Derwent Water

Letitia Elizabeth Landon 1802 (Chelsea) – 1838 (Cape Coast)



I knew her—though she used to make
Her dwelling by that lonely lake.
A little while she came to show
How lovely distant flowers can go.
The influence of that fairy scene
Made beautiful her face and mien.
I have seen faces far more fair,
But none that had such meaning there.
For to her downcast eyes were given
The azure of an April heaven;
The softening of those sunny hours,
By passing shadows, and by showers.

O’er her cheek the wandering red,
By the first wild rose was shed.
Evanescent, pure, and clear,
Just the warm heart’s atmosphere.
Like the sweet and inner world,
In that early rose-bud furled.
All whose rich revealing glow
Round the lovelier world below.
Light her step was, and her voice
Said unto the air, rejoice;
And her light laugh’s silvery breaking
Sounded like the lark’s first waking.

Return to that fair lake, return,
On whose green heathlands grows the fern;
And mountain heights of dark grey stone,
Are bright with lichens overgrown.
Thou art too fay-like and too fair
For our more common clouded air.
Beauty such as thine belongs
To a world of dreams and songs;
Let thy image with us dwell,
Lending music to farewell.
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Submitted by Madeleine Quinn on March 03, 2020

Modified on April 22, 2023

1:01 min read
37

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABBCCDDEEFF GGHHXGBBIIJJ KKLLDDMMNN
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,143
Words 204
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 12, 12, 10

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Letitia Elizabeth Landon was an English poet. Born 14th August 1802 at 25 Hans Place, Chelsea, she lived through the most productive period of her life nearby, at No.22. A precocious child with a natural gift for poetry, she was driven by the financial needs of her family to become a professional writer and thus a target for malicious gossip (although her three children by William Jerdan were successfully hidden from the public). In 1838, she married George Maclean, governor of Cape Coast Castle on the Gold Coast, whence she travelled, only to die a few months later (15th October) of a fatal heart condition. Behind her post-Romantic style of sentimentality lie preoccupations with art, decay and loss that give her poetry its characteristic intensity and in this vein she attempted to reinterpret some of the great male texts from a woman’s perspective. Her originality rapidly led to her being one of the most read authors of her day and her influence, commencing with Tennyson in England and Poe in America, was long-lasting. However, Victorian attitudes led to her poetry being misrepresented and she became excluded from the canon of English literature, where she belongs. more…

All Letitia Elizabeth Landon poems | Letitia Elizabeth Landon Books

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