Abstract
ABSTRACT While matters of animal rights, religious freedom, and the rights of women in writings by Anna Letitia Barbauld have received a good deal of critical attention, this paper extends these discussions to natural rights. Her witty blank verse poem “Inscription for an Ice-House” mixes Classical reference with technology in portraying a struggle between the human and natural realms. Barbauld’s exploration of natural rights through notions of inscription and domestic economy forms the subject of this paper. Consumption of the exotic frozen ices and chilled wines, no matter how pleasurable, goes against a larger domesticity and economy provided by nature that extends the notion of rights to the natural realm. Barbauld’s poem offers a reminder about perspectives on the natural world that offer a thoughtful engagement with rights.
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