A comparison between the language in a description of a Charlotte Smith conference held at Chawton House Library, Chawton, from the 14th to the 16th of October, 2016; and the language of Smith’s own Elegiac Sonnets, and Other Poems, 1827 (a posthumous collection).

1.
innovative … original … beautiful setting … ground-breaking … excitement … burgeoning … innovative … informative … beautifully … stunning … beautiful locations … wonderful … fascinating … inspired … enticing … lively … profitable … bright … engaging … very enjoyable … particularly enjoyed … very fine … wonderfully innovative … fascinating … home-made lavender shortbread biscuits … incredibly talented … wonderful … charming … insight … progress … magnificent … beautifully … insights … innovations … achieved

2.
doom'd … delusive … thorn … pang … mourning … frail … tyrant … melancholy … woe … sorrow … fate … victims … cruel … disastrous … sad … wretched … sufferers … death … despair … woe … sorrowed … wearied … toiling … sad … pain … fear, anxiety … sad … fade … pale … farewell … tortured … pain ... rankling … wound … delusions … sadness … despair … pangs … shun … taunts … tears … cruel … deceit ... barbed … scorn … lost … delusions … pain … sorrow … sad … aching … anxious … screaming … gloomy … mournful … shipwreck’d … faint … feeble … exhausted … dies … forbids … wither’d ... doom’d … wound … unhappy … sad … grief … sadness … decay … blighted … vain .. hopeless … culpable … grief … dust … bitter … deplore … trembling … ashes … ill-omen’d … harsh … tyrant … despair … maniac … haunt … thorns … poison … gulf … helpless … grave … fatal … sorrow … tears … mournful … pitying … melancholy ... hopeless … despair … pain … weeps … endure … death … faithless … drear … howl … raves … trembling … fade … despair … die … tomb … sigh … suicide … tremble … embalm … dead … mournful … hopeless … guilt … despair … deplore … worms … pain … hapless … vain … mourn … pitying … sorrows … lament … sighing … sorrow … thorns … wretched … wound … wretched … rue … pain … folly … misfortune … vain … fears … oppress … profaned … Folly … disdain’d … sorrows … frail … fades … blast … wounds … misfortune … severe affliction … gloomy ... sorrow … sighs … tears … stain … unfit … arduous … tearful … mourner’s … hopeless … Sorrow’s drooping form … faded … lonely … sad … pangs of sorrow … dread … careless … sighs … mournful … bewail … sighs … sadden’d … melancholy … toiling… burden’d … troubles … fears … tears … regret … languid … beating … bitter … vain … cares … weak … little worth … false … ills … poor … estranged … regret … fruitless anguish … sigh … die … fainting … thorns … roughness … sorrow … unhappy … clouds of evil … sickening … weary … tomb … pale spectre Care … weak … dissolving … tears … cruel … harsh … condemns … unpitied, unrelieved, unknown … delusions … aggravated pain … mournful … wane … deep depression … enfeebled … grief … vain … sullen … cheerless …gloom … exhausted … wretched, hopeless … sorrows … tortures … guilt … bleeds … vain remorse … tumultuous … unfit … death … languid sufferer … die … anguish … vain regret … misery … sallow … ruins … mourn … sobs … wither’d … shrieking … pain … vulture … unhappy … bleak … unfriendly … cold, barren, desert … thirst … hunger … repine … fearful … hopeless … decline … heartless pain … blank despair … fail … lost … woe … delusive … toils … feeble … shrinking … dead … grave … vain … rave … warring … doom’d … opprest … gloomy … farewell … thoughtless … deplore … sorrows … resign … hideous … deserted … drear … sighing … discordant … spoiling … deface … fading … dead … sad grave … murder’d … false … depart … suffer … suffer … anguish … wearied … sad … vain … sorrows … forget … calamity … prey … affliction … mournful … tomb … gloom … opprest … fruitlessly repine … resign … sorrow … tears … silent grave … farewell … deluded … regretted … unfruitful … scanty … desolate … solitude … drear … cheerless gloom … faultering [sic] … unhappy … fades … tempests scowling … apall’d … oppress’d … alone … desolate … unblest … anxious … trembling .. recoils … woe … shivering … regret … parting … dreary … sufferer … waste of joyless life … deplore … forgotten … past … extinguish’d … blank void … hopeless pain … my soul depress’d … pathless … oppress’d … forgetfulness … weary … evils … torturing, savage foes … trackless … howl … waste … dreads … hideous … hollow … trembling … woe … death … horror fraught … desolate dismay … starless … heavy … dangerous … pains … pittance … tawdry … hated … shudders … disgust … spectre … hopeless … insanity … grim … comfortless Despair … victim … faithless … dire … hideous … corrosives … fatal … traitor … untrue … wounds … endure … vain … curse … pain … spirit-wounding pangs … guilty … illusions … dreary … gloom … errors … deplore … long-lost … tortured … pain … agonies … deceived … callous … woes … dread … threatening … gloom … Tempest … terrors … deplore … fatal … conflicting … burst … warring … rave … accurst … ruthless … grave … shrieks … horror … trembling … wretched … despair … threatening … tomb … sorrows … frantic … wept … dust … curse … lost … tomb … grave … unheeded … vain … fruitless … death … agonizing pain … cruelty … dread … mangled … demons … despair … death … peril .. dead, disfigured … wretch … unhappy … deafening … delusion … frantic pain … tears … anguish … despair … vain …dead … horrors … despair … death ... desolation … injured … transient … delay’d … droop … tomb … jealous … doom … thorn … cruel … frail … fade … anger … fatal … wretched … unhappy … vice … folly … storms … lost … discord … death … warring … faithless … savage … blood … venal … sickly … grief … pined … threaten’d … rob … destroy … frowns … sighing … mournful … palsied … denied … raves … faint … trembling … woe … sever’d … wretch … heart-struck mourner … convulsed … anguish … despair’s intolerable weight … frantic … death … pain … deplore … cold, cold … wounds … sigh … anxious … useless … pain … hapless … mournful … scorn … saddening, sickening … dread … neglect … denies … death … transient … anguish … dying … blights … gaudy … sorrow … oppressor’s wrong … despondency … regret … exhausted … robb’d … grave … fiend Despair … anxious … evils … tempests … fainting … tear … sorrows … pain … grief … sorrows … hapless … sad … calamities … gale … garish … offends … ill-omen’d … mournful … dread … evils … lamentation … delusive … wounded … woes … sick … transient … drear … shuddering … woe … enfeebled … cheerless … unblest … pain … vain … dying … wan … waste … desolate … weary … sad vicissitudes … care … doubt .. despair … faded … thorny … wept … transient … vanish … fragile … fleeting … wither’d … barren … lingering pain …tepid … grave … palsied … woe-deprest … torpid … Despair … sad … broken heart … cold blight … bitter … bleakness … blast … sorrow … fade … mourns … deplore … corrosive … hollow … shock … sullen … desolate … wan … opprest … shuns … weep … shudder … aghast … forlorn … chill … howling blast … crumbling … ravenous … tempest … gloom … shun … mouldering … sadness … wretch … despair … bursting … wretched … fade … vain … mourn … hopeless pain … sullen … o’erwhelmed with grief … tears … pallid … trembling, dreads … sorrow … disease … embittering … plunder’d … wretch … wild … sighs … hoarse … lamentation … moody sadness … giant horrors … woe … chill … night-blast … sullen … gloomy … cheerless … frowns … lonely … bleak … mourn … gloom … death … thorny … sad vicissitudes … grief … tears .. scanty … Sorrow’s victims … anguish … grave … forsakes … chill … sullen … sad soul … sorrows … death … hollow … drear … gloom … suffering … miseries … tomb … anguish … deplore … loss … pathless … frown … unknown … capricious … woes … petty … tyrants … Oppression … die … died … mocking … veil … illusive flattery … dull … Sorrow’s … dissolve … leafless .. chilling … trembling … transient … untimely grave … tears … repine … regret … hopeless grief … weary … Violence … Fraud … tired … tear-swollen … trembling … Melancholy … vainly … Sorrow … forsook … lurid … troubled … accursed … bad … abject … parasite … bled … dead … dark plague-spots … demons … death … destructive … mangled … dying … pollute … spoils … blood … forsake … saddening … mourn .. hopeless … crush’d … bitterest anguish … bleeds … sorrowing vigil … weep … poor … mould … time-worn sufferer … evil … threatening woes … friendless … houseless … sigh … coffin … tear … sorrows … sickness .. oppress’d … death … wretch … outcast spurn’d … penury … death … insulted … doom … thorns … chill … howling … scowling … lonely … tears … repining … anxious … deceiving … distresses … blighted …grief … sorrow … storm … victims … sad … dreading … miseries … anguish … hostile … doom’d … chill penury … languish … abject … soul-crushing … terrors … dreading … ruin … fears … mourner … woes … wretched … confined … poor ill-fated … transient … unshelter’d … raves … drooping … pain … vain … hapless … shatter’d … evil … precarious … vicissitudes … distresses … pains … lank … shiv’ring … sorrows … sick … howls … trouble … fears … nervous … rough … stubborn … weary … disappointments … luckless … regret … wept … chaotic … barren … troubled … rifted … frown’d … stormy … drear … tempest-beaten graves … Desolation … dead … fiend … sullen … demon’s … sterile waste … ignorance … toil … bleak … cold … cheerless … grim desolation … frown … blasting … ungrateful … death … scratched … croaking … clamorous … drear … widow’d mourner … melancholy … lone … up-torn … hopeless wretch … mourn … tears … dire … blotted … wild … torrents … fatal … accursed … infuriate … weak … grave … repels … rapine … savage … gasping sufferer … inhuman … half-drown’d … tempests … avarice … callous … weary … toils … fate … decay … despondence … blighted … death … sorrows … bitter … indigent, unheeded … deceitful … mercenary … decrepit … disfigured … sallow … gale … faded … lost … furious … fragile … prey … tremble … desponding … pale despair … enfeebling … shudders … blast … decay … accursed … sick … declining … died … sad … alone … sad … distress’d … dejection … tempests … depress … disfigure … gloom … mournfully … heavily … hopeless … fearfully … heart-sick … sad … wept … sullen moan … wretched … repentance … falter’d … forlorn … pain … cruel desertion … lament … forsake … woe … fear … vain fruitless tear … lament … cruel … anguish … disease … dead … plague-tainted … loss … sorrows … moan … pain … injured … tears … wither’d … miseries … dreading … scar … desolation … death … demons … war … melancholy … woe … sorrow … cheats … ungrateful … Grief … funereal … wretched victims of Disease … weary … weep … agonizing Pain … mourner … die … Sorrow’s pallid votary … crime … bondage … aching … broken … delusion … anguish … sad … sighs … dreads … suffering … woe … pang … treacherous … faithless … grief … deceit … ghost … hollow .. tears … thorns … molest … robb’d … deprived … weep … sad … sorrow … deplore … grief … griefs … wearied … tempest-toss’d … lost … sufferings … fiends … dejected Memory … mourn … regretting … withering … sickening … bleeds … cold … worn … dissolving … wretched … breathless … hostile … surly … trembling … Fear, frantic Fear … weak … repenting … die … Death … dread sound … murderous bomb … destructive … overwhelm’d … horror … mourner … drear … fatal … devastation … hideous … bleeding corse [corpse] … staggering … murder’d … raving maniac … calamitous … robb’d … screams …. cruel … cruel … curse … pain … agony … mourning … vain … dire disease … grave … coldly languish … devoid of joy … anguish … drag … woe … misery … tomb … fester’d wounds … grief … fatal … diseases … die … wretch … pain … abject dread of death … wretched … Despair … fears … die … poignant grief … dregs … woe … torturing pain … impoverish’d … Indigence …. wasting anguish … ungrateful … wounded wretch … deplore … death … joyless, cheerless … sick, reluctant … dismay … terrors … fearful dread ... grave

