Elegiac Sonnets and Other Poems

Charlotte Turner Smith (1749 - 1806)

Charlotte Turner Smith (1749 – 1806) was an English poet and novelist. She initiated a revival of the English sonnet, helped establish the conventions of Gothic fiction, and wrote political novels of sensibility.

It was in 1784, in debtor's prison with her husband Benjamin, that she wrote and published her first work, Elegiac Sonnets. The work achieved instant success, allowing Charlotte to pay for their release from prison. Smith's sonnets helped initiate a revival of the form and granted an aura of respectability to her later novels.

Stuart Curran, the editor of Smith's poems, has written that Smith is "the first poet in England whom in retrospect we would call Romantic". She helped shape the "patterns of thought and conventions of style" for the period. Romantic poet William Wordsworth was the most affected by her works. He said of Smith in the 1830s that she was "a lady to whom English verse is under greater obligations than are likely to be either acknowledged or remembered". By the second half of the nineteenth century, however, Smith was largely forgotten.

Genre(s): Poetry

Language: English

Section Chapter Reader Time
Play 01 Sonnet I David Barnes
00:01:15
Play 02 Sonnet II. Written at the close of Spring Cori Samuel
00:01:10
Play 03 Sonnet III. To a Nightingale David Barnes
00:01:19
Play 04 Sonnet IV. To the Moon Cori Samuel
00:01:14
Play 05 Sonnet V. To the South Downs David Barnes
00:01:19
Play 06 Sonnet VI. To Hope Cori Samuel
00:01:15
Play 07 Sonnet VII. On the Departure of the Nightingale David Barnes
00:01:19
Play 08 Sonnet VIII. To Spring Cori Samuel
00:01:07
Play 09 Sonnet IX. David Barnes
00:01:13
Play 10 Sonnet X. To Mrs. G. Cori Samuel
00:01:09
Play 11 Sonnet XI. To Sleep David Barnes
00:01:20
Play 12 Sonnet XII. Written on the Sea Shore Cori Samuel
00:01:16
Play 13 Sonnet XIII. From Petrarch David Barnes
00:01:06
Play 14 Sonnet XIV. From Petrarch Cori Samuel
00:01:13
Play 15 Sonnet XV. From Petrarch David Barnes
00:01:18
Play 16 Sonnet XVI. From Petrarch Cori Samuel
00:01:12
Play 17 Sonnet XVII. From the 13th Cantata of Metastasio David Barnes
00:01:20
Play 18 Sonnet XVIII. To the Earl of Egremont Cori Samuel
00:01:09
Play 19 Sonnet XIX. To Mr. Hayley David Barnes
00:01:22
Play 20 Sonnet XX. To the Countess of A---- Cori Samuel
00:01:17
Play 21 Sonnet XXI. Supposed to be written by Werter David Barnes
00:01:17
Play 22 Sonnet XXII. By the same Cori Samuel
00:01:16
Play 23 Sonnet XXIII. By the same David Barnes
00:01:23
Play 24 Sonnet XXIV. By the same Cori Samuel
00:01:22
Play 25 Sonnet XXV. By the same David Barnes
00:01:27
Play 26 Sonnet XXVI. To the River Arun Cori Samuel
00:01:12
Play 27 Sonnet XXVII. David Barnes
00:01:19
Play 28 Sonnet XXVIII. To Friendship Cori Samuel
00:01:15
Play 29 Sonnet XXIX. To Miss C---- David Barnes
00:01:20
Play 30 Sonnet XXX. To the River Arun Cori Samuel
00:01:11
Play 31 Sonnet XXXI. Written on Farm Wood, on the South Downs, May 1784 David Barnes
00:01:25
Play 32 Sonnet XXXII. To Melancholy. Written on the Banks of the Arun Cori Samuel
00:01:25
Play 33 Sonnet XXXIII. To the Naiad of the Arun David Barnes
00:01:15
Play 34 Sonnet XXXIV. To a Friend Cori Samuel
00:01:07
Play 35 Sonnet XXXV. To Fortitude David Barnes
00:01:17
Play 36 Sonnet XXXVI. Cori Samuel
00:01:11
Play 37 Sonnet XXXVII. Sent to the Honourable Mrs O'Neill with painted flowers David Barnes
00:01:16
Play 38 Sonnet XXXVIII. From the Novel of Emmeline Cori Samuel
00:01:12
Play 39 Sonnet XXXIX. To Night. From the same David Barnes
00:01:23
Play 40 Sonnet XL. From the same Cori Samuel
00:01:18
Play 41 Sonnet XLI. To Tranquility David Barnes
00:01:19
Play 42 Sonnet XLII. Composed during a walk on the Downs, in November 1787 Cori Samuel
00:01:27
Play 43 Sonnet XLIII. David Barnes
00:01:21
Play 44 Sonnet XLIV. Written in the Church-yard at Middleton in Sussex Cori Samuel
00:01:14
Play 45 Sonnet XLV. On leaving a part of Sussex David Barnes
00:01:20
Play 46 Sonnet XLVI. Written at Penshurst, in Autumn 1788 Cori Samuel
00:01:18
Play 47 Sonnet XLVII. To Fancy David Barnes
00:01:19
Play 48 Sonnet XLVIII. To Mrs. **** Cori Samuel
00:01:09
Play 49 Sonnet XLIX. From the Novel of Celestina David Barnes
