Anna Barbauld Research Paper

Anna Letitia Barbauld (1743-1825)

Anna Barbauld was born on June 20th, 1743 in Kibworth, United Kingdom. Her father was the headmaster of the Dissenting Academy and a minister at a nearby Presbyterian church. Her family made a comfortable living and Barbauld was in the public eye because her family house was also a boys school. She spent a lot of time around boys as a child and she adopted some of their high spirits, something her mother discouraged and tried to squash as those types of behavior in women where frowned upon then. Barbauld never felt comfortable with her feminity and felt as if she failed in many aspects of womanhood. A lot of her work reflects that, as she centers around issues women suffer from and how she is an "outsider".

Barbauld's father taught her the classics which she demanded of him, and she got the chance to learn Greek, French, Latin, and Italian, as well as other subjects that were deemed unsuitable for women to know at the time. Barbauld's mother was proud of her accomplishments but she worried that her daughters intellectual tendicies would cause her to be a spinster her whole life. However, Barbauld had many suitors and offers of marriage around 1758, all of which she declined. Barbauld became very close with her brother, John Aikin, when they were young and she was something of a mother figure to him. They eventually became literary partners. John Aikin also became a practicing physician, as well as a prolific author and writer in his own right (White 512).

Barbauld published her first book of poems in 1773, after her friends praised her writing and urged her to publish her work. The collection, called Poems, was very successful and she became a respected literary figure in En...

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...n. Ruling by law is to use logic and intellegence, and yet she says to remain true to your heart and emotions so we can't really be sure as to which she is saying is more important.

This happens throughout most of the poem and she seems to be almost conflicted with herself. She can't seem to decide if women should go forth and make a stand again men, or to remain as they are to avoid conflict.

Importance

I believe reading this author is important because she is such an amazing writer and she was very well known during her time and had many influences on female writers of her time. I think she is an inspiration to writers now as well, seeing as she was very outspoken with her writing and the male dominant society that she lived in did not stop her from saying what she wanted to. She stood up for what she believed in and that is a very admirable quality.