Anna Seward: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|English Romantic poet, 1742–1809}}

| name = Anna Seward

| image = Anna Seward by Tilly Kettle.jpg

| alt =

| caption = Seward by [[Tilly Kettle]], 1762

| birth_date = 12 December 1742{{sfn|Barnard|2013|loc=p. 26}}

| birth_place = [[Eyam]], [[Derbyshire]]

| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1809|03|25|1742|12|12}}

| death_place = [[Lichfield]], [[Staffordshire]]

| resting_place = [[Lichfield Cathedral]]

| nationality = English

| other_names =

| occupation = Writer, botanist

| years_active =

| known_for =

| notable_works = ''Louisa'' (1784)

| spouse =

| partner = <!-- (unmarried long-term partner) -->

| children =

| parents =

*| father = [[Thomas Seward]]

'''Anna Seward'''{{sfn |Williams |1861 |loc=[https://archive.org/details/literarywomenen00willgoog/page/n251 Anne Seward pp.&nbsp;239–255]}} (12 December 1742<ref group=notes>[old style: 1 December 1742.]</ref>{{sfn |Barnard |2009 |loc=p.&nbsp;29}}{{sfn |Williams |1861 |loc=[https://archive.org/details/literarywomenen00willgoog/page/n251 Anne Seward pp. 239–255]}}<ref group=notes>Often wrongly given as 1747.</ref>{{snd}}25 March 1809) was an English [[Romantic poetry|Romantic poet]], often called the '''Swan of Lichfield'''. She benefited from [[Thomas Seward|her father]]'s progressive views on [[female education]].

Seward was the elder of two surviving daughters of [[Thomas Seward]] (1708–1790), a [[prebendary]] of [[Lichfield]] and [[Salisbury, England|Salisbury]] and an author, and his wife Elizabeth.{{sfn |Roberts |2012}}{{sfn |Bancroft |2015}} Elizabeth Seward later had three further children (John, Jane and Elizabeth), who all died in infancy, and two stillbirths.{{sfn |Barnard |2013 |loc=p.&nbsp;26}} Anna Seward mourned their loss in her poem ''Eyam'' (1788).{{sfn |Scott |1810 |loc=[https://archive.org/details/poeticalworksan01scotgoog/page/n370 ''Eyam'', vol. III p. 1]}} Born in 1742 at [[Eyam]], a small mining village in the Peak District of [[Derbyshire]], where her father was the Rector,{{sfn |Roberts |2012}} she and her sister Sarah, some 16 months younger, passed nearly all their life in that relatively small area of the [[Peak District]] of Derbyshire, and inat Lichfield, a cathedral city in the adjacent county of [[Staffordshire]].{{sfn |Roberts |2010}}{{sfn |Roberts |2012}}

In 1749, Anna's father was appointed a [[Canon (priest)|Canon]]-Residentiary at [[Lichfield Cathedral]]. The family moved there, where her father educated her at home. In 1754 they moved into the [[Bishop's Palace, Lichfield|Bishop's Palace]] in Cathedral Close. When a family friend, Mrs Edward Sneyd, died in 1756,{{sfn |Williams |1861 |loc=[https://archive.org/details/literarywomenen00willgoog/page/n251 Anne Seward pp. 239–255]}} the Sewards took in one of her daughters, [[Honora Sneyd]], who became an adopted foster sister to Anna.{{sfn |Edgeworth |Edgeworth |1821a |loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=NKMDAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA233 p.&nbsp;233]}} Honora was nine years younger. Anna Seward described in hera poem, ''The Anniversary'' (1769), how she and her sister first met Honora, on returning from a walk.{{sfn |Scott |1810 |loc=[https://archive.org/details/poeticalworksan02scotgoog/page/n289 ''The Anniversary'', vol. I p. 68]}} Sarah (known as Sally) died suddenly of [[typhus]] at the age of 19 in 1764.{{sfn |Macdonald |McWhir |2010 |loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=8WeAFzgcDlgC&pg=PA82 Anna Seward 1742–1809 pp.&nbsp;82–84]}} SarahShe was said to have an admirable character, though less talented than her sister.{{sfn |Edgeworth |Edgeworth |1821a |loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=NKMDAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA232 p.&nbsp;232]}} Anna consoled herself with affection for Honora Sneyd, as she describes in ''Visions'', written a few days after her sister's death,. whereThere she expresses a hope that Honora ("this transplanted flower") would replace her sister (referred to as Alinda) in her and her parents' affections.{{sfn |Scott |1810 |loc=[https://archive.org/details/poeticalworksan02scotgoog/page/n53 ''The Visions'', vol. I p. 1].}}<ref group=notes>Scott chose to open his collection of Seward's poetry with this poem.</ref>

