Anna Seward

Anna Seward (December 12, 1747 – March 25, 1809) was an English poet, often called the Swan of Lichfield.

Life

Seward was the elder daughter of Thomas Seward (1708-1790), prebendary of Lichfield and Salisbury, and author. Born at Eyam in Derbyshire, she passed nearly all her life in Lichfield, beginning at an early age to write poetry partly at the instigation of Erasmus Darwin. Author of "Poems on Subjects Chiefly Devotional" (1760), her verses include elegies and sonnets, and she also wrote a poetical novel, "Louisa", of which five editions were published. Seward's writings, which include a large number of letters, have been called "commonplace". Horace Walpole said she had "no imagination, no novelty." She was praised, however, by Mary Scott in "The Female Advocate" (1774). [Anon.] (1911)]

Between 1775 and 1781, Seward was a guest and participant at the, much mocked, salon held by Anna Miller at Batheaston. However, it was here that Seward's talent was recognised and her work published in the annual volume of poems from the gatherings, a debt that Seward acknowledged in her "Poem to the Memory of Lady Miller" (1782).Bowerbank (2004)]

Sir Walter Scott edited Seward's "Poetical Works" in three volumes (Edinburgh, 1810). To these he prefixed a memoir of the author, adding extracts from her literary correspondence. He declined, however, to edit the bulk of her letters, and these were published in six volumes by A. Constable as "Letters of Anna Seward 1784-1807" (Edinburgh, 1811). Seward also wrote "Memoirs of the Life of Dr Darwin" (1804).

In an era when women had to tread carefully in society's orbit, Seward struck a middle ground. In her work, Seward could be alternately arch and teasing, as in her poem entitled "Portrait of Miss Levett", on the subject of a Lichfield beauty later married to Rev. Richard Levett. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=KEE1AAAAMAAJ&pg=PR5&lpg=PR5&dq=%22anna+seward%22+levett&source=web&ots=1AKsQAr0ni&sig=yLu-uqZ7OoaN_LhSaCFr1CV2B_w&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=5&ct=result#PPA13,M1 The Poetical Works of Anna Seward, Anna Seward, Walter Scott, Vol. I, James Ballantyne & Co., London, 1810] ]

A longtime friend of the Levett family of Lichfield, Seward noted in her "Memoirs of the Life of Dr. Darwin" that three of the town's foremost citizens had been thrown from their carriages and had injured their knees in the same year. "No such misfortune," Seward wrote, "was previously remembered in that city, nor has it recurred through all the years which since elapsed." [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=2fQ0AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA44&lpg=PA44&dq=%22anna+seward%22+darwin+levett&source=web&ots=XO5B6iA4PQ&sig=H9KVYKUodhT5jxSKJQkdLUxVLU0&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result Memoirs of Dr. Darwin, Anna Seward, W.M. Poyntell, Philadelphia, 1804] ] [The three victims of the unfortunate carriage accidents were Dr. Erasmus Darwin, Lichfield town clerk Theophilus Levett and Anna Seward herself.]

There is a plaque to Anna, misspelled "Anne", Seward in Lichfield Cathedral.Fact|date=February 2008

References

Bibliography

*1911----
* [Anon.] (1911) " [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Anna_Seward Anna Seward] ", "Encyclopaedia Britannica"
* cite book | author=Ashmun, M. | title=The Singing Swan: An Account of Anna Seward and her Acquaintance with Dr Johnson, Boswell and Others of Their Time | location=New Haven | publisher=Yale University Press | year=1931
*Bowerbank, S. (2004) " [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/25135 Seward, Anna (1742–1809)] ", "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography", Oxford University Press, accessed 5 February 2008 ODNBsub
* cite journal | author=Clifford, J. L. | title=The authenticity of Anna Seward's published correspondence | journal=Modern Philology | volume=39 | year=1941–2
*Constable, A. (ed.) (1811) "Letters of Anna Seward: Written Between the Years 1784 and 1807", 6 vols
* cite web | url=http://www.search.revolutionaryplayers.org.uk/engine/resource/default.asp?txtKeywords=seward&lstContext=&lstResourceType=&lstExhibitionType=&chkPurchaseVisible=&txtDateFrom=&txtDateTo=&originator=%2Fengine%2Fsearch%2Fdefault%5Fhndlr%2Easp&page=&records=&direction=&pointer=9&text=0&resource=4 | title=A Portrait of Anna Seward | work=Revolutionary Players | publisher=Museums, Libraries and Archives - West Midlands | author=Dick, M. | accessdate=2008-02-05
* cite journal | author=Heiland, D. | title=Swan songs: the correspondence of Anna Seward and James Boswell | journal=Modern Philology | volume=90 | year=1992–3 | pages=381–91 | doi=10.1086/392085
* cite book | authorlink=E. V. Lucas | author=Lucas, E. V. | title=A Swan and her Friends | year=1907 | publisher=Methuen | location=London
* cite book | author=Martin, S. | title=Anna Seward and Classic Lichfield | year=1909
*Pearson, H. (ed.) (1936) "The Swan of Lichfield. Being a Selection from the Correspondence of Anna Seward"
* cite journal | author=Roberts, M. | title=Anna Seward - ‘The Queen Muse of Britain’ | journal=The Female Spectator, Chawton House Library | volume=9(2), Winter | year=2005 | pages=1–4
* cite book | author=Schofield, R. E. | title=The Lunar Society, A Social History of Provincial Science and Industry in Eighteenth Century England | location=Oxford | publisher=Clarendon Press | year=1963
* cite book | author=Scott, W. (ed.) | authorlink=Walter Scott | title=The Poetical Works of Anna Seward with Extracts from her Letter and Literary Correspondence | location=Edinburgh | publisher=James Ballantyne | year=1810

External links

*worldcat id|lccn-n50-1402
*NRA|P25766