Sonnet I

In Charlotte Smith’s Sonnet I, the main conflicts are between her and herself as well as between her and society. Throughout the beginning of the sonnet, there is a connection between beauty and inspiration within nature as seen in lines 4 and 5. However, Smith then comes to state that

“But far, far happier is the lot of those
Who never learn’d her dear delusive art,
Which, while it decks the head with many a rose.
Reserves the thorn- to fester in the heart.”

Here she is connecting suffering even when happy. Even though there are crowns of flowers, which show happiness, there are also thorns involved that is causing all the pain she is enduring. The main conflicts are between her and herself and between her and society.

ROMANTICISM: 1 often capitalized (1) : a literary, artistic, and philosophical movement originating in the 18th century, characterized chiefly by a reaction against neoclassicism and an emphasis on the imagination and emotions, and marked especially in English literature by sensibility and the use of autobiographical material, an exaltation of the primitive and the common man, an appreciation of external nature, an interest in the remote, a predilection for melancholy, and the use in poetry of older verse forms

This sonnet helps demonstrate Romanticism in that her emotion is expressed in many forms throughout the sonnet with use of vivid imagery that seems to capture the heart and lead to suffering. Suffering is needed in life to appreciate who we are as individuals.