In its focus on subjectivity and the power of nature, and in its critique of the ideal of reason, "Written Near a Port on a Dark Evening" is undoubtedly a Romantic poem. Like other writers of this late-eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century movement, Charlotte Smith explored the dark, the unexplainable, the uncertain, and the emotional—and resisted the Enlightenment emphasis on objectivity and evidence. Yet, for the most part, contemporary conversations about the Romantic movement focus on male poets, from William Wordsworth to John Keats. Indeed, when women do enter the discussion, they are often mentioned not as artists in their own right but as relatives or partners of more-famous men (the exception may be Frankenstein author Mary Shelley, who is today perhaps as well-known as her husband Percy). Here, we'll take the opportunity to briefly discuss a few women who, in addition to Charlotte Smith, significantly contributed to the Romantic movement in the English-speaking world.
Anna Lætitia Barbauld, who published her first volume of poetry in 1773, was part of the earliest wave of the Romantic movement. Yet, like Lord Byron, who famously fought for Greek independence from the Ottoman Empire, Barbauld used her poetry to advocate for revolutionary causes. In "Corsica," for instance, she cheered on Corsica's fight for independence from France. Her allusions to the value of liberty, not to mention her celebrations of Corsica's natural beauty ("swelling mountains, brown with the solemn shade / Of various trees, that wave their giant arms") is typical of Romanticism. Barbauld also advocated for a more personal independence, deploring her tutors' strictness in an ode to youthful imagination with the lines "Hail to Pleasure’s frolic train! / Hail to Fancy’s golden reign! / Festive Mirth, and Laughter wild, / Free and sportful as the child!" in the poem "To Wisdom." Despite her interest in revolutionary politics (she also supported the French Revolution), Barbauld was known to occasionally argue with Romantic peers: according to Samuel Coleridge, she took issue with his "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" in large part because of its lack of a moral message.
Felicia Hemans, meanwhile, was known in part for her poetry's explicit discussions of gender. Born just before the close of the eighteenth century, she published her first volume of poetry in 1808—likely within a few years of Smith's "Written Near a Port on a Dark Evening." Her writing tended to celebrate and valorize women's traditional roles, often touching on domestic settings and duties. Indeed, while Romantic poets in general often displayed an interest in childhood and children's rights, Hemans took this theme in a direction of her own by dwelling on mother-child relationships. in "To the New-Born," addressed to her nephew, Hemans wrote, "Smile on thy mother! while she feels that unto her is given, /
In that young day-spring glance the pledge of a soul to rear for heaven!" exploring—in a typical Romantic fashion—the larger-than-life emotions of familial life. In "Indian Woman's Death Song," Hemans described the suicide of a woman abandoned by her husband. Though Hemans advocated for traditional gender roles and avoided what we might think of as progressive or revolutionary gender politics, "Indian Woman's Death Song" portrayed the oppressive impact of social limitations on women's happiness and, indeed, ability to perform gender roles.
Finally, Dorothy Wordsworth, though often overshadowed by her brother William, was a skilled poet in her own right. Though Dorothy's writing is interesting on its own terms, it cannot be wholly separated from William's: the siblings were close (so much so that rumors about the two being in an incestuous relationship persist today), and their relationship impacted each one's art. The Wordsworths, while living in England's Lake District, would sometimes even purposely enter so-called "trance states" together in order to induce creativity. Life in the lush Lake District was itself the subject of Dorothy Wordsworth's writing, which focused on the natural world. Her work, published posthumously, includes vivid observations of nature such as "Food, shelter, safety there they find / There berries ripen, flowerets bloom; / There insects live their lives — and die." Meanwhile, her lines "A host, of golden daffodils; / Beside the lake, beneath the trees, / Fluttering and dancing in the breeze" are uncannily similar to those found in her brother's famous work "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud," revealing the way each sibling's observations inspired and influenced the other.
These three are only a selection of the variety of women who played a role in the Romantic movement. Furthermore, many women, because of structural limitations on women's public lives and literacy, may have written without ever having their works published. Even Dorothy Wordsworth, so deeply enmeshed in Romantic circles, did not publish poems during her lifetime. Other women, writing outside of England—or working in other art forms such as painting and music—also played roles in the movement. Charlotte Smith, writing at the start of the nineteenth century, was a prominent female poet of her era—but she was by no means the only one.
