Anna Laetitia Barbauld’s poem, “The Caterpillar'' is a 29 line poem written in 1771 amidst turmoil in the American colonies, which at first look details an observer struggles to decide whether or not they are justified in killing a caterpillar,...

When the ‘Great Cornhill Fire’ of 1748 swept through the Cornhill district in the centre of London, it obliterated nearly two blocks of the city, destroying more than one hundred homes, causing multiple deaths, and triggering widespread looting in...

Divisions within Barbauld’s Eighteen Hundred and Eleven

Anna Barbauld’s Eighteen Hundred and Eleven demonstrates Romantic-era Cosmopolitanism’s promotion of a global consciousness and transnational empathy. Cosmopolitan theory emerged as a result...

"[Wit] means something pithy, penetrating, profound, aptly and forcefully expressed (and by extension, someone who is apt to speak in this way)" (Palmer 136). The female figure of wit was widely unaccepted in 18th and 19th century Britain. It was...

The Romantic period was one marked by turmoil and deep unrest within England. The morality of the slave trade was questioned, the Industrial Revolution deepened the rift between the working class and aristocracy, and the French Revolution was on...

“A Summer Evening’s Meditation” is a poem by Anna Letitia Barbauld that was published in 1773. The poem details the expansive thoughts of the speaker who is reflecting and philosophizing upon a summer evening’s sky. In this poem, Barbauld carries...

The art of poetic depiction of daily actions and familiar objects has become one of the most unique, especially with the development of such technique as defamiliarization. This stylistic technique has become popular due to its ability to depict...