NAME-TUHINAMONDAL

ROLL NO- 002100401061 UG III (SEM 5)

ROMANTIC WOMEN POETS (DSE) IA-2
1.
THE PETITION-
Dear Miss Victoria Frankenstein,
I Miss Bang, beg you to spare my life and not sacrifice me for your scientific experiment. I am
not a mere animal, but a learned and cultured frog, who loves to read and write and learn and
shine. I have studied the works of many women writers, especially Barbauld, who taught me the
value of compassion and justice.
It was two days ago that I was forcibly captured by two of your grotesque assistants with masks
and gloves on, while I was sunbathing with my family on a pond in the vicinity of your abode.
Oh! How I miss my husband Daniel and I’m inflicted with the terrible pain of separation from
my little children, since then I have been incubated and starving in this dim and tiny iron cage.
Ma’am, I am acutely alert that I will be sacrificed today for the sake of benefitting the human
race but ma’am please “never let thine heart be shut/Against the prisoner's cries.” The English
Dissenters like Anna Leticia Barbauld earnestly believe that humans and animals are creations of
God and hence the former should not mistreat the latter. Please extend your sympathy to us
animals, we too have emotions and feelings and passions, and we too want to live like humans
want to.
Have you read Anna Barbauld’s poem, “The Mouse Petition”? published in 1773. The
Mouse's Petition was composed by Barbauld when she had visited her friend Joseph Priestly who
was one of the leading scientists of the day famous for his discovery of the existence of Oxygen
at the University of Leeds and found a mouse caught in a trap that Priestly was going to
experiment with. I feel my condition inside this “wiry grate” is akin to the condition of the
mouse in the poem who was similarly trapped in a cage by a scientist, and who pleaded for
mercy and freedom. She showed how the mouse had feelings and thoughts, just like humans, and
how the scientist's curiosity was cruel and unjust.
You may think that I am ignorant or vain, that I dare to compare myself to your brilliant mind.
But I assure you that I only seek to improve myself and find some happiness in this cruel world.
I do not claim to be your equal, but your fellow creature, who deserves respect and kindness.
Animal abuse is omnipresent but the French Revolution of 1789 was based on the ideals of
equality, fraternity, and most crucially, liberty. “Liberty” is also a Romantic concept, a concept of
our era. The idea that we are born with the innate right to remain unshackled, and liberty is of
paramount importance, so why Miss Frankenstein I am denied of my innate right to liberty and
prevented from experiencing my freedom and imprisoned in this minute enclosure? If you are
not paying attention to my plea of seeking liberty if you are shutting your heart, then the obvious
implication is that you are against “liberty”. I will not beg for my liberty but I will demand it as it
is my birthright, I am “free-born” with it and you cannot deny that.
Freedom is all I demand, you being a free individual will not understand what it feels like to be
incubated in this “wiry grate”, but you sure understand the pleasure and joy of it. I do not want
you to feel the pain I am in at this moment with the agonizing certainty of being sacrificed this
very day, all I want you to feel the pleasure of freedom that you enjoy and I cannot and it is
through this feeling of pleasure that you let me out and let me enjoy my freedom.
“Do not stain with guiltless blood/Thy hospitable hearth;” cause if you kill me you will stain not
only the walls of your home with my “guiltless blood” but also your heart and my blood will be
the marker of your heinous crime for eternity. I only feed on “scanty meals”, there is no prize in
store for you in overcoming a creature so tiny like me and therefore undeserving of the
punishment of death. I believe, I a “commoner”, like you and everyone else deserve to witness
and enjoy the “common gifts of heaven’ like the
“cheerful light” and “vital air” This “wiry grate” resembles the prison fortress of Bastille in
France and I await to be beheaded with the guillotine. Tonight I will be sacrificed and I plead you
not to do so. Free me from this “wiry grate” and let me return home to my family they are
eagerly awaiting my arrival. “a well-taught philosophic mind” ought to treat everyone justly and
care about everything that has life in it.
The concept of reincarnation is debatable, in case it is real and if you do not spare me today and
kill me then you probably could be killing your brother a “kindred mind”, or “mind is a never
dying flame”. And even if the concept of reincarnation is not real then why will you, Miss
Frankenstein deprive me of my short life span? I believe in this vast universe all our lives are
interconnected, be that a thing being so someone mighty. If you help me today good Miss then
someone will help you tomorrow, the good you do will eventually find its way to you. In other
words, life is all about karma. Imagine yourself in my place, what if one day you are reduced to a
helpless being trapped by a powerful man, won’t you expect this powerful man to show mercy
on you? Please ma’am spare my life and give me my “liberty”.
Taking inspiration from the mouse’s monologue in Anna Laetitia Barbauld’s “The Mouse’s
Petition” I have written you this petition. Please, listen to my voice, as Barbauld listened to the
mouse's voice. Please, let me live and enjoy the beauty of nature, as Barbauld let the mouse live
and escape the cage. Please, do not harm me for the sake of your experiment, as Barbauld did not
harm the mouse for the sake of her poem. Aminal cruelty should be banned. Animals have hearts
that feel, eyes that see, and families to care for, just like you Miss Victoria Frankenstein .
