The Elegiac Sonnets written by Charlotte Smith uses nature to express her complex emotions. Just like in the case of Reginald St. Leon, she had to come to the rescue of her family after her husband, Benjamin, chose to continue to live way “beyond his means”. His father obviously knew of the problem and would not put his son in his will. The poem that I chose to dwell on the most was To Melancholy . Metaphorically speaking, Smith is really talking to herself. She isn’t sad, she is being thoughtful and introspective, and thinking real deep thoughts. Is there a possibility that she enjoys being melancholy?
When she mentions “Autumn spreads her evening veil”and “half-leafless wood that breathes the gale:” she is using pathetic fallacy or personification. In the winter time, it gets darker toward the evening, so an “evening veil” is a metaphor. Line 7 and 8 contain alliteration: the S and M sounds of “Strange sounds” and “mournful melodies”. Other literary devices used in Melancholy are the apostrophe and paradoxes. You will find these on lines 12-14. On line 10, Smith is describing meeting a guy named “Otway” who probably lived somewhere close because she speaks of “his native stream”. Someone who could help out with the money situation would be nice. That’s what dreams are made of, but it would seem that Charlotte Smith was sad and melancholy most of the time.
Smith was also sensitive about several different types of criticisms, one of them being women making money by writing. What can you do when your man wants to spend his money on everything but the family? Her argument with Hannah More who had rescued her from poverty, really started over money, which Smith had made from her writing. The reason behind More’s not handing the money over was because she did not want Benjamin Smith to get his greedy hands on it and spend it on himself. At least, that is what she claimed. The family was imprisoned for a while for debt and that is when The Elegiac Sonnets were written.
Literature Rocks 