Nineteenth-century Women Poets

Download or read book Nineteenth-century Women Poets written by Isobel Armstrong and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 826 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beginning with Anna Laetitia Barbauld's petition to William Wilberforce and ending with the myth-making Irish writers of the Celtic revival, this major new anthology brings to light diverse female traditions that have, for years, remained in obscurity. While the editors showcase a host of female writers well-known in their day--Felicia Hemans, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and Christina Rossetti--they widen the focus to less familiar works by working-class, colonial, and political writers. The anthology's chronological progression highlights the development of women's verse from the late Romantic period through the Victorian fin-de-siècle. The editors examine the political formations and cultural groupings to which the women belonged, along with the structures which made the development of their work possible: in particular, the numerous minority journals which allowed them a coherent voice. They consider common preoccupations with marriage, slavery, military conflict, national identity, and religious and sexual discourses, and reveal how styles and genres changed across the century. The anthology draws on first editions for texts wherever possible, retaining the spelling and punctuation of the originals for a faithful representation.