The Nature of Poetry in Elegiac Sonnets

In Elegiac Sonnets, the nature of perception is shown to determine the quality of the soul.

Charlotte Smith patterns her sonnets with separation: the poet chooses subjects who are

slumbering, insane, non-human; and perceives her subjects from a distance. Their states are

antithetical to the speaker’s, as in The Morning Star, where a sailor, lover, and poet see the star

as utilitarian, romantic, or a symbol of torment, respectively. By compartmentalizing the subjects

of her poems, the poet seeks to analyse their differing states while free from any bias excepting

their own. The inevitable bias the poet adds points to the true focus of her poetry: exploring the

function of the poet while attempting to reconcile the apparently ephemeral quality of her work

with the rest of non-poetic life.

Throughout the sonnets, the speaker repeatedly asserts her endless misery, and despairs

her inability to recapture joy. In Written on Passing by Moon-Light Through a Village, While the

Ground was Covered with Snow, the speaker establishes an opposition between herself and the

slumbering village. The rhyme scheme makes the opposition clear: the poet is “unblest” (1)

while the villagers “rest” (3); She exists in “night” (9) and the villagers live in “light” (11). The

back and forth quality of the sonnet turns it into a comparison between the villagers’ life of

labour and the poet’s role as poet. As labourers, the villagers find thoughtless sleep awaiting

them at the end of their day. The poet’s labour, however, requires alertness to every aspect of

their subject, hence the specific title(s). By writing on the subject of night, the poet necessarily

sacrifices sleep, whether or not their insomnia pre-exists their poetry.