Evidence: | 'I could not do without a Syringa, for the sake of Cowper's Line.' |
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Century: | 1800-1849 | ||||||||||
Date: | unknown | ||||||||||
Country: | England | ||||||||||
Time: | n/a | ||||||||||
Place: | n/a | ||||||||||
Type of Experience (Reader): |
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Type of Experience (Listener): |
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Reader: | Jane Austen |
Age | Adult (18-100+) |
Gender | Female |
Date of Birth | 16 Dec 1775 |
Socio-economic group: | Clergy (includes all denominations) daughter of clergyman |
Occupation: | Novelist |
Religion: | Anglican |
Country of origin: | England |
Country of experience: | England |
Listeners present if any: (e.g. family, servants,
friends, workmates) |
n/a |
Additional comments: | n/a |
Author: | William Cowper |
Title: | The Task |
Genre: | Poetry |
Form of Text: | Print: Book |
Publication details: | n/a |
Provenance: | owned |
Record ID: | 10373 | |
Source - | ||
Author: | Jane Austen | |
Editor: | Deirdre LeFaye | |
Title: | Jane Austen's Letters | |
Place of Publication: | Oxford | |
Date of Publication: | 1995 | |
Vol: | n/a | |
Page: | 119 | |
Additional comments: | Letter from Jane to Cassandra Austen, Sunday 8 - Monday 9 February, 1807, from Southampton. |
Citation: | Jane Austen, Deirdre LeFaye (ed.), Jane Austen's Letters (Oxford, 1995), p. 119, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/reading/recorddetails2.php?id=10373, accessed: 25 April 2024 |
Jane Austen knew Cowper's poem "The Task" extremely well. According to her brother, Cowper was her favourite poet. She quotes The Task elsewhere - notably in "Mansfield Park" ["Myself creating what I saw"]. The line alluded to here is "...Laburnum, rich / In streaming gold; syringa, iv'ry pure." 'The Winter Walk at Noon', vi, 149-50. For more on Austen's use of Cowper's The Task, See Katie Halsey, 'Spectral Texts in Mansfield Park', "Forum for Modern Language Studies" 42:3 (July, 2006). |
Reading Experience Database version 2.0. Page updated: 27th Apr 2016 3:15pm (GMT)