Anna Seward cared for her father in the last ten years of his life, after he had suffered a stroke. When he died in 1790, he left her financially independent with an income of £400 per annum. She spentcontinued theto rest of her lifedwell at the Bishop's Palace until she died in 1809.{{sfn |Roberts |2010}}

AsSeward, as a long-term friend of the Levett family of Lichfield, Seward noted in her ''Memoirs of the Life of Dr. Darwin'' (Erasmus) that three of the town's foremost citizens were thrown from their carriages and injured their knees in the same year. "No such misfortune," Seward wrote, "was previously remembered in that city, nor has it recurred through all the years which since elapsed."<ref group=notes>The three victims were Dr Erasmus Darwin, Lichfield town clerk Theophilus Levett, and Anna Seward herself.{{harv |Seward |1804}}</ref>

Anna, a precocious, sensitive redhead, showed a bent for learning from early childhood. Canon Seward held progressive views on [[female education]], havingauthor authoredof ''The Female Right to Literature'' (1748), held progressive views on [[female education]].{{sfn |Dodsley |1765 |loc=[http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.31175035197196;view=1up;seq=319 Seward, T. Seward, ''The Female Right to Literature'', VolumeVol. 2, pp. 309–315].}} Encouraged by her father, sheAnna was said to be able to recite works of [[John Milton|Milton]] by the age of three.{{sfn |Roberts |2012}}

Her gift for writing was clear at the age of seven, when the family moved to Lichfield. The family home in the Bishop's Palace became the centre of a literary circle that included [[Erasmus Darwin]], [[Samuel Johnson]] and [[James Boswell]], in whichwhere Anna was encouraged to join in, as she later relates.<ref group=notes>"And beingBeing canon of this cathedral, his daughter necessarily converses on terms of equality with the proudest inhabitants of our little city." {{harv |Scott |1810 |loc=[https://archive.org/details/poeticalworksan02scotgoog Letter February 1763. volVol.&nbsp; I, p.&nbsp; lxxiii].}}</ref>{{sfn |Barnard |2004}}{{sfn |Edgeworth |Edgeworth |1821a |loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=NKMDAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA232 p.&nbsp;232]}} Canon Seward's (if not his wife's) attitudes to educating girls was progressive for the time, but not excessively so. He was a poet himself, yet tried to curb Anna's passion for poetry, although she chose the composition of it for her own studies.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Rowton |first1=Frederic |title=The Female Poets of Great Britain, Chronologically Arranged: With Copious Selections and Critical Remarks. |date=1848 |publisher=Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans |location=London |page=195 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=inu.32000011133784;view=1up;seq=199 |access-date=15 October 2018}}</ref> Among the subjects he taught were theology and numeracy, how to read and appreciate poetry, and how to write and recite it, although these deviated from the conventional drawing -room accomplishments of the time. The omissions were also notable, including languages and science, although theythe girls could pursue them alone if they felt inclined.{{sfn |Barnard |2013 |loc=p. 36}} However, AnnaNor was notAnna unskilled in the domestic spherematters.{{sfn |Barnard |2013 |loc=p.&nbsp;95}}