the how and what, the this and that

– in order to know "whether John Clare was less influenced by Charlotte Smith as he aged" I think I would have to read everything Clare had written. Then re-read Smith's Elegiac Sonnets. Next, get myself a yardstick. Easiest would be to count the number of times they both (independently of one another) use the word 'the' and compare his number to her number and see if they grow farther apart but other writers have used 'the' as well so no go. Find some other pinpoint to free myself from the appearance of futility or farce, two characteristics that infested other writers I have been reading, Regina Ullman and Robert Walser, so that one of the questions that hangs around them both might be what is futility? "All stories bear resemblance to an elegant skirt that wants to cling tightly and becomingly to to a shape, that is, to something concrete: in other words they have to be told in such a way that the sum total of words forms a skirt that fits the body loosely but with a certain conciseness – fits, that is, the how and what, the this and that, to be reported." (Walser: All those who like to laugh while crying …, tr Susan Bernofsky) A hero named Westermann enters his Goddess of Poetry, and the composure of those sentences, the ones that describe this hero, irritates the author. "This intruder Westermann is getting on my nerves. How does he plan on reimbursing me for the attention I'm paying him, for seeing he comes out of it favourably?" God what are those characters doing? Finishing lunch and leaving. "I wish they'd stick fast to the table; then I'd be rid of them." Coleridge: "A nation, to be great, ought to be compressed in its increment by nations more civilized than itself—as Greece by Persia; and Rome by Etruria, the Italian states, and Carthage." (Table Talk.) Walser asks: who compresses a story into its increment? He keeps returning to the river that runs through the town even when it is far away from the action; his mind will wonder ah dear. One Ullman story becomes solemn around the presence of a cake. "But then, like a small, curled dragon, the lie came crawling out of the cake. It had been purchased at the last minute from the baker, and from the outside it looked just like every other bundt cake in the world. As for the astonishment it produced you would simply accept it in silence, just as she had done, but you could not simply accept the candid truth that was its real core." (Retold, tr Kurt Beals.) And Theo. Dreyer in Joan of Arc spends so much time looking at the contours of Joan's head next to the wet humps of her gleaming eyes, and it is one of the great films of world cinema say the critics: what do I make of that? Now springing out of context into my implied mouth come the eyes like "gaping well-heads" from Peake.

