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Anna Seward died some 200 years ago on March the 25th 1809. During her lifetime, which she spent almost totally in Lichfield, she mixed with the greats - Josiah Wedgwood, Erasmus Darwin and members of the s-called 'Lunar Society'.�� Her poetry was hugely famous at the time.

But…it is interesting to note that, for such an established poet of her time, I had not heard of her until this moment!���� And I have not lived far from Lichfield for my whole life, have relatives who live there, and I study English Literature.

Has she been ignored?��

Some feminist literary historians say that we forget how many women used to write, even centuries.�� My favourite writers of the moment are both female novelists - Jodie Picoult and Stephanie Meyer - but female writers are far more high-profile now than they were 250 years ago.
It seems that women’s writing isn’t just the likes of the Bronte sisters and Jane Austen; they weren’t the only ones of their kind.

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Anna Seward was the daughter of the Canon of Lichfield & Salisbury, Thomas Seward, an author himself.
She spent her whole life living in the Lichfield area; and started writing poetry at a young age, going on to write a collection of sonnets and letters among others.
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She was encouraged into writing by that other famous literary figure from Lichfield, the famous English physician & philosopher, Erasmus Darwin.�� She later went on to write a biography of him - ‘The Memoires of Dr Darwin’ - after his death.

She must have been quite a brain!�� After all, Erasmus Darwin was one of the most brilliant men of his time, and it’s known that she also associated with the members of the ‘Lunar Society’ an�� intellectual group which included Josiah Wedgwood.

Poetry

The story of Anna’s life intrigued me so much I did some research to enable me to read through some more of her poems.

Her most famous work was ‘Elegy on Captain Cook’ from 1780, which earned her the name of ‘Swan of Lichfield’.
The elegy told the story of the famous explorer and his men, who resided in Hawaii for two months. After trying to leave the island they were forced to return back following bad weather, where Cook and his men were met with hostility, which turned ugly, and resulted in the death of Cook.

Seward paints the captain as a hero of the time with eloquence. A contemporary reviewer of the time hailed her saying “she has raised a trophy worthy of one of the greatest men this or any age or nation has produced”.

I must admit that the first time I read her two main pieces, the Captain Cook piece and another piece called ‘Monody on the Unfortunate Major’, I found them quite flowery and dull.
However in the Cook elegy I did find that even though the story was unfamiliar to me (which it wouldn’t have been 250 years ago) I felt I was able to grasp its essence. Captain Cook is presented with immaculate imagery, giving a heroic portrayal of him, and making him still the legend he is today!

As for ‘Monody on the Unfortunate Major André’, this was published in 1781 and was another success.��
It actually caused a bit of a storm, because the said André, an early suitor to Honora Sneyd (Anna’s close companion), was executed as a spy in the American War.
The poem attacked the American rebels, referring to “remorseful Washington”, and eventually caused the US president to send a defensive message to Seward.
On a second look, I was surprised with how sensory the poem was. Seward managed to paint an image so vivid you almost felt you could smell see and touch the … “groans of anguish mid the screams of war”.

Woman writer

Seward appears to me not to have been overly innovative in her poetry, but she did believe that women could achieve just as much as men (which she proved by becoming a renowned poet in her own time, so much that Sir Walter Scott edited her works after her death).

However she did seem to have caused minor controversy about having never married, which was uncommon at the time. She chose instead to focus on her work and look after her ailing father.
It has been in the past suggested that she may have had homosexual tendencies. She appears on specific lesbian author sites on the internet such as sappho.com, and had very close relationships with a number of women; and even befriended the famous ‘Ladies of Llangollen’.
For more on this aspect of Anna, see the links on the right-hand side of this page.

Home in Lichfield

Seward is acknowledged in her home town - with a plaque honouring her in Lichfield Cathedral, but she appears not to be widely known outside the town.

However I noticed some of her works are now starting to appear in romantic anthologies.

Hopefully she will get the recognition she deserves, but in the meantime I have to say I find modern authors less wordy – and I will be sticking to my Jodie Picoult novels!