Among the many literary figures sheAnna Seward conversed with was [[Sir Walter Scott]], who later published her poetry posthumously. HerAlso circlein includedher writerscircle suchwere asthe writers [[Thomas Day (writer)|Thomas Day]], [[Francis Noel Clarke Mundy]], [[Sir Brooke Boothby]] and, Willie Newton (the Peak Minstrel).{{sfn |deLucia |2013}} and [[Mary Martha Sherwood]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Smith |first=Naomi Royde |title=The State of Mind of Mrs. Sherwood |publisher=Macmillan and Co. Ltd |year=1946 |location=London|pages=2-3}}</ref> She came to be seen as heading a coterie of regional poets, influenced by writers such as [[Thomas Whalley]], [[William Hayley]], [[Robert Southey]], [[Helen Maria Williams]], [[Hannah More]] and the [[Ladies of Llangollen]].{{sfn |deLucia |2013}}{{sfn |Roberts |2010}} She was also involved in the [[Lunar Society]] in nearby [[Birmingham]], which would sometimes meet at their home.{{sfn |Schofield |1963}} Both Darwin and Day belonged to it. Seward corresponded with other members such as [[Josiah Wedgwood]] and [[Richard Lovell Edgeworth]].{{sfn |deLucia |2013}}

Between 1775 and 1781, Seward was a guest and participant at thea much-mocked [[salon (gathering)|salon]] held by [[Anna, Lady Miller|Anna Miller]] at [[Batheaston]], near [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]]. However, it was herethere that Seward's talent was recognised. Her work was publishedappeared in the yearbook of poems from the gatherings, a debt that Seward acknowledged in "Poem to the Memory of Lady Miller" (1782).{{sfn |Bowerbank |2015}}

Seward remained resolutely single throughout her life, despite many offers and friendships. She was outspoken about the institution of marriage,{{sfn |Barnard |2004}}{{sfn |Roberts |2012}} not unlike her heroine in ''Louisa'',{{sfn |Barnard |2013 |loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=6hf3W3VwN7kC&lpgpg=PA14 p.&nbsp;14]}} a position that would later be echoed in the novels of her step-niece, [[Maria Edgeworth]]. She shunned both marriage and sexual love as inferior to the equality and virtue of [[Aristotle|Aristotelian]] friendship. However sheShe had friends of both genders, although only seeking romantic relationshipsrelations with women.{{sfn |Barrett |2012}} In 1985 [[Lillian Faderman]] suggested that her orientation was [[lesbian]],{{sfn|Faderman|1985}} but there is little known evidence of the erotic or sexual in her relationships,ties thoughand the term relates more to 20th than to 18th-century concepts of identity. Since 1985, Seward remains within the lesbian poetic canon,{{sfn |Barrett |2012}} but Teresa Barnard argues against this, based more on examination ofexamining her correspondence than on her poetry,{{sfn |Barnard |2004}} while more recently Redford Barrett has argued for it, based on other sources.{{sfn|Barrett|2012}} It is also known that Seward named her pet dog Sappho, after the sixth-century BCE poet of the same name.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hopkins |first1=Mary Alden |title=Doctor Johnson's Lichfield |date=1952 |publisher=Hastings House New York |page=200 |edition=1 }}</ref>

Much of the literature on Seward's relationshipsrelations focuses on her childhood friend [[Honora Sneyd]], the: sonnets revealingreveal her passion for her when they were together and her despair when Sneyd married [[Richard Edgeworth]]. Compared towith the correspondence, her sonnets display more intense emotion, such as Sonnet 10 ("Honora, shou'd that cruel time arrive"), describingwhich herdescribes feelings of betrayal. When the Edgeworths returnedmoved to Ireland, despair turned to rageanger, as in Sonnet 14 ("Ingratitude, how deadly is thy smart").{{sfn |Barrett |2012}}

[[File:Writers; twenty portraits. Engraving by J.W. Cook, 1825. Wellcome V0006820.jpg|thumb|Anna Seward: bottom row, 2nd from left; Writers:twenty portraits. Engraving by J.W. Cook, 1825. Wellcome V0006820]]

