Susanna Blamire
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Susanna Blamire (12 January 1747 – 1794) was an English Romantic poet, sometimes known as 'The Muse of Cumberland' because many of her poems represent rural life in the county and, therefore, provide a valuable contradistinction to those amongst the poems of
William Wordsworth William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication '' Lyrical Ballads'' (1798). Wordsworth's ' ...
that regard the same subject, in addition to those of the other
Lake Poets The Lake Poets were a group of English poets who all lived in the Lake District of England, United Kingdom, in the first half of the nineteenth century. As a group, they followed no single "school" of thought or literary practice then known. They ...
, especially those of
Samuel Taylor Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge (; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake ...
, and in addition to those of
Lord Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and has been regarded as among the ...
, on whose ''The Prisoner of Chillon'' her works may have had an influence. Blamire composed much of her poetry outside, sat beside a stream in her garden at Thackwood. She also played the
guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...
and the flageolet, both of which she used in the process of the composition of her poetry. Blamire has been described as 'unquestionably the greatest female poet of Romantic.html" ;"title="omantic_literature_in_English.html" ;"title="he Romantic">omantic_literature_in_English.html"_;"title="he_Romantic_literature_in_English">Romanticage'_and,_by_Jonathan_Wordsworth.html" ;"title="Romantic literature in English">Romantic">omantic_literature_in_English.html" ;"title="he Romantic literature in English">Romanticage' and, by Jonathan Wordsworth">Romantic literature in English">Romantic">omantic_literature_in_English.html" ;"title="he Romantic literature in English">Romanticage' and, by Jonathan Wordsworth, a great-nephew of William Wordsworth, 'as important as the other Romantic poets writing during the eighteenth century'. Blamire's song 'And Ye shall walk in silk attire', referenced by
Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...
in ''
The Old Curiosity Shop ''The Old Curiosity Shop'' is one of two novels (the other being ''Barnaby Rudge'') which Charles Dickens published along with short stories in his weekly serial ''Master Humphrey's Clock'', from 1840 to 1841. It was so popular that New York r ...
'' is well known. Her magnum opus is ''Stoklewath, or The Cumbrian Village''.


Life

Blamire was born at Cardew House, Cardew Hall, near Cardew, Cumberland, on 12 January 1747. Her parents were William Blamire, a farmer who died in 1758, and Isabella Simpson of Stockdalewath who died in 1753. Left an orphan, she went to live with her mother's sister Mary who farmed at Thackwood, Stockdalewath. She was educated at the Dame school at Raughton Head, before being privately tutored, at home, by masters from the Sebergham Grammar School, where the poet
Joseph Relph Josiah Relph (3 December 1712 – 26 June 1743) was a Cumberland poet (his first name is given as Joseph in earlier editions of the ''Dictionary of National Biography''). His poetical works were first published in 1747 under the title of ''A Miscel ...
had been Headmaster.


Social milieu

Her brother William, who married to a sister of John Christian Curwen was the father of William Blamire, who served as
High Sheriff of Cumberland The sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of the responsibilities associated with the post have been transferred elsewhere o ...
and MP for Cumberland. Another brother, Richard, was a bookseller in London who published many of William Gilpin's work regarding the picturesque. Through these brothers, Susanna was introduced to the London literary milieu. Her sister married Colonel Graham of Gartmore, who was an officer in the  Highland regiment, through whom she had contacts in Scotland. Susannah went as her sister's companion on trips to The
Scottish Highlands The Highlands ( sco, the Hielands; gd, a’ Ghàidhealtachd , 'the place of the Gaels') is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland S ...
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
 and 
Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
R. Lonsdale p278 In Carlisle, Susanna encountered Catharine Gilpin of Scaleby Castle, who became a friend and possibly, according to Mandell Creighton, a co-author in verse. Through another aunt, Mrs Fell, who was a curates wife from  Chilingham, Blamire befriended the aristocratic Tankerville family: there was talk of a possible marriage between her and the family's eldest son, Lord Ossulton, but the social mores of the milieu prevented the same, and he was sent abroad. She remained unmarried. Blamire was also a friend of the philosopher
William Paley William Paley (July 174325 May 1805) was an English clergyman, Christian apologist, philosopher, and utilitarian. He is best known for his natural theology exposition of the teleological argument for the existence of God in his work ''Natu ...
.


