Poems, &c.

Baillie, Joanna, 1762-1851Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.4

Word count: 114K words
Chapters: 12

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Poems, &c. (1790) by Joanna BaillieAuthor: Baillie, Joanna, 1762-1851,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Jan 6, 2005

Editor's review

This Poems, &c. is an early poetry collection by the Scottish poet Joanna Baillie, published in 1790 and circulated as a free e-book through Project Gutenberg. Baillie later became known for verse tragedies and long narrative poems, while this early collection preserves the lyrical character of her first years in literary life, with subjects mostly involving emotion, nature, and moral reflection, in clear language and regular meter, bearing the typical tastes of late eighteenth-century English poetry. For readers studying women's writing of the Romantic period, it is primary material for understanding Baillie's starting point, and can be read against her later Plays on the Passions to observe the evolution of her dramatic technique. Note that this is a public-domain e-text of the original English, without modern annotation or introduction, so readers should bring their own background knowledge. It is suitable as supplementary material for English literature courses or for poetry lovers to browse at leisure.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Literature students studying late eighteenth-century English poetry and women's writing
General readers interested in Scottish literature and poetry on the eve of Romanticism
Teachers needing public-domain English poetry texts for teaching or quotation
Poetry lovers who enjoy metrical verse and are willing to read original English poems slowly

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking a Chinese translation or a bilingual edition
Beginners who need modern annotation, introductions, and detailed background explanation
Readers who prefer modern free verse or contemporary-themed poetry

Reading tips

Read the table of contents first to understand the types of pieces, then choose lyrical short poems to read through, rather than plowing straight through from beginning to end.
Read alongside material on late eighteenth-century British history and Baillie's life to understand the moral and emotional context of the poems.
Use an online dictionary for uncommon words, but do not look up every word; first grasp the general meaning of each stanza.
Read against Baillie's later plays, noting traces of her poetic language transitioning toward dramatic dialogue.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book a Chinese edition or the original English?

This is a public-domain e-book of the original English published by Project Gutenberg, with the text in English and no Chinese translation. It suits readers with some English reading ability who are willing to engage directly with the original poems. If your English is weak, you might first look for selected Chinese translations of Baillie's poems to get an overview.

Why does this book have no modern annotation or introduction?

Project Gutenberg aims to preserve and disseminate public-domain texts and usually provides only the original work, without adding modern editorial notes, introductions, or scholarly appendices. Readers therefore need to supply information on the author's life, historical background, and vocabulary themselves.

What level of English is needed to read this poetry collection?

Poetic language is condensed and diction tends toward the archaic; a reading ability of college English Band 4 or above is suggested, along with familiarity with basic terms of poetic meter. On a first reading, use a dictionary and an annotated history of English literature; do not try to understand every allusion and figure of speech at once.

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About the author

Baillie, Joanna, 1762-1851 Author

Joanna Baillie (1762–1851) was a British poet and playwright whose biographical details are limited in publicly available sources. She is known for her verse dramas, which often explore emotional and moral conflict, written in a plain yet lyrical style that gave her a measure of influence in early nineteenth-century British literary circles. The library holds one of her works, Poems, &c., which reflects her poetic output. Her writing belongs to the tastes of late eighteenth-century sentimentalism and early Romanticism, emphasizing inner character and dramatic tension, and remains of value for the study of women's writing and the tradition of verse drama. Given the limited biographical material, this note confines itself to the themes and style of her work without speculation beyond the dates and facts above.