Seward began to write poetry at an early age with encouragement from her father, a published poet, but against the wishes of her mother. When Anna was 16, her father revised his position, fearing she might become a "learned lady".{{sfn |Dodsley |1765 |loc=[http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.31175035197196;view=1up;seq=319 Seward, T. Seward, ''The Female Right to Literature'', VolumeVol. 2, pp. 309–315].}}{{sfn |Barnard |2004}} Later she receivedwas encouragementencouraged fromby Dr Erasmus Darwin, who set up a medical practice in Lichfield in 1756,{{sfn |Moore et al. |2012 |loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=waFJTq5UuWoC&pg=PA319 Anna Seward pp. 319–322]}} although their relations werewith complexhim withincluded frequent conflicts.{{sfn |Barnard |2004}}

Her verses, which date from at least 1759,{{sfn |Barnard |2004}} include [[elegy|elegies]] and [[sonnet]]s, and a poetical verse-novel, ''Louisa'' (1784), of which five editions were published. However, she did not publish her first poem until 1780, at the age of 38. Seward's writings,many whichletters includeand manyother letters,writings have been called "commonplace". [[Horace Walpole]] said she had "no imagination, no novelty",{{sfn |Chisholm |1911}} althoughbut she was praised by [[Mary Scott (poet)|Mary Scott]],{{sfn |Radcliffe |2015 |loc=[http://spenserians.cath.vt.edu/CommentRecord.php?action=GET&cmmtid=8329 Mary Scott, "Verses addressed to Miss Seward, on the Publication of her Monody on Major Andre" ''Gentleman's Magazine'' 53, (June 1783), p. 519.]}} who had written admiringly of her father's attitude to female education.{{sfn |Scott |1775 |loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=0aVYAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA38 p.&nbsp;38]}}

Several poems, particularly Lichfield ones, concernedconcern her friend and adopted sister Honora Sneyd, in a tradition described as "female friendship poetry".{{sfn |deLucia |2013}} Seward struck a middle path in a period when women had to tread carefully. Her work could also be arch and teasing, as in her poem ''Portrait of Miss Levett'', on a Lichfield beauty later married to Rev. Richard [[Levett]].{{Sfn |Scott |1810}} She contributed to Boswell's ''[[Life of Samuel Johnson]]'' (1791), but was less than happy with the way Boswell's treatedtreatment of her material.{{sfn |Barnard |2004}} Her work circulated widely.{{sfn |Foster |2007 |loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=hplK7tiq1DwC&pg=PA259 Lisa Moore: The Swan of Lichfield pp. 259–264]}}

Authorship has been a continuing problem within assessing her work.{{sfn |Barnard |2004}} She was known to suggest others had used her work as their own: "a charge of plagiarism must rest somewhere."{{sfn |Constable |1811 |loc=[https://archive.org/details/lettersannasewa00consgoog/page/n171 <!-- pg=156 --> Letter to Mrs. Jackson August 3 1792 Vol.3 p.&nbsp;156]}}

Seward was a prodigious correspondent. ASix vast six volumes of her letters appeared afterposthumously her deathin (1811),{{sfn |Constable|1811}} revealing a broad knowledge of English literature and casting light on Midland literary culture in her day.{{sfn |deLucia |2013}} Early on, in life (1762–1768), she used an imaginary friend, Emma, to express her thoughts, writing 39 letters to her.{{sfn |Barnard |2013 |loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=6hf3W3VwN7kC&pg=PA 1. 'My Dear Emma': The Juvenile Letters, 1762–1768 pp. 9–38]}} She was seen to varying degreesvariously as an authority on English literature by contemporaries such as Walter Scott, Samuel Johnson and Robert Southey.{{sfn |deLucia |2013}} She also wrote a biography: ''Memoirs of the Life of Dr. Darwin'' (1804).{{sfn |Seward |1804}}

