(My comments are in boldface. Dr. Eberle)

Student Name
Poetry Report #2

1) "The Emigrants"; Charlotte Turner Smith; 1793 (composition and publication)

2) Smith's unhappy marriage to Benjamin Smith in 1765. Smith draws on this personal experience, and others, as she empathizes with the French emigrants: "Pensive I took my solitary way, / Lost in despondence, while contemplating / Not my own wayward destiny alone, / (Hard as it is, and difficult to bear!) / But in beholding the unhappy lot of the lorn Exiles. . ." (2.5-10). Smith compassionately connects with these emigrants and, throughout the poem, seamlessly blends her own memories with those of the emigrants.

Biographical readings are hard to do. This one succeeds because the writer doesn't push it too far and makes an explicit and convincing connection to the poem. As of October 15th, 2004, however, I've made the stipulation that biographical discussions cannot be used in the second task.

3) A) Care (1.51) -- etymology: Old English caru, cearu; Old Saxon cara; Old High German chara; Middle High German kar; Gothic kara (trouble, grief, care). Romantic meaning: mental suffering, sorrow, grief, trouble; burdened state of mind arising from fear, doubt, or concern about anything. *Contrary to most Romantic interpretations of seclusion, Smith does not see seclusion as an invigorating agent. The "spectre Care" does not, for Smith, vanish in the face of solitude but rather follows "Unhappy Mortals, 'til the friendly grave'" (1.53). Moreover, care is the empathetic link that allows Smith to feel the plight of the emigrants.

B) Liberty (2.46; 2.444 ) -- etymology: French liberté, Italian libertà, Spanish libertad, Portuguese liberdade, Latin li berta t-em (free). Romantic meaning: a) exemption or release from captivity, bondage, or slavery; exemption or freedom from arbitrary, despotic, or autocratic rule or control b) unrestrained action, conduct, or expression; freedom of behavior or speech, beyond what is granted or recognized as proper; license. *Smith uses both definitions, which are central to understand the current state of the emigrants as well as Smith's hope for political reform. The emigrants are "Martyrs to Liberty" (2.46; italics Smith's), or victims of unrestrained conduct beyond what is recognized as proper. Liberty, however, can be both the disease and the cure. Smith employs the first definition in the concluding line of the poem when she calls for "The reign of Reason, Liberty, and Peace."

The only way that this section could possible be any stronger is if the student had included a reference to the source used in compiling the definitions. The best source (and probably the one used here) is the OED (the conventional abbreviation for The Oxford English Dictionary.

Note that the student points out the ways in which both words are used in multiple ways throughout the poem. The student then explores the significance of such usage in terms of the poem's overall meaning.

4) Blank Verse: lines of unrhymed iambic pentameter. Blank Verse became the standard during the Elizabethan period and later. Examples: Milton's Paradise Lost, Wordsworth's The Prelude, Eliot's The Waste Land (most of it). This form is closest to the natural rhythm of English speech and is flexible for diverse discourse.

5) Smith explicitly alludes to Eve in Paradise Lost: "Mournful and slow, along the wave-worn cliff, / Pensive I took my solitary way," (2.4-5). ("They hand in had with wand'ring steps and slow; / Through Eden took their solitary way" (Paradise Lost, 13.648-49). In the context of the bleak (and far from Edenic) landscape that Smith finds herself surrounded by, this allusion encapsulates Smith's despondency. Smith, like Eve, finds herself surrounded by a natural world full of sin and broken promises. This natural world does not offer solace or any potential escape from pain through personal immersion (a staple in Romantic literature) but rather a call for improvement.

The student does a great deal here with a single allusion. He has picked up the allusion from the textual notes, but he goes further than mere citation by exploring the significance of the allusion to the poem

6) Smith begins Book I with a bleak portrayal of her natural surroundings: "Slow in the Wintry Morn, the struggling light / Throws a faint gleam upon the troubled waves;" (1.1-2). This imagery has an anticipatory role for it is reflective of both Smith's internal mood as well as the mood of the emigrants, which are both expounded upon as the poem progresses. Book II opens with a revitalized landscape: "Long wintry months are past; the Moon that not / Lights her pale crescent even at noon, has made / Four times her revolution . . ." (2.1-3). As the landscape changes, Smith's pessimism turns into cautious optimism. External imagery is used to convey internal outlooks.

7) Potential Paper Topic: Does nature provide a haven from the injustice of society? Wordsworth and Smith have different answers to this question. For Wordsworth, immersing oneself in nature is a potential road to the restoration of innocence. For Smith, nature is not impermeable to the suffering and corruption of society. Political reform rather than personal seclusion is the answer for a better tomorrow.