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19th century books - Christina Rossetti
Aug. 10th, 2010 05:07 pm28 August - Christina Rossetti's poetry
Nineteenth-century women poets
Apr. 21st, 2010 08:04 pmI've been reading a biography of Christina Rossetti and the names of her predecessors, contemporaries, rivals and successors come up. It's fascinating because I know so few of them.
I know Elizabeth Barrett Browning, of course. And I had heard of LEL. Jean Ingelow's name rang a bell and when I checked she has one poem in both the *Oxford Book of English Verse* and Palgrave's *Treasury*. (Not terribly impressive, with a nineteenth-century weakness for dialect).
I had never heard of Felicia Hemens, Adelaide Proctor, Dora Greenwell, Caroline Norton or Isa Craig.
I am reminded of Joanna Russ' *How to Suppress Women's Writing* when she says that no one ever writes just one work, in isolation. And that it is tragic that we just get a few women anthologised over and over again (EBB, and Rossetti spring to mind), ignoring the tradition they sprang from.
I'm going to try to find some of their poetry online.
I know Elizabeth Barrett Browning, of course. And I had heard of LEL. Jean Ingelow's name rang a bell and when I checked she has one poem in both the *Oxford Book of English Verse* and Palgrave's *Treasury*. (Not terribly impressive, with a nineteenth-century weakness for dialect).
I had never heard of Felicia Hemens, Adelaide Proctor, Dora Greenwell, Caroline Norton or Isa Craig.
I am reminded of Joanna Russ' *How to Suppress Women's Writing* when she says that no one ever writes just one work, in isolation. And that it is tragic that we just get a few women anthologised over and over again (EBB, and Rossetti spring to mind), ignoring the tradition they sprang from.
I'm going to try to find some of their poetry online.