Keenly interested in botany, sheSeward associated closely with the [[Lichfield Botanical Society]] (despite the name, composed of only three men: Erasmus Darwin, [[Sir Brooke Boothby]] and John Jackson) and published anonymously in the Society'sits name.{{sfn |George |2014}} EncouragedShe was encouraged by Darwin sheto rejectedreject thea conservative backlash to the revelations of [[Carl Linnaeus]]'s sexual system of plant classification. This was seen as unfitting for ladies, whose' modesty had to be protected.{{sfn |Shteir |1996 |loc=p. 28}} <blockquote>"I had heard it was not fit for the female eye. It can only be unfit for the perusal of such females as still believe the legend of their nursery that children are dug out of a parsley-bed; who have never been at church, or looked into a Bible, – and are totally ignorant that in the present state of the world, two sexes are necessary to the production of animals."{{sfn |Constable |1811 |loc=[https://archive.org/details/lettersannasewa07consgoog/page/n101 <!-- pg=83 --> Letter to Dr. Lister, June 20 1803. vi. 83]}}<ref group=notes>Seward defends Erasmus Darwin against attacks on his ''Temple of Nature'' (1803) as indecent.</ref></blockquote>

This attitude, stillcaution prevalentprevailed through most of the 19th century, wastypically typified byfrom writers such as the Rev. [[Richard Polwhele]], in his poem ''[[The Unsex'd Females]]'' (1798), although she escaped his personal criticism, being considered to have thea proper attitude.

After Seward's death, Sir [[Walter Scott]] edited her ''Poetical Works'' in three volumes (Edinburgh, 1810).{{sfn |Scott |1810}} To these he prefixed a memoir of the author and extracts from her correspondence. Scott's editing shows considerable censorship{{sfn |Barnard |2013}} and he declined to edit the bulk of her letters, which later appeared in six volumes from [[Archibald Constable]] as ''Letters of Anna Seward 1784–1807'' (1811).{{sfn |Chisholm |1911}}{{sfn |Constable |1811}} Her reputation barely outlived her, but interest has revived in the 21st century, after some dismissive views among early 20th-century critics.{{sfn |Clarke |2005}} Later, feminist scholars in particular have seen Seward as a valuable observer of gendered relationshipsrelations in late 18th-century society, playing a transitional role in its principles and emerging romanticism. Her engagementstance withon the political, cultural and literary issues of the time likewise reflects the social responses of society to such issues.{{sfn |Roberts |2010}}{{sfn |Kairoff |2012 |loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=02n9Th5RklAC&pg=PP1 Preface p. ix–xi]}} Kairoff sees her as "one of the — in a literal sense — ultimate eighteenth-century poets".{{sfn |Kairoff |2012 |loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=02n9Th5RklAC&pg=PA11 p. 11]}}

There is a plaque to Anna Seward (spelt "Ann") in Lichfield Cathedral by the entrance; Anne herself is buried underneath the choir stalls. The epitaph was written by her friend Walter Scott.<ref group=notes>See extracts from Seward's will in ''The Lady's Monthly Museum'' {{harv |Lady's Monthly |1812 |loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=RolFAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA190 Miss Seward's Will Wednesday 1 April 1812 pp. 190–195]}}</ref> Seward appears as a character in the novel ''The Ladies'' by [[Doris Grumbach]] (1984).{{sfn |Grumbach |1984}}

*{{Cite journal |author=Blanch-Serrat, Francesca. |title=“I"I mourn their nature, but admire their art”art": Anna Seward’sSeward's Assertion of Critical Authority in Maturity and Old Age |journal=ES REVIEWReview|volume=40|pages=11–31 |year=2019 |issue=40 |doi=10.24197/ersjes.40.2019.11-31|doi-access=free }}

*{{Cite journal |author=Blanch-Serrat, Francesca. |title=““To""To ‘leave'leave my name in life’slife's visit’”visit'": The Intersection of Age and Gender in the Literary Afterlife of Anna Seward”Seward". |journal=Age, Culture and Humanities: An Interdisciplinary Journal|issue=5 |date=May 2021|volume=5 |pages=1–25 |doi=10.7146/ageculturehumanities.v5i.130992 |s2cid=248455965 |url=https://ageculturehumanities.org/WP/to-leave-my-name-in-lifes-visit-the-intersection-of-age-and-gender-in-the-literary-afterlife-of-anna-seward/|doi-access=free }}

*{{Gutenberg author |id=Seward,+Anna 32829|name=Anna Seward}}