Illness and Death

Blamire suffered from a recurrent and severe form of
rheumatic heart disease Rheumatic fever (RF) is an inflammatory disease that can involve the heart, joints, skin, and brain. The disease typically develops two to four weeks after a streptococcal throat infection. Signs and symptoms include fever, multiple painful jo ...
, which killed her at the age of 47. She died on 5 April 1794 in Carlisle and is buried by her own request at  Raughton Head chapel.R. Lonsdale p279


Works

Blamire often composed her poetry beside a stream in the garden at her residence at Thackwood. She also played the
guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...
and the flageolet, which she sometimes played whilst composing. She circulated her work privately, and pinned it to trees, and little of it was published during her lifetime. However, some of her poetry was published in single sheets, anthologies, and magazines, during her lifetime. Anonymously, to the '' Scots Musical Museum'', Blamire contributed songs in
Lallans Lallans (; a variant of the Modern Scots word ''lawlands'' meaning the lowlands of Scotland), is a term that was traditionally used to refer to the Scots language as a whole. However, more recent interpretations assume it refers to the dialects o ...
: ''What ails this Heart o' Mine?'', and ''The Siller Croun'' (alias ''And ye shall walk in Silk Attire''). With ''The Waefu' Heart'', these three of her works were set to music by Joseph Haydn. These three songs were set to remarkably fitting music by Haydn and can be heard sung on CDs by 'Haydn Trio Eisenstadt' with Lona Anderson, soprano: 'The Siller Croun' (Hob.XXX1a:260; 'The Waefu' Heart' (Hob.XXX1a:9/bis); 'What Ails this Heart o' Mine' (Hob.XX1a:244). Haydn used a German translation of the three lyrics to understand their emotional tone and was given Susanna's original English lyrics for the metre. He pitched the pathos of his music perfectly. Her complete works were first compiled and published, by Patrick Maxwell of Edinburgh and Henry Lonsdale of Carlisle, in 1842, as ''The Poetical Works of Miss Susanna Blamire, The Muse of Cumberland''. These two publishers had collected her manuscripts since 1836. Her corpus contains Gothic allegories in Standard English; songs in the Scots dialect, such as ''What ails this Heart o' Mine''; songs in the Cumberland dialect, such as 'Wey, Ned! Man!', which are comparable to poems in the same dialect by
William Wordsworth William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication '' Lyrical Ballads'' (1798). Wordsworth's ' ...
and
Samuel Taylor Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge (; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake ...
in their ''
Lyrical Ballads ''Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems'' is a collection of poems by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, first published in 1798 and generally considered to have marked the beginning of the English Romantic movement in literatu ...
''; colloquial epistles addressed to friends; and the use of heroic couplets, in ''Stoklewath or the Cumbrian Village'', an intricate depiction of rural life that is her most accomplished poem. Patrick Maxwell, aforementioned, claimed that Blamire was "unquestionably the best female writer of her age". She has been credited with anticipating the Romantic conception of the world immortalized by
William Wordsworth William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication '' Lyrical Ballads'' (1798). Wordsworth's ' ...
and
Samuel Taylor Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge (; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake ...
. Furthermore, her poem ''The Nun's Return to the World ..' may have been an influence on Lord Byron's ''The Prisoner of Chillon'': Indeed, the late Professor Jonathan Wordsworth of St Catherine's College, Cambridge, in his lecture at the dedication service of Susanna's bicentenary memorial tablet in Carlisle Cathedral on 20 March 1994, said: 'We might be listening to Byron's Prisoner of Chillon.' Some evidence for this attribution is as follows: Blamire's half-sister, Bridget (1757-1832), offspring of Susanna Blamire's father's second marriage, took a huge interest in Susanna's poetic manuscripts, some of which she had prepared for publication. She married George Brown, a lawyer and Freeman of the City of Newcastle-on-Tyne. Following his premature death in 1795, she established Newbottle School, at Houghton-le Spring, County Durham, six miles from Anabella Milbanke’s house in Seaham. It is quite possible that Byron could have read a manuscript or a transcript of Blamire's poems whilst at Seaham Manor, immediately after his marriage to Milbanke in 1815. Also, Bridget's son, William, (born 1787) was a tutor to Annabella until shortly after her marriage to Byron in 1815. Another interesting connection was through Susanna's niece Mary née Blamire and her husband, The Revd Thomas Young y great x2 grandparents who was educated with William Wordsworth at Hawkshead Grammar School and later was Senior Tutor at Trinity College, Cambridge (from 1806) during Byron's time as an undergraduate there. Young came from a statesman's family at Cumdivock, Near Carlisle, only three miles from The Blamire's family house, The Oaks, at Dalston and six miles from Thackwood Manor, where Susanna and her nephew, William Blamire MP, High Sheriff and Chief Tithe Commissioner had lived. So, it is certainly possible that an academic like Young, living so closely in a rural community would have known of or read Susanna's writings. The Byron Scholar, Professor Jerome McGann, University of Virginia, believed: ‘It seems quite possible that Susanna’s poem was in Byron’s mind when he wrote The Prisoner of Chillon.’.


