Eighteen Hundred and Eleven A Poem

by Anna Laetitia Barbauld

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Genres: Poetry, School, Grad School, Classics

26 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1812

About the author

Anna Laetitia Barbauld, née Aikin; was a prominent English poet, essayist, literary critic, editor, and children's author.

Reviews

[Amber]

I'm only counting this because of the amount of poems I've read recently - I didn't wanna add them all so just using this one

[Evan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sober alternative to Blake's America: A Prophecy, with references drawn from the British pantheon rather than the Book of Revelations. Like Blake, Barbauld imagines the eclipse of Britain as beacon to the world, but whereas Blake clearly sees a mantle passing to America, for Barbauld it appears not so clear whether America (or anyone else) shall inherit "the Genius" or if the light will simply go out. Blake wrote from a moment in which America had just emerged and the spirit of revolution was on the rise. We should imagine Barbauld more as if she were viewing the Vietnam War around 1972, at a moment of grim exhaustion. Barbauld seems not a pacifist, and indeed includes Lord Nelson in her honor roll. There is no sense that Barbauld finds France, Europe or even America particularly more vibrant in comparison. So in what sense is the beacon flickering out? Perhaps it comes from the gathering malaise of all this war, a war from the vantage of 1812, in which Britain's supremacy is not so clear, having struggled for decades to defeat France, having lost America. Perhaps it is the sense that the great accomplishments of British civilization in science and the arts are in the past and the future holds a chaotic world of conflict and revolution abroad and the dark satanic mills of industrialization at home. Truly, is there any moment in modern times that could not be viewed in terms of Benjamin's Angel of History, our backs to an unknown future as we Starr back at mountains of ruin?

[siya · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
cool.

[E · Rating 4 out of 5]

If the reader thought this annual report of sorts was depressing, wait until they review "Twenty Hundred and Twenty" (looking forward to Wikipedia's attempt to summarize it)