— The Corvey Poets Project at the University of Nebraska —

British Poetry of the later Eighteenth and Earlier Nineteenth Centuries

Bibliographical and Contextual Apparatus

Descriptive Essay

In 1811, Anna Maria Porter published some 191 pages of poetry titled Ballad Romances, and Other Poems. This collection was published in London by Longman and Company. In this volume, Porter presents five somewhat lengthy ballads and a collection of miscellaneous writing that includes various sonnets as well as other poems. This volume received eight reviews in the periodical press.

Anna Maria Porter began writing at the early age of 13 and she was well known throughout her lifetime for her novel writing. Many novels that were written by Anna and her sister, Jane, were translated into other languages including French and Spanish.

Anna Maria Porter's poetry exhibits a simple style and dramatic themes of human experience and suffering. Her ballads seem to reflect a novelistic style of writing in which the writing is full of plot and action rather than subjective emotion and feeling. In her ballad, "Eugene," for instance, we can watch the scene unfold:
          She shudders at each pious phrase.
          And turns her face aside,
          Yet tries, with hurried words of praise
          Her guilty wrath to hide.
          Then mutters sternest curses deep,
          "Die! Babbling infant, die!
          Go; join thy parents' endless sleep,
          Thro' long eternity." (7-8)
This is a dramatic ballad, but Porter's writing is sometimes ambiguous because she does not always indicate clearly who the speakers are and whom the speakers are addressing. In the previous passage, it is unclear in the poem just who "she" is and what this murderous scene is all about. Although Porter's ballads are lengthy, often very wordy, and occasionally confusing, her sonnets and other poems are very interesting and unique.

"The Knight of Malta" is another one of Porter's ballads that is full of drama and plot action. This ballad is about a knight named, Don Carlos, who is greatly admired for skills such as dancing, sports, singing, and most of all, for his bravery as a knight. We soon find out that Don Carlos is involved with a woman named Inis and that there is trouble between the central characters, including Don Carlos and his brother. Don Carlos says of his brother that "scorning our blood, and her bridal troth, / My brother her love had sought" (49). The dramatic buildup involving Don Carlos and Inis continues as the narrator describes this scene:
          That wretched night, at the midnight hour,
          While each pulse with madness beat,
          A loud shriek cam from Inis' bower
          I flew to the dear retreat.

          I saw but my lady's bosom bare;
          I heard but her vengeful cry;
          My sword was deep in a breast as fair
          Ere spoke the upraised eye!

         As Bathed in his blood young Juan fell,
          My guilty senses fled;
          But waking late in St. Leonard's cell,
          I raised an outlaw's head. (50).
In these lines, one can read and interpret the drama and bloodshed that Porter creates throughout her ballads. Many Romantic poets included notes to accompany their poems. Anna Maria Porter did not include any writing or other annotation about the content of her poems and what she would have liked the readers to take away from her pieces. There are, of course, both benefits and disadvantages to not having her thoughts about the storyline of her ballads. Without notes to guide her or him, the reader is left to use his/her imagination about the characters and plot of the story. If Porter had included notes in her published writing, readers might have been able to pull more concrete meaning from her writing and consequently they might have respected her writing more. While her ballads have a fairly straightforward layout of plot and characters, her sonnets and other poems seem to present a different style and mood.

The second half of this volume is called, "Miscellaneous." It seems like this is where Porter simply gathered all of her various efforts in poetry, because there does not seem to be a common, unifying thread among the writing in this section. In her poem, "A War-Song," which was translated to Spanish, she boldly writes,
          Wake, Spaniards, wake! Or Freedom falls!—
          On you, your country's Genius calls;
          Her cries are heard from Madrid's walls,
          Mourning your doom of Slavery.—
          Rouse each bold heart! Nerve each strong arm!
          Let patriot fire your bosoms warm;
          Be War's fierce voice like Music's charm.
          When raised for godlike Liberty! (120).
Porter continues with this bold and uprising mood throughout the poem. In many ways, this piece truly carries the beat of a song and one can hear the thunderous echoes of war and victory. In this poem, one can feel and hear the calling of a nation to rise and defend itself. This is a powerful poem that did not seem to catch the attention of reviewers at the time but it probably could address the general nature of wars of nationalism throughout history.

