Author: Landon, Letitia Elizabeth (1802-38)
Title:The Golden Violet, with its Tales of Romance and Chivalry; with Other Poems
Date: 1827
Descriptive and Critical Essay
Letitia Elizabeth Landon wrote The Golden Violet: with Its Tales of Romance and Chivalry; and Other Poems. The collection consists of six poems including “The Golden Violet,” “Erinna,” “The Coniston Curse,” “The Omen,” “One Day, and “Love’s Last Lesson.” Early in her career, Landon published using only her initials, L. E. L., causing her to be seen as a mysterious figure in the literary world. But she writes about subjects that are easy for readers to understand and relate to because they include everyday topics, feelings, and experiences.
The Golden Violet is a beautifully written poem that is broken into many sections within two main parts. The poem is written in couplets (both AABB and ABAB), causing it to read smoothly and quickly. Landon writes the poem as a story in which the actions occur throughout two days. The first day includes sections called The Broken Spell, The Falcon, The Dream, The Child of the Sea, The Ring, The Queen of Cyprus, The Pilgrim’s Tale, The Eastern King, and Golden Violet. The second day includes the sections The Young Avenger, The Rose, The Haunted Lake, The Wreath, and Sir Walter Manny at his Father’s Tomb.
The Golden Violet seems to be a collection of stories that Landon has intricately woven into a continuous poem with each new section comparable to a chapter in a novel. The first section after what reads as an introduction of the poem is The Broken Spell: The First Provencal Minstrel’s Lay. A Fairy Tale. This section about love and loss is easily relatable for the majority of readers because of disease, war, etc. The next “chapter” of The Golden Violet is The Falcon: The Lay of the Norman Night that is about watching a knight leave for battle. After the narrator can no longer see the knight a falcon appears, leading her to where the knight had fought and died alone. The third chapter is The Dream: The Lay of the Scottish Minstrel which is about a hunt that ends with the death of a man. The Child of the Sea: The Lay of the Second Provencal Bard is the next section about a young boy whose mother dies holding him. He then grows up to be a hero where he then has to fight for his own life. The next section is The Ring: The German Meinnesinger’s Tale which is a story about a young couple, happy to be married, that start to resent each other. Like the previous stories, this story concerns the death of one of the young couple, but in this case it was at the hands of the other. The Queen of Cyprus: The Provencal Lady’s Lay, the next section, relates the actions of the Queen’s day. The next section is The Pilgrim’s Tale, a statement about time. Landon comments on the love of the familiar past, dislike of the present and hatred for an unknown future. The next section is The Eastern King: The Pilgrim’s Tale, which is an extension of the previous story, but from a different point of view. The first day ends.
The second day begins with The Young Avenger: The Spanish Minstrel’s Tale, a story about a young knight’s battle and vengeance. The second story in the second day is The Rose: The Italian’s Minstrel’s Tale, a tale of a mystical palace not seen by a mortal eye and featuring roses that are a metaphor for life and love and happiness. The next story is The Haunted Lake: The Irish Minstrel’s Legend, about a man who falls in love with an impoverished and neglected woman. The Wreath: Tale of the Moorish Bard next tells about a young woman who doesn’t want to marry a man with whom it has been arranged that she is to marry. The final story is Sir Walter Mann at His Father’s Tomb: The English Knight’s Ballad. This story includes the Golden Violet tradition that Landon explains in the introduction to the poem and that now in this final section brings the poem full circle.
Landon’s writing has a strong presence of nature, which makes her poetry very relatable. In Day One of The Golden Violet, she describes the relationship that people have with nature and their ability to appreciate nature over time. One use of nature is to be immersed in it to be able to enjoy the beauty of it:
And here the countess took her seat
Beneath the chestnut, shelter meet
For one whose presence might beseem
The spirit of the shade and stream;
As now she lean’d with upraised head,
And white veil o’er her bosom spread,
Hiding the gems and chains of gold
Which too much of rank’s baubles told;
Leaving her only with the power
Of nature in its loveliest hour,
When to its musing look is given
The influence of its native heaven.
I find these lines interesting because nature is portrayed as very beautiful when the sun is going down, causing the light to reflect off of everything and shadows to dance around.
Another theme in Landon’s work is death and mourning the dead, which can be seen is almost all of the sections of the poem The Golden Violet:
’Twas a branch of roses her lover gave
Amid her raven curls to wave,
When they bade farewell, with that gentle sorrow
Of the parting that sighs, “we meet to-morrow”
Yet the maiden knows not if her tears are shed
Over the faithless or over the dead.
Along with The Golden Violet, Landon wrote and published Erinna, The Coniston Curse, The Omen, One Day, and Love’s Last Lesson. Landon’s writing is intricate and easy to follow, which made her poems very popular while she was writing. She writes about everyday feelings, emotions, etc. that people are able to relate to. The Golden Violet: with Its Tales of Romance and Chivalry; and Other Poems is a large book that was expensive when it was first published, but that didn’t stop Landon’s readers from buying many copies. Unlike other female writers of the time, Landon was very popular among readers and was very well received by her audience, allowing her to support herself and her family on the money she earned from writing. She could write quickly, giving her readers something new to read frequently, which helped to grow her audience.
Prepared by Haley Eustice, University of Nebraska, Spring 2018
© Haley Eustice, 2018