Romantic
Anna Seward
Anna Seward (1742–1809), born at Eyam in Derbyshire and raised in Lichfield, where her father was a canon of the cathedral, was known in her own day as the “Swan of Lichfield”. She was educated at home on progressive lines and became a prominent figure in the literary society of the Midlands, publishing an elegy on Captain Cook, a monody on Major André and the poetical novel Louisa (1784).
Her Original Sonnets on Various Subjects, and Odes Paraphrased from Horace appeared in 1799. The hundred sonnets, many in the Petrarchan and Miltonic manner and some of them nature poems or elegies, helped to revive the English sonnet in the years before Wordsworth, and the Horatian paraphrases freely expand their originals. Her letters were published posthumously in 1811.
Poems (337)
- Sonnet I
- Sonnet II
- Sonnet III: Written at Buxton in a Rainy Season
- Sonnet IV: To Honora Sneyd, Whose Health Was Always Best in Winter
- Sonnet V: To a Friend, Who Thinks Sensibility a Misfortune
- Sonnet VI: Written at Lichfield
- Sonnet VII
- Sonnet VIII: Translation
- Sonnet IX
- Sonnet X: To Honora Sneyd
- Sonnet XI
- Sonnet XII
- Sonnet XIII
- Sonnet XIV
- Sonnet XV: Written on Rising Ground Near Lichfield
- Sonnet XVI: Translated from Boileau
- Sonnet XVII
- Sonnet XVIII: An Evening in November, Which Had Been Stormy, Gradually Clearing Up, in a Mountainous Country
- Sonnet XIX: To ----
- Sonnet XX: On Reading a Description of Pope's Gardens at Twickenham
- Sonnet XXI
- Sonnet XXII: Subject Continued
- Sonnet XXIII: To Miss E. S.
- Sonnet XXIV: Translation
- Sonnet XXV: Petrarch to Vaucluse
- Sonnet XXVI
- Sonnet XXVII
- Sonnet XXVIII
- Sonnet XXIX: Subject Continued
- Sonnet XXX
- Sonnet XXXI: To the Departing Spirit of an Alienated Friend
- Sonnet XXXII: Subject of the Preceding Sonnet Continued
- Sonnet XXXIII
- Sonnet XXXIV
- Sonnet XXXV: Spring
- Sonnet XXXVI: Summer
- Sonnet XXXVII: Autumn
- Sonnet XXXVIII: Winter
- Sonnet XXXIX: Winter Evening
- Sonnet XL: December Morning
- Sonnet XLI: Invitation to a Friend
- Sonnet XLII
- Sonnet XLIII: To May, in the Year 1783
- Sonnet XLIV
- Sonnet XLV
- Sonnet XLVI
- Sonnet XLVII: On Mr. Sargent's Dramatic Poem, the Mine
- Sonnet XLVIII
- Sonnet XLIX: On the Use of New and Old Words in Poetry
- Sonnet L
- Sonnet LI: To Sylvia on Her Approaching Nuptials
- Sonnet LII
- Sonnet LIII: Written in the Spring 1785 on the Death of the Poet Laureat
- Sonnet LIV: A Persian King to His Son
- Sonnet LV: On the Quick Transition from Winter to Summer in the Year 1785
- Sonnet LVI: To a Timid Young Lady, Distressed by the Attentions of an Amiable, and Accepted Lover
- Sonnet LVII: Written the Night Preceding the Funeral of Mrs. Charles Buckeridge
- Sonnet LVIII
- Sonnet LIX: To the Right Honourable Lady Marianne Carnegie
- Sonnet LX
- Sonnet LXI: To Mr. Henry Cary, on Reading His Sonnets Written at Sixteen
- Sonnet LXII
- Sonnet LXIII: To Colebrooke Dale
- Sonnet LXIV: To Mr. Henry Cary, on the Publication of His Sonnets
- Sonnet LXV: To the Same
- Sonnet LXVI
- Sonnet LXVII: On Doctor Johnson's Unjust Criticisms in His Lives of the Poets
- Sonnet LXVIII: On the Posthumous Fame of Doctor Johnson
- Sonnet LXIX: To a Young Lady, Purposing to Marry a Man of Immoral Character in the Hope of His Reformation
- Sonnet LXX: To a Young Lady in Affliction, Who Fancied She Should Never More Be Happy
- Sonnet LXXI: To the Poppy
- Sonnet LXXII: Written in the Rainy Summer of 1789
- Sonnet LXXIII: Translation
- Sonnet LXXIV
- Sonnet LXXV: Subject Continued
- Sonnet LXXVI: The Critics of Doctor Johnson's School