I hope you will have pity on me, and grant me this favor. I will be humble and grateful to you
forever.
The aching and terrified frog, Miss
Bang.

2.
Charlotte Smith was an English poet, novelist, and playwright who lived in the late 18th and
early 19th century. She is considered one of the pioneers of Romanticism, and her poems reflect
her sorrows and her appreciation of nature. Ecocriticism is a literary approach that examines the
relationship between literature and the natural environment. Ecocritical poets use nature to
inspire, express, and critique human society and culture. Charlotte Smith can be seen as an
ecocritical poet because she used nature to convey her emotions, to contrast her situation with
the natural world, and to comment on her time's social and political issues. Nature has a
remarkable presence in Smith’s poetry, and nature is much more than a passive background of
unfolding human drama in Smith’ s poetry.
To say that nature is a recurring theme in Smith’s poetry is stating the obvious, and the natural
world, particularly 'birds,' features prominently in Elegiac Sonnets, Smith's debut book from
1784, as they represent her connection with nature, her melancholic temperament, and her poetic
voice. Smith frequently utilizes birds in her art to convey her emotions, draw contrasts between
her situation and the natural world, and comment on the social and environmental issues of her
time. One of the most important birds in Smith’ s poetry is the nightingale, which appears in two
of her sonnets in the first edition of Elegiac Sonnets (1784), and in a section of her posthumous
work for children The Natural History of Birds (1807). The nightingale is a symbol of hope and
love, but also of sorrow and loss. Smith associates the nightingale with the myth of Philomela, a
woman who was raped and mutilated by her brother-in-law and transformed into a nightingale by
the gods. Smith uses the nightingale to convey her own sufferings and artistic expression, as well
as to critique the oppression of women and the destruction of nature.
Charlotte creates a poetic persona who insists upon melancholia as the sign of her authentic
literary production, which occurs in a representational dimension closer to “real” experience than
is the realm of masculine poetic convention. Since the persona, and how Charlotte presents
melancholia, gives this authentic quality to her verse, the personal feelings written into the
sonnets are integral both to an understanding of the importance of the collection as a whole and
of Charlotte as a poet. The sonnet form thus seems a wholly appropriate vehicle for this to be
achieved, as it enabled Charlotte to ground each poetic narrative within familiar conventions,
whilst at the same time giving room for her to experiment with versification and expression. In
addition, the personal aspect of Charlotte’s sonnets allowed her readership potential insight into
her life, as well as an idea of a connection with the tropes from which she drew influence.
Sonnet LV “The Return of the Nightingale” is a sonnet by Charlotte Smith, published in 1797 as
part of her Elegiac Sonnets collection. The sonnet is about the speaker’s reaction to hearing the
nightingale’s song after a long absence, and how it reminds her of her past happiness and present
sorrow. The sonnet follows the Petrarchan rhyme scheme of ABBAABBACDCDEE and uses
iambic pentameter as the meter. The sonnet can be analyzed in two parts: the octave (the first
eight lines) and the sestet (the last six lines). In the octave, the speaker describes how she used to
welcome the nightingale’s song in the spring, and how it filled her with joy and hope. She uses
words such as “glad”, “sweet”, “charm”, and “delight” to convey her positive emotions. She also
compares the nightingale to a poet, who sings of love and pity, and to a friend, who soothes her
grief. In the sestet, the speaker contrasts her past feelings with her current ones, and how the
nightingale’s song now only increases her pain. She uses words such as “sad”, “lorn”, “mourn”,
and “despair” to convey her negative emotions. She also compares herself to a prisoner, who is
trapped in her misery, and to a mourner, who has lost everything. She concludes the sonnet with
a rhetorical question, asking the nightingale why it returns to torture her with its song.
The sonnet can be seen as an example of melancholy, a state of deep sadness and gloom that was
associated with poetic genius in the Romantic era. Smith's melancholic temperament is a
consequence of her misfortunes including an unhappy marriage, financial difficulties,
imprisonment, and loss of children. Her sonnets reflect her personal feelings and emotions, and
often depict nature as a source of consolation or contrast to her woes. In Sonnet LV, the
nightingale is both a reminder of happier times and a painful contrast to her current situation. The
speaker feels alienated from the natural world and its beauty, and she closes the sonnet with a
strong sense of resignation and despair.
Sonnets III, VII, and LV of Charlotte Smith are connected by the common theme of melancholy
and the motif of the nightingale. All three sonnets are part of Smith’s Elegiac Sonnets, which
express her sorrows and sufferings. Sonnet III engages with melancholia through nature and
mythology, by transposing personal sentiment onto the nightingale motif and the myth of
Philomela. Through the narrative technique of using the bird as a ‘muse’, Charlotte depicts
isolation and sorrow as aesthetic notions and qualities that the nightingale possesses and
understands. This way of off-setting emotion and using a proxy is well established in literature,
as a means to allude to the ideas presented within a work, rather than giving an explicitly direct
connection. Indeed, William Watkin argues that there can never be a true melancholic elegy, as it
is impossible to truly state and articulate those feelings; thus the language of the symbolic is
used. Charlotte’s use of the nightingale to emphasize melancholia could therefore be seen as an
embodiment of this idea, as the allusions presented allow the topic to be apparent in her own life.
