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Cynthia Taggart (1801/04–1849) was a 19th-century American poet. A chronic invalid, she was the victim of unceasing pain, from her early infancy, during the period of her adolescence, and through the duration of her life. Physical anguish was a repetitive theme in Taggart's poems. She died in 1849.
Her poems were collected and published in 1834, with an autobiography, describing her hopeless and helpless condition. The poems were published by some friends to avert poverty and dependence from Taggart's life. The work passed through three editions, two in 1834 and one in 1848.
Taggart died in 1849. Rev. James C. Richmond wrote Taggart's biography in ''The Rhode Island Cottage''.
Biography
''The Rhode Island Cottage'' by James Cook Richmond {{DEFAULTSORT:Taggart, Cynthia 1801 births 1849 deaths 19th-century American poets 19th-century American women writers People from Newport, Rhode Island Writers from Rhode Island American women poets
Biography
Cynthia Taggart was born in 1801, or ca. 1804, in a cottage about fromNewport, Rhode Island
Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, and northeast of New Yor ...
. She was the daughter of a soldier, whose property was destroyed during the American Revolution
The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...
, and who died in old age and poverty at the family home.
Though she had few opportunities of learning, she did receive religious training. Taggart's education was very slight, and until sickness deprived her of all other occupation opportunities, about the year 1822, when she was 19 years of age, she appeared never to have thought of literary composition.
Taggart and a widowed sister, who was also an invalid, lived in their paternal home by the seashore. She enumerated among her greatest sufferings, an inability to sleep. For many years, she was unable to sleep, except when taking anodyne
An anodyne is a drug used to lessen pain through reducing the sensitivity of the brain or nervous system. The term was common in medicine before the 20th century, but such drugs are now more often known as analgesics or painkillers.
The term '' ...
s. It was during these long night, when she was in severe pain, that she developed her poetry.
Her poems were collected and published in 1834, with an autobiography, describing her hopeless and helpless condition. The poems were published by some friends to avert poverty and dependence from Taggart's life. The work passed through three editions, two in 1834 and one in 1848.
Taggart died in 1849. Rev. James C. Richmond wrote Taggart's biography in ''The Rhode Island Cottage''.
References
Bibliography
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*Biography
''The Rhode Island Cottage'' by James Cook Richmond {{DEFAULTSORT:Taggart, Cynthia 1801 births 1849 deaths 19th-century American poets 19th-century American women writers People from Newport, Rhode Island Writers from Rhode Island American women poets