00:01:29
Play 50 Sonnet L. From the same Cori Samuel
00:01:16
Play 51 Sonnet LI. From the same David Barnes
00:01:27
Play 52 Sonnet LII. From the same Cori Samuel
00:01:23
Play 53 Sonnet LIII. From the same David Barnes
00:01:25
Play 54 Sonnet LIV. The Sleeping Woodman Cori Samuel
00:01:18
Play 55 Sonnet LV. The Return of the Nightingale David Barnes
00:01:18
Play 56 Sonnet LVI. The Captive escaped in the Wilds of America Cori Samuel
00:01:21
Play 57 Sonnet LVII. To Dependence David Barnes
00:01:13
Play 58 Sonnet LVIII. The Glow-worm Cori Samuel
00:01:20
Play 59 Sonnet LIX. Written Sept. 1791, during a remarkable Thunder Storm David Barnes
00:01:26
Play 60 Ode to Despair. From the Novel of Emmeline Cori Samuel
00:02:48
Play 61 Elegy David Barnes
00:04:53
Play 62 Song. From the French of Cardinal Bernis Cori Samuel
00:01:41
Play 63 The Origin of Flattery David Barnes
00:08:26
Play 64 The Peasant of the Alps Cori Samuel
00:03:24
Play 65 Song David Barnes
00:01:02
Play 66 Thirty-eight Cori Samuel
00:03:04
Play 67 Verses intended to have been prefixed to the Novel of Emmeline David Barnes
00:02:20
Play 68 Sonnet LX. To an amiable Girl Cori Samuel
00:01:13
Play 69 Sonnet LXI. Supposed to have been written in America David Barnes
00:01:23
Play 70 Sonnet LXII. Written on passing by Moon-light through a village, while the ground was covered with Snow Cori Samuel
00:01:15
Play 71 Sonnet LXIII. The Gossamer David Barnes
00:01:19
Play 72 Sonnet LXIV. Written at Bristol in the Summer of 1794 Cori Samuel
00:01:13
Play 73 Sonnet LXV. To Dr Parry of Bath, with some Botanic Drawings which had been made some years David Barnes
00:01:24
Play 74 Sonnet LXVI. Written in a tempestuous night, on the coast of Sussex Cori Samuel
00:01:15
Play 75 Sonnet LXVII. On passing over a dreary tract of country, and near the ruins of a deserted chapel, during a tempest David Barnes
00:01:27
Play 76 Sonnet LXVIII. Written at Exmouth, Mid-summer 1795 Cori Samuel
00:01:18
Play 77 Sonnet LXIX. Written at the same place, on seeing a Seaman return who had been imprisoned at Rochfort David Barnes
00:01:24
Play 78 Sonnet LXX. On being cautioned against walking on a Headland overlooking the Sea, because it was frequented by a Lunatic Cori Samuel
00:01:17
Play 79 Sonnet LXXI. Written at Weymouth in Winter David Barnes
00:01:27
Play 80 Sonnet LXXII. To the Morning Star. Written near the Sea Cori Samuel
00:01:12
Play 81 Sonnet LXXIII. To a Querulous Acquaintance David Barnes
00:01:20
Play 82 Sonnet LXXIV. The Winter Night Cori Samuel
00:01:14
Play 83 Sonnet LXXV. David Barnes
00:01:18
Play 84 Sonnet LXXVI. To a Young Man entering the world Cori Samuel
00:01:14
Play 85 Sonnet LXXVII. To the Insect of the Gossamer David Barnes
00:01:19
Play 86 Sonnet LXXVIII. Snow-drops Cori Samuel
00:01:14
Play 87 Sonnet LXXIX. To the Goddess of Botany David Barnes
00:01:19
Play 88 Sonnet LXXX. To the Invisible Moon Cori Samuel
00:01:09
Play 89 Sonnet LXXXI. David Barnes
00:01:16
Play 90 Sonnet LXXXII. To the Shade of Burns Cori Samuel
00:01:10
Play 91 Sonnet LXXXIII. The Sea view David Barnes
00:01:21
Play 92 Sonnet LXXXIV. To the Muse Cori Samuel
00:01:19
Play 93 The Dead Beggar David Barnes
00:02:13
Play 94 The Female Exile Cori Samuel
00:03:02
Play 95 Occasional Address. Written for the Benefit of a distressed Player, detained at Brighthelmstone for debt, November 1792 David Barnes
00:05:15
Play 96 Inscription on a Stone in the Church-Yard at Boreham, in Essex Cori Samuel
00:00:59
Play 97 A descriptive Ode David Barnes
00:05:06
Play 98 Verses supposed to have been written in the New Forest, in early Spring Cori Samuel
00:01:38
Play 99 Song. From the French David Barnes
00:01:35
Play 100 Apostrophe to an Old Tree Cori Samuel
00:03:10
Play 101 The Forest Boy David Barnes
00:08:24
Play 102 Ode to the Poppy. Written by a deceased Friend Cori Samuel
00:02:50
Play 103 Verses written by the same Lady on seeing her two Sons at play David Barnes
00:02:05
Play 104 Verses on the Death of the same Lady, written in September 1794 Cori Samuel
00:02:28
Play 105 Fragment, descriptive of the Miseries of War David Barnes
00:03:33
Play 106 April Cori Samuel
00:04:14
Play 107 Ode to Death David Barnes
00:02:12