Lydia Sigourney

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Lydia Sigourney
Lydia Sigourney

Lydia Huntley Sigourney née Lydia Howard Huntley (September 1, 1791 - June 10, 1865) was an extremely popular American poet during the early and mid 19th century. She was commonly known as the "Sweet Singer of Hartford." Most of her works were published with just her married name Mrs. Sigourney.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Mrs. Sigourney was born in Norwich, Connecticut to Ezekiel Huntley and Zerviah Wentworth. Their only child, she was named after her father's first wife, Lydia Howard, who had died soon after marrying Ezekiel.

In her autobiography Letters of Life Sigourney describes her relation to her parents, her decision to care for them, and her intent to avoid marriage because it would interfere with this relationship.

I had . . . reason for avoiding serious advances. My mind was made up never to leave my parents. I felt that their absorbing love could never be repaid be the longest life-service, and that the responsibility of an only child, their sole prop and solace, would be strictly regarded by Him who readeth the heart. I had seen aged people surrounded by indifferent persons, who considered their care a burden, and could not endure the thought that my tender parents, who were without near relatives, should be thrown upon the fluctuating kindness of hirelings and strangers. To me, my father already seemed aged, though scarcely sixty; and I said, in my musing hours, Shall he, who never denied me aught, or spoke to me otherwise than in love-tones, stretch forth his hands in their weakness, "and find none to gird him"? (241).

[edit] Education and the school for young ladies

She was educated in Norwich and Hartford. After conducting a private school for young ladies in Norwich, she conducted a similar school in Hartford from 1814 until 1819.

When she was quite young, one of her neighbors, the Widow Lathrop, was friendly with her and encouraged her to develop. After her friend Madam Lathrop died, Lydia was sent to visit Mrs. Jeremiah Wadsworth, an acquaintance of the Widow Lathrop in [Hartford, Connecticut]. This visit put her in contact with Daniel Wadsworth. Daniel helped her set up a school for girls, arranging for daughters of his friends to attend.[1] In 1815, he also helped her publish her first work, Moral Pieces in Prose and Verse , arranging the publishing and performing the initial editing himself. Sigourney described Wadsworth as her "kind patron" and says that he "took upon himself the whole responsibility of contracting publishers, gathering subscriptions, and even correcting the proof sheets".[2] She goes on to say that "He delighted in drawing a solitary mind from obscurity into a freer atmosphere and brighter sunbeam".[3]

[edit] Marriage and married life

On June 16, 1819, she married Charles Sigourney, and after her marriage chose to write anonymously in "leisure" time.[4] It was not until her parents were in dire need and her husband had lost some of his former affluence that she began to write as an occupation. When she was referred to as the probable author of the anonymous Letters to Young Ladies, By a Lady she admitted authorship and began to write openly as Mrs. Sigourney.[5]

After her death, John Greenleaf Whittier composed a poem for her memorial tablet:

She sang alone, ere womanhood had known
The gift of song which fills the air to-day:
Tender and sweet, a music all her own
May fitly linger where she knelt to pray.[6]

[edit] Writings and criticism

This passage outlines her main themes including old age, death, responsibility, religion - a strong belief in God and the Christian faith - and work (Victorian Web). She often wrote elegies or poems for recently deceased neighbors, friends, and acquaintances. Her work is one example of Victorian-era death literature which views death as an escape to a better place, especially for children. A contemporary critic called her work, infused with morals, "more like the dew than the lightning".[7]

[edit] Legacy

Sigourney, photographed by Mathew Brady
Sigourney, photographed by Mathew Brady

Since her death, her writings largely have been forgotten. When remembered, she has been criticized for being shallow or for catering to the society in which she lived where women were expected to avoid public lives. For example, much of her writing is referred to as "hack work" by Haight, her only biographer. Others have attributed her influence to her relationships with wealthy, powerful people of her day or to good business sense. Kolker points out that much of the criticism has come from modern ideas of finding a personal voice through poetry while Sigourney's avowed intent was to benefit others (66). This purpose would mean that she had no need to find a personal voice.

