Laetitia+E.+Landon's+'On+the+Ancient+and+Modern+Influence+of+Poetry'

Letitia E. Landon was an early Victorian poet and novelist who, as stated in the Broadview Anthology, was considered to take part in both the Romantic and Victorian periods despite her relatively short career from 1820 to 1838, when she died of suspected suicide (1206). In her essay “On the Ancient and Modern Influence of Poetry”, originally published in //New Monthly Magazine// in 1832, Landon contemplates the influences on past poets and poetry, a present lack of poetic talent, and what the future holds for this literary genre.

The essay begins by acknowledging that there is a “wide gulph” within society, philosophy, politics, manners and poetry between the era that has past and the age of Queen Victoria (Broadview 1206). Landon and her contemporaries are attempting to make their mark in this new era and to “mark as vast a difference as possible, between our own age and its predecessor”(1206). However, Landon argues that it is necessary to look at the past in order to judge the present and so endeavours to explain the three original sources of poetry; religion, war, and love. While poetry originates from the inspiration of these three sources, Landon argues that imagination above all “has in every country been the beginning as well as the ornament of civilization”(1206). She concludes her piece on a hopeful note, predicting a renewed “summer” of poetry, and encouraging poets to set loose their imaginations and “feel that their office is sacred” (1211). Firstly, Landon attempts to demonstrate that a lack of imagination in “apathetic” Africa is proof that imagination is the key to a civilized world (1206). In Landon’s view Africans have not had the “spiritual awakenings” necessary to be capable of poetry (1206). Her argument attempts to show that, by not sharing in the Western conceptualisation of religion, Africans must have not felt the “higher impulses speaking so strongly of some spiritual influence of a purer order than those of our common wants and needs” and so must be incapable of such refined literature as poetry (1207). Landon writes that poetry is like iron, “its use is the first step to civilization, and civilization is freedom” (1207). This view of African culture is an attempt by Landon to prove that civilization through imagination and religion is necessary in order to create poetry.

Landon’s opinion of Africa and its inhabitants is not an uncommon one for her time. Anthony Wohl explains that, as Victorians became more involved in scientific discovery, racism evolved from a “marking of the gradations of mankind” to the study of phrenology, the study of the skull as an indicator of the location of a person or race on the evolutionary scale. Further racist attitudes included the rise of polygenism, which “stressed the unequal nature of various creations” (Wohl). While we must certainly disagree with Landon’s depiction of Africa, we may allow that her argument, that poetry is created through imagination and faith, when taken out of its racial context is perhaps not only plausible, but rational.

Secondly, Landon argues that poetry that took inspiration from war encouraged brave acts and praised the good qualities of heroes. She takes issue with the “unjust and erroneous opinion … that poets and conquerors have been equal enemies of the human race”, arguing that these poets did not encourage the taking of human life but rather spoke “of the love of liberty as holding light the love of life” (Broadview 1207, 1208). In fact, Landon views poetry as an “amelioration” on the “scenes of bloodshed” that have “required centuries so to consolidate kingdoms that now a breathing space is allowed for reflection on the sin of sacrificing man’s most valuable possession---life” (1208). In Landon’s opinion poetry and poets have represented those qualities they most admired, such as magnanimity and generosity, in their descriptions of war and so have deterred those who wish to act in a manner lacking in valour (1208).

Thirdly, Landon briefly contemplates love as a source for poetry. She explains that language is necessary to those in love as a means to eloquently communicate and incite those particular emotions (1208). Poetry “gives expression to its spiritual and better part” (1208). While her explanation is very brief, Landon argues that poetry of love allows us to be better by “entering into other’s sorrow or other’s joy” (1208).

Landon continues by arguing that poetry “originates in that idea of superior beauty and excellence inherent in every nature” and is not fiction but rather it is merited, powerful, and truthful (1208). Because it is truthful poetry can inspire; sympathy, elevation, simplicity, nature, memory, confidence and happiness (1208). Landon conjectures that poetry may be that new “moral steam”, required to “regulate mankind”, as the new physical steam pushing humanity forward fails to do so (1209). As discussed above, Landon believes that poetry can “civilize” but she also believes it can prevent society, through reflection and feeling, from “growing too cold and too selfish” (1209). In short, she argues that the Victorians have entered into an era where they require poetry to guide their morality.

The fluctuation in the productivity and popularity of poetry are inexplicable to Landon and she reasons that perhaps, as the seasons do, poetry has entered into a “long, cold winter” in order to rejuvenate for a “glad and glorious summer” (1210). She acknowledges that there is a lack of talent, a lack of poets with an “inherent quality in [the] mind”, however she does not believe there is a lack of taste or appetite in the Victorian society (1210). Landon asserts that there will always remain a taste, a love for poetry, but that contemporary poetry “possesses beauty but not originality” and so consumers are not satisfied (1210). She reasons that this lack of talent may be the fault of an outbreak of calculation, sarcasm and cynicism, none of which are “the elements for poetry” (1210).

Landon ends her piece by quoting “The Solitary” by William Whitehead that declares “the muse” only appears “for the deep/occult, profound, unfathomable things” (1211). Landon explains this concept it more simply by explaining that “poetry like religion requires faith” and we understand from her piece that this is a faith that has yet to be fully discovered by the aspiring poets of the Victorian Era (1211).

Influential Poets Mentioned in “On the Ancient and Modern Influence of Poetry”:
 * Lord Byron
 * Milton
 * Robert Burns
 * Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Works Cited

Landon, Letitia E. “On the Ancient and Modern Influence of Poetry.” Broadview Anthology of Victorian Poetry and Poetic Theory. Ed. Thomas J. Collins & Vivienne J. Rundle. Toronto: Broadview Press, 1999. 1206-1211. Print.

Whitehead, William. “The Solitary.” qtd in Broadview Anthology of Victorian Poetry and Poetic Theory. Ed. Thomas J. Collins & Vivienne J. Rundle. Toronto: Broadview Press, 1999. Print.

Wohl, Anthony S. “Racism and Anti-Irish Prejudice in Victorian England.” //Victorian Web// (1990): n. pag. Web. 02 February 2015.

Further Information on Letitia E. Landon:

Brown, Susan, Patricia Clements, and Isobel Grundy, eds. “Letitia E. Landon.” // Orlando: Women's Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present //. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Online, 2006. Web. 02 February 2015.

Byron, Glennis. "Landon, Letitia Elizabeth (1802–1838)." //Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.// Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. Web. 02 February 2015.

Further Information on Victorian Racism:

Mukherjee, Ankhi. Introduction. //Race.// By Mukherjee. Oxford Bibliographies. Online: Oxford University Press Online, 2015. Web. 02 February 2015.

Further Information on William Whitehead:

Scott, Rosemary. "Whitehead, William (//bap.// 1715, //d.// 1785)." //Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.// Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. Web. 02 February 2015.