Rowe, Elizabeth | Henry F. Stecher (essay date 1973)
Henry F. Stecher (essay date 1973)
SOURCE: "The Character of Elizabeth Singer Rowe," in Elizabeth Singer Rowe, the Poetess of Frome: A Study in Eighteenth-Century English Pietism, Peter Lang, 1973, pp. 176–214.
[In the following excerpt from a full-length study of Rowe, Stecher analyzes the use of sentimentality and romanticism in Rowe's work and life.]
Despite Mrs. Rowe's love for solitude and meditation, and her praise of reason, she often showed great interest and even enthusiasm for mundane pleasures. At first glance, it appears paradoxical, if not entirely inconsistent with her pious reputation, to find remarks in her published and unpublished letters which indicate a degree of social irresponsibility, spleen, and worldliness. It seems to be an inconsistency in her character to find her condemning the world for its deceitfulness and yet delighting in romantic illusions and secular show. She, of course, qualified such pleasures by...
[The entire page is 5910 words long]
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