Biography by Alix North
Anna Seward
1747-1809
Anna Seward was a poet and a prolific correspondent of the late eighteenth century. She was the daughter of Thomas Seward, the canon of Lichfield, and Elizabeth Hunter. Elizabeth died and left Thomas a widower–an event that left Anna without a mother but with the freedom not to marry. As the eldest daughter, it was her responsibility to care for her father, and so she stayed at Lichfield and tended to him through senility. When he died, she was in her forties, and no longer under any social obligation to marry. As she was quite outspoken in her opinions of marriage (openly criticizing popular guidebooks for women that purported any marriage as preferable to none) the inability to marry young does not seem to have been a problem for her.
Anna was well-educated, known for her lively, generous nature and her unconventional ideas. She was educated at home, and read French, Italian, and Latin. Lichfield was one of the major provincial literary centers of the 18th century, and hers was a literary household. She began writing poetry young, publishing in periodicals and circulating her poems among friends.
Her style of verse was more conventional than her ideas, tending toward the enthusiastic and sentimental. She wrote many poems commemorating events and celebrating special places, and she is best known for these, as well as for her elegies. But another important topic to her was love, passionately expressed but always cast as friendship, and often directed toward Honora Sneyd.
Honora Sneyd came to live with the Sewards in her childhood. She was nine years younger than Anna, and the two shared a household for thirteen years. Anna and Honora formed a close attachment; when Honora’s father had her return to his household when she was nineteen, Anna was stricken, though relieved that Honora did not move far away and they could still spend time together. Two years after Honora left the household, however, she married Robert Edgeworth. Anna was heartbroken. Judging from the poems she wrote at this time, she was consumed with anger and sorrow, feeling betrayed by Honora, who did not listen to Anna’s attempts to talk her out of marriage. Anna went into mourning during this time. When Honora died of consumption seven years later, Anna was inconsolable. Even thirty years later, she was writing of how she wept for the sight of her dear Honora.
The poems Anna wrote about Honora were not censored or disparaged by Anna’s admirers, as romantic friendship was well-accepted at that time. But whether Anna’s affection for Honora indicated intense friendship or lesbian passion is unclear. While Anna continued to mourn Honora the rest of her life, she also formed affectionate attachments with other women. She wrote exuberant poems about Penelope Weston, Miss Mompesson, Miss Fern, and Elizabeth Cornwallis (whom Anna named Clarissa). Anna’s relationship with Elizabeth was something she undertook in the face of difficultly, as Elizabeth’s father did not condone female friendships, forcing them to meet and correspond in secret. For a woman she referred to as the “unpartaken and secret treasure of my soul,” this difficulty was something Anna could overcome.
Toward the end of the eighteenth century, Anna befriended the Ladies of Llangollen, Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, two women famous for eloping together and setting up their household in in Wales. Anna wrote Llangollen Vale in their honor. She often wrote to them of how she admired them, and when she found a portrait of a woman who resembled the late Honora, she sent it to her two friends so that they could enshrine the painting in their home.
Anna’s correspondence made her just as well-known as her poetry. She had a large circle of literary correspondents, a circle she widened on each of her forays outside of Lichfield. Her letters show a less conventional side than appears in her poetry, revealing her direct nature and somewhat feminist stance. After her death (and at her request) her letters were published in six volumes.
During her lifetime Anna was both admired and criticized. One of her admirers named Anna the “Swan of Lichfield,” and Erasmus Darwin called her “the inventress of epic elegy.” She bequeathed her writing to Sir Walter Scott, and after her death he published a three-volume book on her poetry.
Anna Seward
1747-1809
Anna Seward was a poet and a prolific correspondent of the late eighteenth century. She was the daughter of Thomas Seward, the canon of Lichfield, and Elizabeth Hunter. Elizabeth died and left Thomas a widower–an event that left Anna without a mother but with the freedom not to marry. As the eldest daughter, it was her responsibility to care for her father, and so she stayed at Lichfield and tended to him through senility. When he died, she was in her forties, and no longer under any social obligation to marry. As she was quite outspoken in her opinions of marriage (openly criticizing popular guidebooks for women that purported any marriage as preferable to none) the inability to marry young does not seem to have been a problem for her.
Anna was well-educated, known for her lively, generous nature and her unconventional ideas. She was educated at home, and read French, Italian, and Latin. Lichfield was one of the major provincial literary centers of the 18th century, and hers was a literary household. She began writing poetry young, publishing in periodicals and circulating her poems among friends.
Her style of verse was more conventional than her ideas, tending toward the enthusiastic and sentimental. She wrote many poems commemorating events and celebrating special places, and she is best known for these, as well as for her elegies. But another important topic to her was love, passionately expressed but always cast as friendship, and often directed toward Honora Sneyd.
Honora Sneyd came to live with the Sewards in her childhood. She was nine years younger than Anna, and the two shared a household for thirteen years. Anna and Honora formed a close attachment; when Honora’s father had her return to his household when she was nineteen, Anna was stricken, though relieved that Honora did not move far away and they could still spend time together. Two years after Honora left the household, however, she married Robert Edgeworth. Anna was heartbroken. Judging from the poems she wrote at this time, she was consumed with anger and sorrow, feeling betrayed by Honora, who did not listen to Anna’s attempts to talk her out of marriage. Anna went into mourning during this time. When Honora died of consumption seven years later, Anna was inconsolable. Even thirty years later, she was writing of how she wept for the sight of her dear Honora.
The poems Anna wrote about Honora were not censored or disparaged by Anna’s admirers, as romantic friendship was well-accepted at that time. But whether Anna’s affection for Honora indicated intense friendship or lesbian passion is unclear. While Anna continued to mourn Honora the rest of her life, she also formed affectionate attachments with other women. She wrote exuberant poems about Penelope Weston, Miss Mompesson, Miss Fern, and Elizabeth Cornwallis (whom Anna named Clarissa). Anna’s relationship with Elizabeth was something she undertook in the face of difficultly, as Elizabeth’s father did not condone female friendships, forcing them to meet and correspond in secret. For a woman she referred to as the “unpartaken and secret treasure of my soul,” this difficulty was something Anna could overcome.
Toward the end of the eighteenth century, Anna befriended the Ladies of Llangollen, Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, two women famous for eloping together and setting up their household in in Wales. Anna wrote Llangollen Vale in their honor. She often wrote to them of how she admired them, and when she found a portrait of a woman who resembled the late Honora, she sent it to her two friends so that they could enshrine the painting in their home.
Anna’s correspondence made her just as well-known as her poetry. She had a large circle of literary correspondents, a circle she widened on each of her forays outside of Lichfield. Her letters show a less conventional side than appears in her poetry, revealing her direct nature and somewhat feminist stance. After her death (and at her request) her letters were published in six volumes.
During her lifetime Anna was both admired and criticized. One of her admirers named Anna the “Swan of Lichfield,” and Erasmus Darwin called her “the inventress of epic elegy.” She bequeathed her writing to Sir Walter Scott, and after her death he published a three-volume book on her poetry.
