In class this week we read a poem by Charlotte Smith. The poem that we read was called, “Written in the Church-Yard at Middleton in Sussex”. “Written in the Church-Yard at Middleton in Sussex” is about science, religion, death, romantic irony and nature, which were all key elements of the time period. After reading this poem, I decided to write my blog this week on Charlotte Smith and her life.
Charlotte Turner Smith was born on May 4th, 1749. She married Benjamin Smith in 1765 at the age of 15 when her father was having financial problems. Charlotte and her husband had twelve children of which only six of them made it to adulthood. She did not have a great relationship with her husband and after 22 years of marriage she decided it was best to leave him. During the time of her separation was when she created the most revenue from her popular novels and poems.
Unfortunately, after 1798, Smith’s popularity declined and publishers did not pay as much for these works.In 1806, Charlotte Smith died at the age of 57. She was mostly forgotten by the middle of the 19th century, but now her works have been republished and she is now acknowledged as an important writer of the time.
What made Charlotte Turner Smith so important is she was a English poet and novelist who helped start up the revival of English sonnets. She was a highly successful writer who published many novels, books, and children’s books, along with all sorts of other works over the course of her career. Along with being credited by transforming sonnets into an expression of emotion.
English 2323-020 
I do find it interesting, the biographical summary of Smith’s life. The information that her most successful sonnets were written after the divorce of her husband, or, at the very least, the poems became successful after their divorce. The timing of this begs the question of whether Smith’s disposition was the reason for separation or a result of it; of course, writing isn’t always a direct translation of one’s own feelings and, of course, there is a third option of indifference. That aside, it is nice to have a topic expanded upon.
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When we were reading Charlotte Smith’s ballads and poems in class, I noticed they all had a dark mood. Common themes were death, depression, and her want to end her life. After reading your post, I see she had a hard life and writing those works were a way for her to express her inner feelings. One thing I found interesting was that she had twelve children, but lost half of them before they become adults. That pain most have been unbearable, along with the divorce of her husband. Your posts showed why she wrote about the things she did.
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