Anna Laetiia Barbauld Analysis

For this poster presentation we focused primarily on the poems which exemplifies the elements of the feminist movement by Charlotte Smith and Anna Laetitia Barbauld. The analysed poems are Flora by C. Smith and On a Lady’s Writing by A. L. Barbauld. As it is already discussed in the introductory part, Charlotte Smith and A. L. Barbauld present one of the greatest female poets of the period. The analysed poems are selected because of their obvious leanings and insinuations to the feminist movement. This research contains a discussion of women’s position in society in the period of Romanticism and it concerns with the analysis of the feministic themes in the poems of C. Smith and A. L. Barbauld. We relied heavily on the research conducted by

She openly defied the oppressive and restrictive norms which were imposed on women of the time. In her rather short poem ‘On a Lady’s Writing’ she describes how should a proper lady write/live according to the society. She says that her writing, which also stands for her whole behavior and intellectual work should be ‘’neat as her dress and polish 'd as her brow’’ (Barbauld, 1772, p52). The simile used to describe her personality, her intelligence and way of expressing her thoughts is always the one which praises her outer beauty and elegance. Therefore, she presents the sad reality of those women who were primarily judge by their physical appearance and not by their intelligence. It is important to note that the poem’s title uses indefinite article and in that Barbauld implies that these rules were imposed on all woman, and that this poem is not just a pure description of some particular description. One modern critic expressed his opinion that this poem refuses to consider women 's writing as anything but 'correct ' strokes of the pen, nevertheless it is the society who refuses to consider women’s writing as anything but correct, neat, elegant strokes of the pen. That’s exactly what Barbauld tries to present in this short poem. The society never expects nor lets women to express themselves as intellectual