Thank you. This poem has set my mind (and heart) spinning. Why, indeed, has Happiness no second spring? I've never heard it put like that! Thank you again.
It's my pleasure! Thank you for listening. I love the closing line too. In my mind I contrast it with Eloisa from Pope's 'Eloisa to Abelard' who insists on believing in "Fresh blooming hope" (l.299). Smith alludes to 'Eloisa to Abelard' in the sonnet that opens her Elegiac Sonnets volume ('Written at the Close of Spring' is the second poem).
I love these close readings! I only recently discovered your channel - I'm learning so much. I had not realised there are so many different types of sonnet - thank you for the explanation.
You are very welcome. The sonnet form is one that has evolved over time to suit changing times. There's the Miltonic sonnet, for instance, which focusses on political and moral issues. And I'm very pleased that you have discovered my channel - thanks for watching!
I love listening to your analysis of poetry. I find it accurate, academic yet easy to follow. It helps me to love old English poetry, which is so different from my native Russian poetry and yet so familiar because of its rhymes. I am not at ease with modern unrhymed English or American poetry.
Your kind comment makes me very happy! That's exactly what I strive to be - accurate and academic, yet easy to follow and understand. Thank you very much indeed for listening to my analysis.
Fascinating lecture.🙏🏻🙏🏻 Tyranny and corrosive nature of human civilisation has caused us great harm. If I these thoughts may not prevent, If such be of my creed the plan, Have I not reason to lament What man has made of man? (Wm. Wordsworth) 😭
Have I not reason to lament What man has made of man ! ( Wordsworth, Lines Written in Early Spring, from the Lyrical Ballads ) Great quotation. Smith was a great influence on Wordsworth's work. The generic playfulness of Elegiac Sonnets (so, a mixture of two distinct poetic genres - the elegy & the sonnet), for example, is evident in Wordsworth's similar generic playfulness in the title of the Lyrical Ballads (a mixture of the lyric & the ballad forms).
Hello Dr Cox, Charlotte Smith was hitherto, unknown to me. I felt that after your lovely reading, she may have been reflecting on her own life. She may have intended, “Ah! my poor existence” instead of, “Ah, poor Humanity”. Perhaps given that interpretation, “Humanity” could signify, that she realises the inescapable loss of hope is a human condition from which, we all may suffer, with age and regret; so therefore, our lives were not so bleak in retrospect: at least we enjoyed one Spring.
Also, I try to see something uplifting in this sonnet. Spring does not come again for you or I, (or Charlotte), but when it does come again, somebody else emboldened with hope, (and probably more importantly, youth) may experience it as she had. At least we are comforted in the knowledge of that. John van der Zanden
Thank you so much! I'm not familiar with Charlotte Smith's work and I found both the poem and your analysis of it very enjoyable and thought-provoking. It surprised me that Charlotte chooses to see the end of spring - rather than the more obvious end of autumn - as fading and dying. It set me thinking about what is lost when spring turns into summer and why that is for her the more appropriate comparison for lost 'Happiness' (does the capital 'H' have some particular significance?). Perhaps the description of visions 'so frail, so fair' is suggesting those qualities of spring which are not carried over into summer? Summer has its own attractions, but as that delicate spring beauty gives way to greater robustness maybe the finer feeling is lost? One further thought: do you think that first love is the Happiness lost?
That's a great question, Sue. "Summer has its own attractions, but as that delicate spring beauty gives way to greater robustness maybe the finer feeling is lost?" - spot on! I think the reason that Smith chooses spring is because the sonnet is about the loss of hope - the "fond visions of thy early day" (l.10), of youthful, tender, "frail", hopefulness. Spring symbolises newness and regeneration and possibility and hope, and the narrative voice has lost faith in the hope of happiness.
P.S. Interesting point about "H/happiness" - in this instance I don't think the capitalisation should be taken as meaning anything very particular as it changes with different publishers (a 1795 edition, for example, has "H", whereas the 1784 2nd edition has "h").
Throughly enjoyed this close reading. What a well constructed sonnet! It is prompting me to read some more of her work. I am familiar with Beachy Head, which I read as an undergraduate and loved, but not her sonnets. Was she the first to overlay the Petrarchan and Shakespearean forms? I recall her being one of the very first Romantics, and wonder to what extent she was an unsung but important pioneer of that movement.
She's a wonderful writer - and yes very technically adept. Yes, she was a very important influence on the Romantics - especially William Wordsworth. Even in the title of 'Lyrical Ballads', with its mixing of two separate genres, we can see his debt to 'Elegiac Sonnets'. In a 1833 note, Wordsworth described Smith as "a lady to whom English verse is under greater obligations than are likely to be either acknowledged or remembered". And the mixing of & playing with Petrarchan and Shakespearean sonnet forms, which became so fundamental to the Romantic sonnet, is one of the ways that English literature is obliged to her.