- Sonnet LXXVII
- Sonnet LXXVIII
- Sonnet LXXIX
- Sonnet LXXX
- Sonnet LXXXI: On a Lock of Miss Sarah Seward's Hair Who Died in Her Twentieth Year
- Sonnet LXXXII
- Sonnet LXXXIII: On Catania and Syracuse Swallowed Up by Earthquake
- Sonnet LXXXIV
- Sonnet LXXXV: To March
- Sonnet LXXXVI: To the Lake of Killarney
- Sonnet LXXXVII: To a Young Lady, Addressed by a Gentleman Celebrated for His Poetic Talents
- Sonnet LXXXVIII: The Prospect a Flooded Vale
- Sonnet LXXXIX: Subject Continued
- Sonnet XC: Subject Continued
- Sonnet XCI
- Sonnet XCII
- Sonnet XCIII
- Sonnet XCIV
- Sonnet XCV
- Sonnet XCVI
- Sonnet XCVII: To a Coffin-Lid
- Sonnet XCVIII
- Sonnet XCIX: On the Violent Thunder Storms
- Sonnet C: Written December 1790
- To Mæcenas: Paraphrase of Horace, Book I, Ode I
- To Pyrrha: Paraphrase of Horace, Book I, Ode V
- To Munatius Plancus: Paraphrase of Horace, Book I, Ode VII
- To Lydia: Paraphrase of Horace, Book I, Ode VIII
- To Thaliarchus: Paraphrase of Horace, Book I, Ode IX
- To Leuconoe: Paraphrase of Horace, Book I, Ode XI
- To Apollo: Paraphrase of Horace, Book I, Ode XXXI
- To His Attendant: Paraphrase of Horace, Book I, Ode XXXVIII
- To Sallust: Paraphrase of Horace, Book II, Ode II
- To the Hon. Thomas Erskine: Paraphrase of Horace, Book II, Ode III
- To Barine: Paraphrase of Horace, Book II, Ode VIII
- To Titus Valgius: Paraphrase of Horace, Book II, Ode IX
- To Licinius Murena: Paraphrase of Horace, Book II, Ode X
- To Mæcenas: Paraphrase of Horace, Book II, Ode XII
- To Posthumus: Paraphrase of Horace, Book II, Ode XIV
- To Lyce, on Her Refusing to Admit His Visits: Paraphrase of Horace, Book III, Ode X
- To the Fountain of Blandusia: Paraphrase of Horace, Book III, Ode XIII
- To Telephus: Paraphrase of Horace, Book III, Ode XIX
- To Phidyle, Exhorting Her to Be Content with a Frugal Sacrifice: Paraphrase of Horace, Book III, Ode XXIII
- To Melpomene: Paraphrase of Horace, Book IV, Ode III
- To William Hayley, Esq.: Paraphrase of Horace, Book IV, Ode VII
- To Liguria: Paraphrase of Horace, Book IV, Ode X
- To Phyllis, Inviting Her to Celebrate the Birthday of Mæcenas: Paraphrase of Horace, Book IV, Ode XI
- On the Pleasures of Rural Life: Paraphrase of Horace, Epode II
- To Neaēra: Paraphrase of Horace, Epode XV
- To the Roman People, on Their Renewing the Civil Wars: Paraphrase of Horace, Epode VII
- Rich Auld Willie’s Farewell
- The Visions, an Elegy
- Knowledge, a Poem in the manner of Spencer
- Portrait of Miss Levett
- Elegy, addressed to Cornet V----
- The Hay-Field, a Morning Scene
- Inscription for an Urn in a Gentleman’s Garden
- Evander to Emillia, Elegy I
- Evander to Emillia, Epistle I
- Emillia Embroidering, and Jealous, Elegy II
- Evander to Emillia, Epistle II
- Emillia to Evander, in Renewed Jealousy, Elegy III
- Evander to Emillia, Epistle III
- Evander to Emillia, Elegy IV
- Evander to Emillia, Epistle IV
- Evander to Emillia, Elegy V
- Evander to Emillia, Epistle V
- Evander to Emillia, Elegy VI
- Evander to Emillia, Epistle VI
- Evander to Emillia, Elegy VII
- Evander to Emillia, Elegy VIII
- Evander to Emillia, Epistle VII
- Honora, an Elegy
- The Anniversary, written in June 1769
- Ode to Content
- Epistle to Miss Honora Sneyd, Sept. 1770
- Elegy written at the Sea-side
- Epistle to Miss Honora Sneyd, May 1772
- Time past, written in January 1773
- Lichfield, an Elegy
- Invocation to the Genius of Slumber
- Monody on Mrs Richard Vyse
- To Mrs Coltman of Hull
- Receipt for a Sweet Jar
- Invocation to the Shade of Petrarch, and to the Spirits of the Persian Poets
- Ode to William Boothby, Esq.
