Romantic
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (L.E.L.)
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838), who wrote under the initials L.E.L., was born in Chelsea, London. Her poems began to appear in William Jerdan’s Literary Gazette in 1820, signed with those initials, and The Improvisatrice (1824) made her one of the best-known poets of her day.
It was followed by The Troubadour (1825), The Golden Violet (1827) and The Venetian Bracelet (1829), long verse romances and tales that dwell on love, loss and the life of the woman poet. She also contributed constantly to the annuals and gift-books of the time and edited Fisher’s Drawing Room Scrap Book.
In June 1838 she married George Maclean, governor of Cape Coast Castle on the Gold Coast, and sailed with him to West Africa. She died there on 15 October 1838, at the age of thirty-six.
Major Works (6)
- A History of the Lyre — Narrative poem, 1829
- The Golden Violet — Narrative poem, 1827
- The Improvisatrice — Narrative poem, 1824
- The Lost Pleiad — Narrative poem, 1829
- The Troubadour — Verse romance, 1825
- The Venetian Bracelet — Narrative poem, 1829
Poems (80)
- Rosalie
- Roland's Tower
- The Guerilla Chief
- The Bayadere
- St. George's Hospital
- The Deserter
- Gladesmuir
- The Minstrel of Portugal
- The Basque Girl and Henri Quatre
- The Sailor
- The Covenanters
- The Soldier's Funeral
- Lines Written Under a Picture of a Girl Burning a Love-Letter
- Arion
- Manmadin, the Indian Cupid, Floating Down the Ganges
- The Female Convict
- The Painter's Love
- Inez
- The Oak
- The Violet
- Change
- The Grey Cross
- Crescentius
- On a Star
- Song (Farewell! and never think of me)
- Home
- The Emerald Ring
- Love
- Love, Hope, and Beauty
- The Crusader
- The Warrior
- Apologue
- The Soldier's Grave
- Song of the Hunter's Bride
- When Should Lovers Breathe Their Vows?
- Portrait of a Lady
- Juliet After the Masquerade
- The Combat
- The Fairy Queen Sleeping
- The Oriental Nosegay
- A Child Screening a Dove from a Hawk
- The Enchanted Island
- Cupid and Swallows Flying from Winter
- Love Nursed by Solitude
- Fairies on the Sea Shore
- A Girl at Her Devotions
- Nymph and Zephyr
- The Sultana's Remonstrance
- Hannibal's Oath
- Alexander and Phillip
- The Record
- Erinna
- The Coniston Curse
- The Omen
- One Day
- Love's Last Lesson
- Poetical Portraits I
- Poetical Portraits II
- Poetical Portraits III
- Poetical Portraits IV
- Poetical Portraits V
- Poetical Portraits VI
- The Neglected One
- A Night in May
- Warning
- The Nameless Grave
- Fantasies
- Revenge
- A Summer Day
- The Wreath
- Song (Oh never another dream can be)
- The Dying Child
- A Summer Evening's Tale
- Lines of Life
- The Battle Field
- New Year's Eve
- Song (I pray thee let me weep to-night)
- Stanzas to the Author of "Mont Blanc," "Ada," &c.
- The Mountain Grave
- Death and the Youth