Comments on: Ghosts in Charlotte Smith’s Elegiac Sonnets

By: Jana

Jana — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 16:36:56 +0000

Thank you for highlighting Smith’s work. The poems are available online in a number of electronic archives. What a fascinating poet and individual!

By: Javier Huerta

Javier Huerta — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:14:11 +0000

I can assure you, Mr. Hansen, that no one echoes your sentiments about the worth of Charlotte Smith’s poetry more than I. Because I feel as you do that “she deserves to be read and thoughtfully written about” I have dedicated several seminar papers to her work. As an aspiring romanticist, I agree with Stuart Curran when he says, “Charlotte Smith was the first poet in England whom in retrospect we would call Romantic.” I even dedicated a semester to scanning every line of poetry included in her Complete Poems for a Poetic Meter class. If you wish I can send you my findings.
As for the footnotes, the question of editions is an interesting one. I’d be interested to hear why you feel the 1st or 4th edition should take priority over the fifth edition. In the end, the footnotes are her footnotes. Among critics who have shown Smith some attention, considering the footnotes along with the poems is not an uncommon approach.
But let me concede your point on the footnotes. I am still faced with a last line that is lifted from Pope. She not only borrows the line but also the rhyme. To get the true rhyme, I still have to go to Pope’s couplet. The ghost is still there. And I, Mr. Hansen, am still haunted by it.

By: Michael Hansen

Michael Hansen — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 07:21:37 +0000

It’s nice to see Charlotte Smith get some attention–she deserves to be read and thoughtfully written about. That Mr. Huerta has chosen Halloween as the ideal day for investigating Smith’s sonnets shows, however, shows that he sees them as curiosities for a festival rather than as literary objects worthy of real contemplation. There is quite a bit more than “spooky” description and worm-worn absence/presence binaries to be found there.
Also: it might be helpful for Mr. Huerta to know that the footnotes to Smith’s sonnets weren’t added until the fifth edition, making his opening claims unpersuasive and uninteresting.