1795

January 1795

I really enjoy reading poetry from non-canonical writers like Mary Robinson and Barbauld because I have never been introduced to them as I was to the others. Robinson's January poem critiques the English society she lived in at the time. Without having any knowledge of the poem, one may assume the poem is one-sided after hearing it is a critique. But Robinson does not take a side, she acknowledges that there are flaws in her society and also good things in her society. Overall though, the poem seems to have a melancholy tone. The structure of this poem was intriguing to me because every line has an end rhyme and every stanza is a quatrain. The perfectly formulated structure of this poem speaks a lot to the content within the poem. As Robert Creeley says "form is never more than the extension of content." Robinson's poem speaks of a society that is filled with a variety of people and things through a formulaic structure. The society she speaks of is now controllable like the lines in her poem are which serves as very powerful contrast in the poem. Also, the rhyme scheme is consistent throughout the entire poem, making each line, regardless of its content, sound beautiful. It is also interesting to note that she wrote this poem in January, which is one of the coldest months of the year. This would be a dreary time of the year for everyone due to the cold. Again, Robinson makes sure to depict the good and bad of society but her overall tone is not the happiest of tones. The last lines of the poem, "Ruin hasten'd, peace retarded;/ Candor spurn'd, and art rewarded" end on a seemingly positive note. At first I read this and thought "well that's nice. She ended on a good note." But After reading her other poems and coming back to this one, I felt like "and art rewarded" could possibly be read sarcastically or cynically. I am not completely committed to this idea yet and I wonder what the rest of the class thinks about this line!