- Ode to Sir Brooke Boothby
- The Country Maid, a Pastoral Ballad
- Florio, by all the Powers above
- Achilles, a Canzonet
- The mute grey fields, and leafless bowers
- My Stella sleeps, the sultry hour
- On a mount a cottage stands
- I wake and weep, when wintry winds
- Song of the Fairies to the Sea-Nymphs
- Song adapted to the new Air in Pleyel’s Grand Concertante
- In sylvan scenes, when Laura hails
- Hast thou escaped the cannon’s ire
- The stormy ocean roving
- Address to Hope
- My Celia vow’d, at early dawn
- Here is the bank I loved so well
- Song, from Metastatio
- In the mid-day of summer, and far from the shade
- Song of a Northern Lover, in Winter
- If stormy, o’er enamell’d vales
- O! share my cottage, dearest maid!
- From thy waves, stormy Lannow, I fly
- Now Spring wakes the May-morn, the sweetest of hours
- Ode to Euphrosyne, an Epithalamium
- Prologue written for the Tragedy of Braganza
- Prologue written for Mr Penn
- Prologue to the Circassian
- Prologue to the Fortunate Disappointment
- Epilogue to the Fortunate Disappointment
- Complaint of an Arabian Lover--An Ode
- Blindness--A Poem
- Verses, sent with some Ornaments for the Hair, to Miss Margaret Knowles
- Verses written in Dr Darwin’s Botanic Garden
- Elegy on the Death of Mr Joseph Sykes
- Charity
- Monody on the Death of David Garrick, Esq.
- Ode on the Pythagorean System
- Invocation of the Comic Muse
- Amusements of Winter
- Bermuda
- Elegy on Captain Cook
- Verses to a Young Gentleman
- Ode to the Sun
- Verses to Captain Eliott
- Verses to Mrs C----
- On the future Existence of Brutes
- To Miss Seward
- Monody on Major Andre
- Ode to Poetic Fancy
- Epistle to Cornelia
- Epistle to Mr Romney
- Written in the blank page of the Sorrows of Werter
- Written in the Title-page of a Volume of Mr Jephson’s Tragedies
- Written in a diminutive Edition of Gray’s Poems
- Verses written in the blank leaves of Mr Hayley’s Poems
- Written in the blank leaf of a small Pocket Edition of Thomson’s Seasons
- With a Lock of the Author’s Hair to a Gentleman who requested it
- On seeing Mr Hayley’s Works invidiously criticised
- Verses to the celebrated Painter, Mr Wright of Derby
- Epistle to William Hayley, Esq.
- To the Memory of Lady Miller
- Epistle to the Rev. Dr William Bagshot Stevens, of Repton, Derbyshire
- To William Hayley, Esq.
- Address to the Sun
- Address to Woman
- Verses to the Rev. William Mason
- Epitaph on Hannah Robinson of Lichfield
- Epitaph on Lady Miller
- Epitaph on Eliza Jones
- Epitaph on Miss Anne Lawley
- Epitaph on David Garrick, Esq.
- Epitaph on Mrs Bennet
- Epitaph on Eliza Whateley
- Epitaph on Elizabeth, wife of J. B. Simpson, Esq.
- Epitaph on Elizabeth, wife of the Rev. Michael Baxter
- Epitaph on the Hon. Henrietta Bagot
- Epitaph on Miss Wingfield of Shrewsbury
- Inscribed on the Monument of the Rev. William Bagshot Stevens
- For a Marble Tablet in Lichfield Cathedral
- On General Simcoe
- Epistle to F. C. R. Mundy, Esq.
