Hemans

Hemans is here operating within the mode of modern orientalism.

Notes on 'The Ruins of Empire: Nationalism, Art, and Empire in Hemans's Modern Greece' 2006

In "Hemans and Home" Tricia Lootens has explored the complicity of mourning with nation-building in Hemans's poems.

The Ruins of Empire: Nationalism, Art, and Empire in Hemans's Modern Greece 2006

So the issues play themselves out in Hemans, as both writers show themselves sceptical about scepticism.

'A darkling plain': Hemans, Byron and _The Sceptic; A Poem_ 2001

Venturing onto the grounds of philosophical inquiry was a risky move for a woman writer since the incorrect exercise of the female intellect can result in the monstrous, and Hemans is skillful in her ability to remain within the acceptable boundaries of feminine behaviour.

Hemans, Hume and Philosophical Scepticism 2001

With its moral, didactic subject and marching meter, the poem is quite unlike any other in Hemans's corpus.

Hemans, Hume and Philosophical Scepticism 2001

This poetic confounding, part and parcel of Byron's epideictic verse, resonates in Hemans's verse as well.

'A darkling plain': Hemans, Byron and _The Sceptic; A Poem_ 2001

I would submit that, as a writer of numerous occasional poems and no (other) instructional poems, in The Sceptic Hemans is writing an epideictic poem.

'A darkling plain': Hemans, Byron and _The Sceptic; A Poem_ 2001

Sinfield explains the connection between sympathy and drama, which we see in Hemans's poetry:

Hemans, Hume and Philosophical Scepticism 2001

What's at stake are young bodies subject to war and to love (war's marriage system), and both systems affect both poets, given the bisexual manhood of Byron and the regiment-ridden womanhood of Hemans (lest we forget her separation from Captain Hemans in 1818).

'A darkling plain': Hemans, Byron and _The Sceptic; A Poem_ 2001

Captain Hemans was literally demobilized by Waterloo, Byron culturally so.

Scepticism and Its Costs: Hemans's Reading of Byron 2001