a Friend, Who Thinks Sensibility a Misfortune	100
178.	'By Derwent's rapid stream as oft I strayed'	100
179.	'Seek not, my Lesbia, the sequestered dale'	100
180.	To Honora Sneyd	101
181.	'Ingratitude, how deadly is thy smart'	101
182.	To--	101
183.	December Morning	102
184.	'In every breast affection fires, there dwells'	102
185.	To Mr. Henry Cary, On the Publication of his Sonnets	103
186.	To a Young Lady, Purposing to Marry a Man of Immoral Character in the Hope of his Reformation	103
187.	To the Poppy	103
188.	On a Lock of Miss Sarah Seward's Hair Who Died in her Twentieth Year	104
189.	'On the damp margin of the sea-beat shore'	104
190.	Written December 1790	104
191.	To May	105
192.	Winter	106
193.	The Indian	107
194.	To Mrs. Unwin	107
195.	To George Romney, Esq.	108
196.	'Give me a cottage on some Cambrian wild'	108
197.	The Winter Traveler	109
198.	Written in a Shrubbery Towards the Decline of Autumn	109
199.	Written in a Winter's Morning	110
200.	Written in Ill Health	110
201.	'The veil's removed, the gaudy, flimsy veil'	111
202.	On Seeing Miss Helen Maria Williams Weep at a Tale of Distress	111
203.	1801	112
204.	'"With how sad steps, O Moon thou climb'st the sky"'	112
205.	'Nuns fret not at their convent's narrow room'	112
206.	'How sweet it is, when mother Fancy rocks'	113
207.	'Where lies the land to which yon ship must go?'	113
208.	Composed after a Journey across the Hamilton Hills, Yorkshire	114
209.	'These words were uttered in a pensive mood'	114
210.	'With ships the sea was sprinkled far and nigh'	114
211.	Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, Sept. 3, 1803	115
212.	'Methought I saw the footsteps of a throne'	115
213.	'The world is too much with us'	115
214.	'It is a beauteous evening, calm and free'	116
215.	Composed by the Sea-Side, near Calais, August, 1802	116
216.	To Toussaint L'Ouverture	117
217.	London, 1802	117
218.	October, 1803	117
219.	'Surprised by joy--impatient as the wind'	118
220-252.	The River Duddon
220. I.	('Not envying shades which haply yet may throw')	118
221. II.	('Child of the clouds! remote from every taint')	119
222. III.	('How shall I paint thee?--Be this naked stone')	119
223. IV.	('Take, cradled nursling of the mountain, take')	119
224. V.	('Sole listener, Duddon! to the breeze that played')	120
225. VI.	Flowers	120
226. VII.	('"Change me, some God, into that breathing rose!"')	121
227. VIII.	('What aspect bore the man who roved or fled')	121
228. IX.	The Stepping-Stones	121
229. X.	The Same Subject	122
230. XI.	The Faery Chasm	122
231. XII.	Hints for the Fancy	122
232. XIII.	Open Prospect	123
233. XIV.	('O Mountain Stream! the shepherd and his cot')	123
234. XV.	('From this deep chasm--where quivering sunbeams play')	124
235. XVI.	American Tradition	124
236. XVII.	Return	124
237. XVIII.	Seathwaite Chapel	125
238. XIX.	Tributary Stream	125
239. XX.	The Plain of Donnerdale	125
240. XXI.	('Whence that low voice?--A whisper from the heart')	126
241. XXII.	Tradition	126
242. From the B&N Reads Blog Page 1 of Related Subjects Literature Literary Criticism English Literature Irish Literature English Fiction & Prose Literature - General & Miscellaneous - Literary Criticism General & Miscellaneous Irish Fiction & Prose Literature - Literary Criticism Literature Literary Criticism English Literature Irish Literature English Fiction & Prose Literature - General & Miscellaneous - Literary Criticism General & Miscellaneous Irish Fiction & Prose Literature - Literary Criticism Editorial Reviews "A splendid introduction.... A first-rate anthology for students and common readers alike."—Booklist From the Publisher From Thomas Edwards and Charlotte Smith to Elizabeth Browning and Dante Rossetti, this book is the first modern-day collection of the sonnets of the Romantic era. While most of the poems contained appeared between 1789 and 1837 (the traditional British Romantic period), Feldman (English, U. of South Carolina) and Robinson (Literature, Widener U.) have chosen to expand their limits to the century between 1750 and 1850 to better document the revival of the sonnet. Many of the poems contained have not been previously published since that era and almost half of the sonnets in the book are by women. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) Booknews [A] rich collection of 481 sonnets from this period, some never before published in this century...[W]ould complement any serious class on poetry or Romantic Period literature, especially if the study is to address more poets of the era instead of just the most famous men. —ForeWord McCarthy Customer Reviews