Reading Experience Database
1450-1945

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Record 16380

Reading Experience:

Evidence:
Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, ?24 August 1836: 'You have not read all Tennyson's poems -- neither have I -- but did you see his "mermaid" at the end of Leigh Hunt's paper on mermaids in the New Monthly Magazine? There is a tone in the poetry -- in the very extravagance of the poetry & language -- an abandonment & wildness -- which seemed to me to accord beautifully with the subject, & stayed with me afterwards -- a true sign of true poetry -- whether I would or not. And if there are [...] occasional perplexities & obscurations in the meaning -- still, no one could complain of them [italics]there[end italics] -- seeing that the language seems to have caught its strangeness with its music from the Mermaid's tongue.'
Century: 1800-1849
Date: Between 1 Jul 1836 and 24 Sep 1836
Country: England
Time: n/a
Place: n/a
   
Type of Experience (Reader):
silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown
Type of Experience (Listener):
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Reader/Listener/Reading Group:

Reader:Elizabeth Barrett
Age Adult (18-100+)
Gender Female
Date of Birth 6 Mar 1806
Socio-economic group: Professional / academic / merchant / farmer
Occupation: Writer
Religion: n/a
Country of origin: England
Country of experience: England
Listeners present if any:
(e.g. family, servants, friends, workmates)
n/a
Additional comments: n/a

 

Text Being Read:

Author: Alfred Tennyson
Title: 'The Mermaid'
Genre: Poetry
Form of Text: Print: Serial / periodical
Publication details: In The New Monthly Magazine for July 1836, p.282 (following essay by Leigh Hunt, 'The Syrens and Mermaids of the Poets' (pp.273-82).
Provenance: unknown

 

Source Information:

Record ID: 16380  
Source - Print  
  Author: n/a
  Editor: Philip Kelley and Ronald Hudson
  Title: The Brownings' Correspondence
  Place of Publication: Winfield
  Date of Publication: 1985
  Vol: 3
  Page: 191
  Additional comments: n/a

Citation: Philip Kelley and Ronald Hudson (ed.), The Brownings' Correspondence (Winfield, 1985), 3, p. 191, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/reading/recorddetails2.php?id=16380, accessed: 29 March 2024

Additional comments:

 

 

Reading Experience Database version 2.0.  Page updated: 27th Apr 2016  3:15pm (GMT)