Charlotte Smith was best known as a sonnet writer when her blank verse poem
The Emigrants, a Poem, in Two Bookswas published in 1793. After the publication of the sixth edition of her popular
Elegiac Sonnetsin 1792, she took a break from expanding that volume (the next, second volume was published in 1797) and
The Emigrantsmarks a shift in both poetic form and emphasis. While Smith’s sonnets hitherto published had been largely apolitical,
The Emigrantsis more expansive in scope, blending private and public. The title refers to members of the Catholic French clergy and nobility who fled post-revolution France following the abolition of state religion, seeking refuge in England. Smith herself took several emigrants into her home, and her daughter Anna Augusta married an émigré in…
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Citation: Roberts, Bethan. "The Emigrants". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 11 October 2013 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=12425, accessed 21 November 2024.]