- The Red-breast and Sparrow: A fable
- Mount Etna
- Epistle to Colonel St George
- Ode on Time
- Louisa, a Poetical Novel, in Four Epistles
- Song of Roxana: A Persian Poem
- The Song of Zillia
- Eastern Ode
- Daphne’s coyness accounted for
- Verses to Mr Hayley
- Written in Autumn, 1784
- Colebrook Dale
- Independent Industry True Virtue
- To the Rev. John Granville
- Epistle to Nath. Lister, Esq. of Lichfield
- Epistle to George Romney, Esq.
- Idyllium from the Italian
- To Mrs Smith, on her singing in public
- Alpine Scenery
- Ode on Gen. Elliot’s return from Gibraltar
- Eyam
- Remonstrance addressed to Wm. Cowper, Esq.
- Crugal’s Ghost, appearing to Connal,--from Ossian
- The Ghost of Cuchullin,--from Ossian
- Epistle to Mr Newton, the Derbyshire Minstrel
- To Mr John Salt, of Lichfield
- On the sudden Death of the celebrated Mr Norris, of Oxford, Batchelor of Music
- On Major Andre
- Harold’s Complaint, a Scandinavian Ode
- The Lake, or Modern Improvement in Landscape
- Written after having visited Miss More and her Sisters, at Cowslip-Green, near Bristol
- Translation of Gray’s Apostrophe to the Memory of his young Friend West
- Paraphrase of Gray’s Alcaick Ode
- To Sir Nigel Gresley
- To ---- Sherive, Esq., Student at Oxford
- Sonnet to the Rev. Richard Polwhele
- The first Psalm put into Verse
- 137th Psalm Paraphrased
- To Charles Simpson, Esq., Barrister
- To Major Rooke of Mansfield
- To Charles Clarke, Esq.
- A Warning Exhortation
- To Humphry Repton, Esq.
- Philippic on a Modern Epic
- Llangollen Vale
- Verses on Wrexham, and the Inhabitants of its Environs
- Hoyle Lake
- Herva, at the Tomb of Argantyr, a Runic Dialogue
- Inscription to Mrs Wingfield of Shrewsbury
- Inscription to Miss Wingfield of Shrewsbury
- Inscription to Miss Catherine Wingfield
- Inscription to Miss Remmington, of Lichfield
- Inscription to Miss Fern of Lichfield
- Inscription to the Right Honourable Lady Eleanor Butler
- Inscription to Miss Ponsonby
- Inscription to the Young Married Lady who humanely purchases this Trifle
- Inscription to the Young Unmarried Lady, who purchases me
- Inscription to the Lady, whether Single or Married, who shall charitably purchase this Trifle
- Inscription to the Lady who may purchase this Envelope, and who may not be a celebrated Beauty
- Inscription to the Dowager Lady Blakiston
- To Mrs Siddons
- Ode on England’s Naval Triumphs in the present War
- To the Right Hon. the Marchioness of Donegall
- To Miss Godfrey
- Greville and Julia
- Sonnet, written in Autumn 1799
- Speech of the Nymph of that Brook, which, after heavy rain, becomes a deep, violent, and formidable torrent
- Sonnet (Gay trips my nymph along the green retreat)
- A Meditation
- The Terrestrial Year on her Progress through the Signs of the Zodiac
- Inscribed on the back of a Landscape, drawn by the Rev. William Bree
- Inscribed on the back of the Companion Landscape
- Inscribed on the back of a Landscape, copied from Glover, by Miss Fleming of Lichfield
- Address to the River in a Landscape, drawn by the Rev. William Bree
- To Miss Honora Smith of Lichfield
- Admonition to Rosilda
- A Marine View Moralized
- To Clarissa
- A Farewell to the Seat of Lady Eleanor Butler, and Miss Ponsonby
- Consolation
- To Robert Harper, Esq.
- To the Rev. Thomas Sedgewick Whalley
- The Grave of Youth
- To Mrs Skerett
- To Miss Catherine Mallet
- Impromptu, written in the blank leaves of Miss Anna Burt’s Repository of Friendship
- Elegy, written as from a French Lady, whose Husband had been three years Prisoner of War at Lichfield
- To Miss Mansel, of Trinity College, Cambridge
- Address to the Young Roscius
- A Favourite Cat’s Dying Soliloquy
- To little Catherine Harper
- Inscribed on the blank leaves of the Poem Madoc
- To F. N. C. Mundy, Esq., on his Poem the Fall of Needwood Forest
- To Remembrance