Reception of Poetry

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...
in his ''
The Old Curiosity Shop ''The Old Curiosity Shop'' is one of two novels (the other being ''Barnaby Rudge'') which Charles Dickens published along with short stories in his weekly serial ''Master Humphrey's Clock'', from 1840 to 1841. It was so popular that New York r ...
'' (1841, end of chapter 66) had quoted its first two lines:
" 'Sir' said Dick ( Swiveller), ... 'we'll make a scholar of the poor Marchioness yet! ''And she shall walk in silk attire, and siller have to spare,'' or may I never rise from this bed again!' ".
Hugh MacDiarmid Christopher Murray Grieve (11 August 1892 – 9 September 1978), best known by his pen name Hugh MacDiarmid (), was a Scottish poet, journalist, essayist and political figure. He is considered one of the principal forces behind the Scottish Rena ...
praised her in a radio broadcast in 1947, as "this sweet Cumbrian singer". He insisted that her Scottish songs are "the high-water mark of her achievement … so good that they can be set beside the best that have ever been produced by Scotsmen writing in their own tongue". Jonathan Wordsworth, a great-nephew of William Wordsworth, dubbed her, in 1994, "The Poet of Friendship", predicting on BBC Radio Cumbria in 1998 that "Susanna will eventually be seen as important as the other Romantic poets writing during the eighteenth century, and should be more widely read". In ''The New Penguin Book of Romantic Poetry'' he likened Blamire's social position to that of Jane Austen:
‘the well-to-do maiden aunt’s life of good works and humorous observation'.


Notes


References

* * * * Christopher Hugh Maycock, ''A Passionate Poet: Susanna Blamire (1747-94)'', Hypatia Publications, 2003, ; * Christopher Hugh Maycock (edited and introduced by the author with some new material from Professor Paul Betz in his collection of manuscripts, now at the Wordsworth Trust) ''Selected Poems of Susanna Blamire: Cumberland's Lyrical Poet'', Bookcase 2008. till available at Books Cumbria.* Christopher Hugh Maycock, Article on Susanna Blamire at Chawton House Library (Early Women's Writing) Online: https://chawtonhouse.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Susanna-Blamire.pdf


External links


Susanna Blamire
at th
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (ECPA)
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Blamire, Susanna 1747 births 1794 deaths English women poets Lallans poets 18th-century English poets 18th-century English women writers 18th-century English writers People from Dalston, Cumbria Romantic poets