Charlotte Smith, The Emigrants

Bethan Roberts (University of Liverpool)
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Charlotte Smith was best known as a sonnet writer when her blank verse poem The Emigrants, a Poem, in Two Books was published in 1793. After the publication of the sixth edition of her popular Elegiac Sonnets in 1792, she took a break from expanding that volume (the next, second volume was published in 1797) and The Emigrants marks a shift in both poetic form and emphasis. While Smith’s sonnets hitherto published had been largely apolitical, The Emigrants is more expansive in scope, blending private and public. The title refers to members of the Catholic French clergy and nobility who fled post-revolution France following the abolition of state religion, seeking refuge in England. Smith herself took several …

3617 words

Citation: Roberts, Bethan. "The Emigrants". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 11 October 2013 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=12425, accessed 29 March 2024.]

12425 The Emigrants 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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