Biography Of Letitia Elizabeth Landon

1133 Words3 Pages

The anthology, Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism, provides that Landon produced six volumes of poetry, four essays and tons of shorter works. She was majorly influenced by the great poets of the Romantic era, such as Wordsworth, Byron and Shelly. Her poetry much resembled the works of Lord Byron because she too adopted the Byronic hero. However, rather than being a men, she created female versions, which resembled Byron’s Don Juan (p. 231).

According to the website; Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, known to most literature enthusiasts by her pen name; L.E.L, was born on August 14, in Chelsea, England in 1803. Her parents were by no means wealthy; however, the family was able to live quite comfortably until Landon’s father’s company, which supplied resources to the army, began losing money due to the end of the war of 1812. In turn, Landon’s family was forced to leave their previous way of life for a more frugal one. Landon received most of her education at home. She was quite a shy girl but enjoyed reading and writing poetry from a very young age. Luckily Landon discovered her talent for writing poetry because when her father lost his job, she had to find a way to contribute monetarily.

LANDON’S BIG BREAK:

With the help from family connections to Editor William Jergan, she was able to showcase her work in the Literary Gazette. Knowing she would face critizism, at the time, for being a female writer, at the age of seventeen she published he first poem, “Rome,” in 1818, under the name “L.” She then went on to produce a number of other works, now under her new name “L.E.L,” that failed to bring her much income but made readers curious as to who the person behind the pseudonym was. When her father...

... middle of paper ...

... to 49 the speaker is sad and thinking about the different ways society has treated her and how she is forced to have a fake personality in order to please people and fit in.

2. From lines 49 to 68 the speaker is positive that there is more to life than what she has been living. She’s empowered by this thought and is confident that she is special.

3. However, from lines 69 to 84 she “comes back down to earth” and commences to put herself down again. The speaker even refers to herself as worthless.

4. In lines 85 to the end of the poem is where we can find the true meaning of the piece. After what seems to be a very bi-polar first part, the speaker finally settles with being one of a kind. She claims that “song has touched her lips with fire/ and made her heart a shrine;” and feels as if she has this special gift (poetry) that she hopes will be remembered forever.

Open Document