Your analysis of Smith’s poem here is very interpretive & accurate, it made me think more deeply about her sonnets & form, so understandable now, 😊 thank u so much. How does Smith’s work complicate the Romantic zeitgeist & its dominant themes? Love to hear u opinion??
I'm not sure if I understand that right, but does the line "Bid all thy fairy colours fade away" refers to humanity or nature? You say those "fairy colours" allude to the flowers mentioned in the octet, but isn't the lyric thou addressed with "thy"? And since the lyric thou is humanity itself, aren't the "fairy colours" referred to humanity? I'm confused
Many thanks for your question. I think the line can be allusively applied to both humanity (in the sestet) and the flowers (described in the octet). I interpret the line “Bid all thy fairy colours fade away!” (l.12) as initially referring to humanity’s “frail” and “fair” “fond visions of thy early day” (ll.9-10) [i.e. the fond visions of youth, when one is in the spring of life], and secondarily alluding to the spring flowers of the octet. The sadness of the poem, I think, comes from the narrative voice’s realisation that the hopes of youth leave one (that the “fairy colours fade away”), and that, unlike in spring where the “fairy colours” will return again next year (“Another May new buds and flowers shall bring” (l.13)), they don’t come back again for humans in the same way, as a human’s “fond visions” of youth have “no second spring” (l.14). I hope this makes sense?
As a liver of wild flowers I found her references to spring flowers interesting. I notice that she speaks of the Harebell...a summer flower, so maybe here she's referring to the English bluebell, hyacinthoides non scripts. Also the purple Orchid, maybe the Early Purple Orchid, Orchis macular? Flowering on calcareous grasslands in April and May. Beautiful images are conjured for me
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Such a (surprisingly?) intricate poem. What do you make of Smith’s sonnet?
Thank you. This poem has set my mind (and heart) spinning. Why, indeed, has Happiness no second spring? I've never heard it put like that! Thank you again.
It's my pleasure! Thank you for listening. I love the closing line too. In my mind I contrast it with Eloisa from Pope's 'Eloisa to Abelard' who insists on believing in "Fresh blooming hope" (l.299). Smith alludes to 'Eloisa to Abelard' in the sonnet that opens her Elegiac Sonnets volume ('Written at the Close of Spring' is the second poem).
I'm doing English A-level. My teacher recommended watching this. Thank you for such a clear analysis of the sonnet form(s). Very helpful thank you.
I'm so pleased you found the analysis clear and useful. Good luck with your A-level!
Such a clear, detailed analysis of how the poet uses the sonnet form. Really helpful and fascinating.
I'm really glad it was helpful. Smith plays with the two forms so neatly in the poem!
This is excellent! Thank you for your hard work in producing such insightful analysis.
I had never heard of Charlotte Smith, so it was very nice to be introduced to a new poet and read their work closely. Thank you.
It is my pleasure, Katrina. Close reading is so rewarding! - you can find so much within a text that one might easily overlook on a first reading.
I love these close readings! I only recently discovered your channel - I'm learning so much. I had not realised there are so many different types of sonnet - thank you for the explanation.
You are very welcome. The sonnet form is one that has evolved over time to suit changing times. There's the Miltonic sonnet, for instance, which focusses on political and moral issues. And I'm very pleased that you have discovered my channel - thanks for watching!
I love listening to your analysis of poetry. I find it accurate, academic yet easy to follow. It helps me to love old English poetry, which is so different from my native Russian poetry and yet so familiar because of its rhymes. I am not at ease with modern unrhymed English or American poetry.
Your kind comment makes me very happy! That's exactly what I strive to be - accurate and academic, yet easy to follow and understand. Thank you very much indeed for listening to my analysis.
Fascinating lecture.🙏🏻🙏🏻 Tyranny and corrosive nature of human civilisation has caused us great harm.
If I these thoughts may not prevent,
If such be of my creed the plan,
Have I not reason to lament
What man has made of man? (Wm. Wordsworth) 😭
Have I not reason to lament
What man has made of man !
( Wordsworth, Lines Written in Early Spring, from the Lyrical Ballads )
Great quotation.
Smith was a great influence on Wordsworth's work. The generic playfulness of Elegiac Sonnets (so, a mixture of two distinct poetic genres - the elegy & the sonnet), for example, is evident in Wordsworth's similar generic playfulness in the title of the Lyrical Ballads (a mixture of the lyric & the ballad forms).
@@DrOctaviaCox 🙏🏻🙏🏻 You are my guru. I respect you and your works. 🙏🏻🙏🏻 So much to learn from you.🙏🏻🙏🏻
Thank you, Alastor.
Hello Dr Cox,
Charlotte Smith was hitherto, unknown to me. I felt that after your lovely reading, she may have been reflecting on her own life. She may have intended, “Ah! my poor existence” instead of, “Ah, poor Humanity”. Perhaps given that interpretation, “Humanity” could signify, that she realises the inescapable loss of hope is a human condition from which, we all may suffer, with age and regret; so therefore, our lives were not so bleak in retrospect: at least we enjoyed one Spring.
