RICHARDSON (Charlotte).
Poems written on Different Occasions.
PUBLISHED BY SUBSCRIPTION TO RAISE MONEY FOR THE TROUBLED AUTHOR
A second edition was published in the same year alongside an edition published in Philadelphia.
A moving collection of poems by a tragic “uneducated” female author who early in life lost her mother and her beloved disabled brother whilst receiving a scant education and being employed in service. In addition she later suffered the death of her own husband and young child. The poems are here edited by the educational reformer Charlotte Cappe (whose brother had attended to Richardson’s family) and are prefaced by an account of the author’s own challenging life.
“Richardson belongs to the group of Romantic poets to whom Southey applied the term ‘uneducated’. They were valued by critics for their ingenuous spontaneity and by reformers for their uncomplaining struggle against social disadvantages. Richardson’s verses were competent and sincere. Along with poems about domestic life and about the comforts of religion she offers thoughts on current topics such as the slave trade and the fears of French invasion, and she responds with discernment to the writings of Thomas Clarkson and Walter Scott.” (ODNB)
