Ian Hunt
Was at a screening last night about social housing -- from London Community Video Archive -- which was great. And it took place in the New Unity Church, #StokeNewington, which I have been meaning to visit for ages. Here's the beautifully worded memorial to one of my favourite writers Anna Laetitia #Barbauld, who lived nearby and was connected to the church. It is next to the more recent plaque for Mary #Wollstonecraft. #Romanticism
Anna Laetitia #Barbauld (1743-1825) doesn't have much name recognition among readers today, but she was significant in several areas: as a poet; as a writer for children; as an essayist and editor (she wrote the prefaces for a pioneering series of 50 novels). Her poem Eighteen Hundred and Eleven is extraordinary. #romanticism #C18th #poetry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Laetitia_Barbauld
#Romanticism Anna #Barbauld, 'The First Fire' (1815, published 1825) is in part a response to Frost at Midnight. 'Heap on the fuel!' -- it's a vision of plenty in solidarity with the hearthless ('heartless' is likely a misprint) & the imprisoned, aware too of the vegetative origins of #coal. 'Assist him, ye /On whose warm roofs the sun of plenty shines, and feel a glow beyond material fire!'