On the Discovery of a Sequence of Constance Naden’s Notebooks: Finding Her Voice, 1875–1879 Clare Stainthorp (bio) 1 Oh for the poet’s glorious thought, The painter’s gift divine!Why for their semblance have I sought, When they can ne’er be mine? 2 Though I can copy, line for line, The fairest flowers that blow,Though I can write, as thousands do, In lines that softly flow, 3 Though all of this, & more, is mine Yet vainly I aspire,To draw a stroke, to write a line, That glows with living fire. 4 For all my childhood’s dreams are fled, And I may plainly seeThe wreath that crowns the poet’s head Shall ne’er be twined for me. 5 Ye will not visit me again, Sweet simple thoughts of fame,Fond hopes, by pencil & by pen, To win a lasting name. [End Page 233] 6 Yet will I write my simple lays My pencil shall not rest,For it is sweet to win the praise Of those I love the best.1 It is thus that Constance Naden (1858–1889) conceived her artistic ambitions in a newly discovered notebook titled “Poems; by Constance C. W. Naden. 1875–6–7.” Naden went on to publish two well-received volumes of poems during the 1880s, but here she lacks confidence in her poetic ability: she may have common skill, but she does not possess the flame of genius. Titled “A Lament,” this poem also demonstrates Naden’s worries about being derivative—she is aware of her youthful tendency to copy rather than create. This familiar stage in a person’s writing career is “natural,” Christine Alexander asserts; she goes on to argue that “young writers will experiment by impersonating different voices and imitating different genres” and that this “major characteristic of youthful writing . . . is often misunderstood.”2 Imitation was an acknowledged part of the development of the poet during the nineteenth century. For example, in Aurora Leigh, Elizabeth Barrett Browning has Aurora explain, And so, like most young poets, in a flushOf individual life I poured myselfAlong the veins of others, and achievedMere lifeless imitations of live verse.3 This is a rather negative portrayal of the process that led Naden to test many different poetic forms and genres and to try on a variety of voices. While not her most consistently innovative or uniformly successful works, the previously unknown poems in “Poems 1875,” “Poems 1875–6–7,” and “Untitled Notebook 1878–79” demonstrate both Naden’s range—from Petrarchan blazon to extended medieval narrative, testing the conventions of common meter to those of comic verse—and her burgeoning skill.4 The connecting thread across the notebook poems is their vitality; these manuscripts illuminate the lived experience of a young Victorian woman who aspired to write, demonstrating the influences and ideals that converged upon an intelligent adolescent of the 1870s. To read these three notebooks is to encounter Naden’s voice anew; her poems express a depth of thought and feeling that is at turns serious and sentimental, comedic and cutting. This article describes in detail the context, form, [End Page 234] and contents of the notebooks, before exploring the impact of this discovery on our understanding of Naden’s life and works. I begin with new insights into her approach to composition, paying attention to moments that reveal her poetic process, and then consider how Naden conceived the figure of the poet, showing how the development of her poetic voice occurs in dialogue with Romantic ideals of the poet genius. The article proceeds by tracing Naden’s characteristic comic style, familiar from the 1887 “Evolutional Erotics,” through these newly discovered writings; such poems illuminate her critical perspective on the role of poets and the position of women in society. I conclude by turning to the biographical insights that these notebooks provide, showing how these open up a previously unknown facet of Naden’s young life. Situating Naden’s Notebooks During the 1880s, Naden established herself as a poet, philosopher, and student of science. Critics have primarily discussed her work in relation to women’s literary engagement with Darwin and the...
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Jul 8, 2022
Peter Angood 
Open Access