Furthermore, the sonnet is part of a triadic series within the ,
with ‘Sonnet VII’ (‘On the Departure of the Nightingale’) and ‘Sonnet LV’ (‘The Return of the
Nightingale: Written in May 1791’), Charlotte can relate personal melancholia to the changing
seasons; the departure and return of the nightingale suggests a sense of timeless despair, as the
feelings have not gone
In Sonnet 55, “The Return of the Nightingale”, Smith describes how she used to welcome the
nightingale’s song in the spring, and how it filled her with joy and hope. But now, she feels that
her troubles are too great to be soothed by its song and that the nightingale only tortures her with
its reminder of happier times. Sonnet 55 also welcomes the nightingale back to England and
rhapsodizes about its return, not only does the nightingale return but the sonnet as a poetic form
returned to England with Smith.
A look at Keats’s ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ (1819) shows that this fashion, particularly with the
nightingale as a muse, continued well into the Romantic period. However, Keats’s use of the
nightingale represents a distinct shift from Charlotte’s, not least because he views the nightingale
as being happy and not bound by sorrow. Keats academic Neil Fraistat argues that the poem
creates a situation where ‘an invocation to a muse becomes the means of discovering the muse’s
insufficiency’. By comparison, then, Charlotte offers a more sympathetic and gentle recognition
of the nightingale’s influence on her melancholic feelings. Sonnets VII and LV, which show the
departure and return of the nightingale, further this idea. Charlotte’s use of the nightingale is thus
a much more personal affair than writers such as Keats, as she sees it as both intrinsically linked
to melancholia and her own life.
This argument is furthered in the essay of Jessica Hall, “Escapism, Oblivion, and Process in the
Poetry of Charlotte Smith and John Keats”, she explains how “the distinction is the result of the
most important difference between the poems: the character of the two nightingales. Smith’s is
“melancholy”, full of “sweet sorrow”, its song a “mournful melody”, while Keats’s is a “light-
winged Dryad” secure in its “happy lot”.
The initial lines of the sonnet LV “The Return of the Nightingale” record how the poet’s past
was associated with the nightingale’s joy and freedom but a transition is witnessed in her
sonnet from the thirteenth line of the sonnet marks the transition from the past to the present,
and introduces the speaker’s current situation and condition: “
the adverb “now” and the exclamation mark indicate a
change of time and mood, from the past to the present, and from the passionate to the bitter. The
dash creates a pause and a contrast, emphasizing the difference between the speaker’s past and
present feelings. The noun “evils” and the verb “combine” convey the speaker’s misfortunes and
troubles, which are multiple and overwhelming. The noun “lot” suggests that the speaker’s fate is
determined by chance or destiny, implying her helplessness and resignation. The fourteenth line
describes the speaker’s attitude and reaction to the nightingale’s song in the present: “As shut my
languid sense, to Hope’s dear voice and thine “shut” and “languid” convey the speaker’s closure
and weakness, as well as her indifference and apathy. The noun “sense” refers to the speaker’s
perception and feeling, but also to her reason and judgment, implying that the speaker is
detached and disillusioned. The noun “Hope” and the adjective “dear” convey the speaker’s loss
and regret, as well as her irony and sarcasm. “Thine” refers to the nightingale’s song, but also to
the speaker’s companion or lover, implying that the speaker has lost both the nightingale and the
lover and that their songs are no longer meaningful or comforting for her. The sonnet ends with a
rhetorical question, asking the nightingale why it returns to torture the speaker with its song:
“Why, why return’st thou to this cheerless coast, to torture me with transports once my own?” the
repetition of “why” and the apostrophe “thou” convey the speaker’s frustration and anger, as well
as her curiosity and confusion.
Smith’s sonnet 55 is melancholic because it shows how the speaker is overwhelmed by her
sorrow and unable to enjoy the nightingale’s song, which used to fill her with joy and hope. The
sonnet contrasts the speaker’s past and present feelings and the nightingale’s joy and freedom
with the speaker’s despair and imprisonment. The sonnet also reflects Smith’s personal and
poetic voice, and her connection with nature and melancholia, two themes that pervade her
poetry. Smith’s “The Return of the Nightingale” is not a break from her melancholic sonnets, but
rather a continuation of her theme of sorrow and loss. The sonnet shows how Smith uses the
sonnet form and the nightingale motif to express her personal and poetic voice and to engage
with the natural and social world. The sonnet illustrates Smith’s skill in using the sonnet form
and the nightingale motif to express her emotions, contrast her situation with the natural world,
and comment on the social and environmental issues of her time.