Porter's writing makes for easier reading than some other poets' because she uses simplistic words to express meaning, thought and emotion. Especially in her five ballads, she creates long drawn-out plots that thoroughly describe the scene and the action. At times, this type of writing drags because her straightforward writing fails to challenge the reader's intellectual abilities. Her shorter pieces are much more effective in terms of meaning and comprehensibility. In her poem, "The Comparison," for example, she compares youth and age. In the beginning, the narrator favors youth over age but there is great comparison placed between them:
          Health runs quick thro'Youth's full veins;
          Age is weak and fraught with pains:
          Youth's fresh cheek is smooth and red;
          Age's pale and withered:
          Youth's clear eyes are strong and bright;
          Age's dim as glimmering night:
          Youth is active, warm, and bold;
          Age is sluggish, tim'rous, cold (128).
Porter changes the pattern of this theme when she asks,
          Shall we then ere Youth depart?
          From old Age abhorrent start?
          No: beneath a different light,
          Age will please, and Youth affright. (129)

Like many of the Romantic poets, Anna Maria Porter uses nature as a tool to express purpose and meaning through her sonnet, "On Quitting the Country." She writes about her sadness in leaving all of the beautiful settings in the country.
          Ye clouds, that borne upon the winged wind,
          In shapes fantastic, cross the setting sun!
          Ye mountain streams, whose icy waters run
          In leaf-strewn dells, unhaunted by mankind!
          Ye spreading trees, in darkest umbrage joined,
          When I was wont the glare of mirth to shun!
          Ye nightingales, whose soft songs have begun
          When moonlight tipped the woods where ye were shrined. (139).

Overall, Porter's sonnets and "miscellaneous" poems are the most effective in their beauty and artistry for readers. She writes about thoughts, ideas, and themes to which almost any society in any timeframe can relate and therefore find value in.

Porter wrote a poem called, "A Wish," but when she begins the poem with the line, "Grant me, kind Heaven! To call mine own" (147) one realizes that this is more like a prayer and perhaps should be retitled. She expresses her wishes clearly and gracefully throughout this poem:
          A little cottage, overgrown
          With honeysuckle and with rose;
          In whose small garden, duly blows
          Carnations, lilies, jasmine spreading.
          And all the juicy fruits that redden:
          A cottage near a lane, whose banks,
          Steep and romantic, equal ranks
          Of high, umbrageous trees embower, (147)

Even though Porter's writing is somewhat lengthy and wordy, she is a strong writer when it comes to detail and specificity in her writing. She "paints a picture" with her words and phrasing so that as readers are working through the material, they are constructing images and verbal portions of paintings. In the end they can create a complete, cpomposite painting by combining all of these interconnected elements.

Overall, Anna Maria Porter can be recognized as a significant poet. While she was recognized more for her novels during her lifetime, she took a risk in this volume, and created a different sort of verbal art through ballads, sonnets and poems. This volume of poetry failed to gain much critical attention or respect when it was published, as the contemporary reviews indicate, but it should still be included as part of the overall picture of Romantic poetry. It is through the chances and risks that all writers take that we as their readers can improve our overall creativity in the way we think and act as human-beings. Anna Maria Porter took a risk and published out of her familiar comfort zone of novelistic prose. The reviews that appeared at the time about Porter's poetry gave her little credit for writing "good" poetry. In our own time we need to be more generous and more flexible in our standards of judgment. Porter used her considerable detail, imagery, diction, and wide variety of themes to challenge readers' abilities to understand human feeling and human drama.

Prepared by Jill Craig, University of Nebraska, December 2004.
     © Jill Craig, 2004.