grig grig grig chew chew

I typed an answer to one of Scott's comments and deleted it because it was a comparison between Charlotte Smith and John Clare; it said that Clare could write a poem with some natural thing or event as the subject whereas nature, in Smith's sonnets, was a route that brought her to the subject of melancholy – but I realised what I had done and so deleted – no, I said mentally, consider her singly, in herself, doing this and be inspired by Clare, in his natural history prose, praising some other poet for observing nature in itself, or criticising because the other poet is a city boy who has relaxed himself into a phrase that has been worn in for him by others, not observed, about a nightingale (which is why, when I see Clare saying that he likes Smith for her observations, I imagine him thinking of the phrase "mossy nest" in her poem On the Departure of the Nightingale (1827), "the lone brake that shades thy mossy nest" – for the fact that it puts moss correctly in the nightingale's nest, which is the sort of detail he notices himself; and he will see the same thing eight years later when his verse The Nightingale's Nest is published in 1835.

… no other bird
Uses such loose materials, or weaves
Its dwelling in such spots : dead oaken leaves
Are placed without, and velvet moss within,
And little scraps of grass, and, scant and spare,
What scarcely seem materials, down and hair

[…]

Deep adown,
The nest is made a hermit’s mossy cell.)

Considering then the notion of correct retention, and the matter of considering a thing singly, and my mind goes to his transliteration of a nightingale's song, which was published by Margaret Grainger, over a century after he had written it, from a document that she refers to as MS A58 II:

Chee chew chee chew chee
chew – cheer cheer cheer
chew chew chew chee
– up cheer up cheer up
tweet tweet tweet jug jug jug

wew wew wew – chur chur
woo it woo it tweet tweet
tweet jug jug jug


tee rew tee rew tee rew – gur
gur – chew rit chew rit – chur-chur chur
chur will-will will-will tweet-em
tweet em jug jug jug


grig grig grig chew chew

wevy wit wevy wit
wevy wit – chee chit
chee-chit chee chit
weewit weewit wee
wit cheer cheer
cheer pelew
pelew pelew –
bring a jug bring a
jug bring a jug


I relate this to the other occasions when he records his attempt to "prick" or notate a tune that he has heard a gypsy play on the fiddle.

a thresher & a labouring rustic

Graingerism instead of Frommianism: a policy that I will not keep up in a million years, and might as well chuck away on the spot, but at least the aspiration is good: it looks nice, and I can feel relieved for a second. Grigory Potemkin must have been cheerful. "I'm happy as a cherub when no one encumbers my life with declarations of esteem." (Robert Walser, tr Susan Bernofsky, The Robber.) Margaret Grainger, the editor of the Natural History Prose Writing of John Clare, writes an introduction without symmetry; she explains Clare's influences in a modulated way and she can even write the word "momentous" without being dramatic, like this: "Clare's twenty-seventh year, 1820, was momentous; it brought marriage, publication of Clare's first volume, Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery, by the London partnership of John Taylor and James Hessey in uneasy collaboration with the Stamford bookseller, Edward Drury, Taylor's cousin; and a visit to the metropolis" – followed by more -- "The poet received his first letters, made visits to the homes of local aristocracy, was pestered with callers to his house seeking 'out of a mere curiosity … to know wether [he] … was the son of a thresher & a labouring rustic,' and was taken by such patrons as Mrs Emmerson and Lord Radstock –" the word momentous is ballasted with evidence until you can relax into the impression that she has written a vision of John Clare as John Clare, and not as a parallel or symmetrical object in opposition to whoever: Wordsworth, John Dyer, or any other nature poet who was around at the time, Clare himself expressing pleasure at the work of Mrs Charlotte Smith (1749 - 1806). "[H]er poems may be only pretty but I felt much pleasd with them because she wrote more from what she had seen of nature then from what she had read of it there fore those that read her poems find new images which they have not read of before tho they have often felt them & from those assosiations poetry derives the power of pleasing in the happiest manner." (Natural History Letter II, c. 1824.)

Sonnet XLII

Composed during a Walk on the Downs, Nov. 1787

The dark and pillowy cloud, the sallow trees,
    Seem o'er the ruins of the year to mourn;
And, cold and hollow, the inconstant breeze
    Sobs through the falling leaves and wither'd fern.
    O'er the tall brow of yonder chalky bourn,
The evening shades their gather'd darkness fling,
    While, by the lingering light, I scarce discern
The shrieking night-jar sail on heavy wing.
    Ah! yet a little--and propitious spring
Crown'd with fresh flowers shall wake the woodland strain;
    But no gay change revolving seasons bring
To call forth pleasure from the soul of pain;
Bid Syren Hope resume her long-lost part,
And chase the vulture Care--that feeds upon the heart.

Charlotte Smith