Abstract

After publishing her Letters Written in France (1790), Helen Maria Williams planned to travel to France again, for two years. Given the timing of her proposed trip, in a period when England had increasing concerns about, and was generally hostile to, the situation in France, she would have been keenly aware of the risks involved in a two-year trip there. Coupled with her support for the French Revolution, her long stay in France would have increased suspicions about her loyalty to England. This essay argues that Williams uses her poem A Farewell, for Two Years, to England (1791) to demonstrate her love of England and, at the same time, to defend herself against the criticisms of her sympathy for French liberty. This essay examines what makes Williams compose a poem before her trip to France by describing the changing social context of that period. By exploring Anna Seward’s shifting responses to the events in France and studying a review in the Gentleman’s Magazine of Letters, this paper reveals the criticisms that Williams would have faced. It then examines her strategies to demonstrate her loyalty to England and, at the same time, to present her support of French liberty in the poem. (Dongguk University)

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