Also, I try to see something uplifting in this sonnet. Spring does not come again for you or I, (or Charlotte), but when it does come again, somebody else emboldened with hope, (and probably more importantly, youth) may experience it as she had. At least we are comforted in the knowledge of that.
John van der Zanden
Wow I never understood a poem so nicely,I was always confused with the rhyming schemes but now I got some idea Thanks a lot
It's my pleasure. Glad the rhyme scheme is clearer for you now.
Thank you, Professor! This helped me a lot!
Thank you - really interesting but also very clear.
Excellent. Just the combination I hope for!
Thank you so much! I'm not familiar with Charlotte Smith's work and I found both the poem and your analysis of it very enjoyable and thought-provoking. It surprised me that Charlotte chooses to see the end of spring - rather than the more obvious end of autumn - as fading and dying. It set me thinking about what is lost when spring turns into summer and why that is for her the more appropriate comparison for lost 'Happiness' (does the capital 'H' have some particular significance?). Perhaps the description of visions 'so frail, so fair' is suggesting those qualities of spring which are not carried over into summer? Summer has its own attractions, but as that delicate spring beauty gives way to greater robustness maybe the finer feeling is lost? One further thought: do you think that first love is the Happiness lost?
That's a great question, Sue. "Summer has its own attractions, but as that delicate spring beauty gives way to greater robustness maybe the finer feeling is lost?" - spot on! I think the reason that Smith chooses spring is because the sonnet is about the loss of hope - the "fond visions of thy early day" (l.10), of youthful, tender, "frail", hopefulness. Spring symbolises newness and regeneration and possibility and hope, and the narrative voice has lost faith in the hope of happiness.
P.S. Interesting point about "H/happiness" - in this instance I don't think the capitalisation should be taken as meaning anything very particular as it changes with different publishers (a 1795 edition, for example, has "H", whereas the 1784 2nd edition has "h").
@@DrOctaviaCox Many thanks for your comments - much appreciated!
Throughly enjoyed this close reading. What a well constructed sonnet! It is prompting me to read some more of her work. I am familiar with Beachy Head, which I read as an undergraduate and loved, but not her sonnets. Was she the first to overlay the Petrarchan and Shakespearean forms? I recall her being one of the very first Romantics, and wonder to what extent she was an unsung but important pioneer of that movement.
She's a wonderful writer - and yes very technically adept. Yes, she was a very important influence on the Romantics - especially William Wordsworth. Even in the title of 'Lyrical Ballads', with its mixing of two separate genres, we can see his debt to 'Elegiac Sonnets'. In a 1833 note, Wordsworth described Smith as "a lady to whom English verse is under greater obligations than are likely to be either acknowledged or remembered". And the mixing of & playing with Petrarchan and Shakespearean sonnet forms, which became so fundamental to the Romantic sonnet, is one of the ways that English literature is obliged to her.
Since you mentioned, it would be nice to run through 'When my love swears that she is made of truth'. It's an insight into how marriages work.
Thank you from India 🙏
Your analysis of Smith’s poem here is very interpretive & accurate, it made me think more deeply about her sonnets & form, so understandable now, 😊 thank u so much. How does Smith’s work complicate the Romantic zeitgeist & its dominant themes? Love to hear u opinion??
I'm not sure if I understand that right, but does the line "Bid all thy fairy colours fade away" refers to humanity or nature? You say those "fairy colours" allude to the flowers mentioned in the octet, but isn't the lyric thou addressed with "thy"? And since the lyric thou is humanity itself, aren't the "fairy colours" referred to humanity? I'm confused
Many thanks for your question. I think the line can be allusively applied to both humanity (in the sestet) and the flowers (described in the octet). I interpret the line “Bid all thy fairy colours fade away!” (l.12) as initially referring to humanity’s “frail” and “fair” “fond visions of thy early day” (ll.9-10) [i.e. the fond visions of youth, when one is in the spring of life], and secondarily alluding to the spring flowers of the octet. The sadness of the poem, I think, comes from the narrative voice’s realisation that the hopes of youth leave one (that the “fairy colours fade away”), and that, unlike in spring where the “fairy colours” will return again next year (“Another May new buds and flowers shall bring” (l.13)), they don’t come back again for humans in the same way, as a human’s “fond visions” of youth have “no second spring” (l.14). I hope this makes sense?
As a liver of wild flowers I found her references to spring flowers interesting. I notice that she speaks of the Harebell...a summer flower, so maybe here she's referring to the English bluebell, hyacinthoides non scripts. Also the purple Orchid, maybe the Early Purple Orchid, Orchis macular? Flowering on calcareous grasslands in April and May. Beautiful images are conjured for me
Lover not liver!