The Seductions of Form in the Poetry of Ann Batten Cristall and Charlotte Smith

Abstract

What does it mean to be seduced by form? In this chapter, I will be exploring the ways in which, for Ann Batten Cristall and Charlotte Smith, poetic form holds attractions that are both self- and other- orientated. For each poet, there are hints and explanations regarding their poetic approaches in their paratexts: Cristall’s Preface to Poetical Sketches (1795) plays with notions of amateurishness, while Smith’s Preface to Elegiac Sonnets (multiple editions, 1784–1812) settles on a phrase redolent of aberration. The other — the reader — is thus teased and challenged. However, for both poets the personal allure of formal experimentation is high, and both explore the ways in which struc- ture and meaning can coalesce. Playing with form, they exemplify a Romantic concern with the mechanics of poetry, measuring a stereo- typical feminine effusiveness against a considered engagement with the composition process. Writing in the 1780s and 1790s, they demonstrate that experimentation and innovation was a function of the age, and that the enticements of ‘spontaneous overflow’ rely on a lengthy and attentive formal build-up.