"She was one of the most popular writers of her day, both in America and in England, and was called 'the American Hemans.' Her writings were characterized by fluency, grace and quiet reflection on nature, domestic and religious life, and philanthropic questions; but they were too often sentimental, didactic and commonplace to have much literary value. Some of her blank verse and pictures of nature suggest Bryant. Among her most successful poems are 'Niagara' and 'Indian Names.' Throughout her life she took an active interest in philanthropic and educational work" (1911 Encyclopædia Britannica).

Her influence was tremendous. She inspired many young women to attempt to become poets. According to Teed:

As a dedicated, successful writer, Lydia Sigourney violated essential elements of the very gender roles she celebrated. In the process, she offered young, aspiring women writers around the country an example of the possibilities of achieving both fame and economic reward (19).

Rev. E. B. Huntington wrote a small consideration of Mrs. Sigourney's life shortly after her death. He thought that her success came "because with [her] gifts and [her] success, she had with singular kindliness of heart made her very life-work itself a constant source of blessing and joy to others. Her very goodness had made her great. Her genial goodwill had given her power. Her loving friendliness had made herself and her name everywhere a charm" (85). She wrote to inspire others and Huntingdon felt that she had been successful.

She contributed more than two thousand articles to many (nearly 300) periodicals (1911 Encyclopædia Britannica) and some 67 books.

In 1844, Sigourney, Iowa, the county seat of Keokuk County, Iowa, was named in her honor. A large oil-painted portrait of Lydia still graces the foyer of the county courthouse.

[edit] Lyceum Movement

Sigourney's commitment to education, writing, and charity was testimony to women’s possibilities for self-betterment and, no doubt, a role model for women. When Sigourney gave up her anonymity for good, she became the most widely known "authoress" and "poetess" in America. As a result, during the lyceum movement that flourished in the United States in the 19th century, women named literary societies and study clubs in her honor, including the following examples:[8]

  • Sigournean Society (Moore’s Hill, Indiana) — founded as a women’s literary society at Moore’s Hill Male and Female Collegiate Institute (later Moore’s Hill College) in 1857 — The society, which was known for a time as the Sigs, ultimately became the Chi Epsilon Chapter of Chi Omega Sorority; the college, which relocated to Evansville, Indiana, in 1919, is now the University of Evansville.
  • Sigournean Society (Indianapolis, Indiana) — founded by Lydia Short as the first literary society for women at North Western Christian University (now Butler University) in March 1859 — The society published a newsletter, The Sigournean Casket.
  • Sigournean Society (Greensboro, North Carolina) — founded at Greensboro Female College (now Greensboro College) prior to 1863
  • Sigournean Society (Batavia, Illinois) — founded at the Batavia Institute, circa March 1866
  • Young Ladies' Sigournean Band (Kokomo, Indiana) — flourished circa 1870s
  • Sigournean Club (Olathe, Kansas) — founded as a women’s study club in 1890 and apparently survived until the 1970s — According to its constitution, "The object of this club shall be the attainment of a higher plane of life through broad culture, free discussion and mutual helpfulness."
  • Sigournean Club (Winfield, Kansas) — organized as an afternoon study club in 1898 — The main purpose of the club was to further the study of art and literature.

There doubtless were many other such societies that were founded during the lyceum movement and named in honor of Lydia Huntley Sigourney.

[edit] Selected works

Landing at Jamestown, an engraving by A.L. Dick, was used as the frontispiece of Pocahontas and Other Poems.
Landing at Jamestown, an engraving by A.L. Dick, was used as the frontispiece of Pocahontas and Other Poems.
Main article: List of works published by Lydia Sigourney

[edit] References

  1. ^ Haight, 9
  2. ^ Sigourney, 325
  3. ^ Sigourney, 325-6
  4. ^ Haight, 33-34
  5. ^ Haight, 35
  6. ^ Wagenknecht, Edward. John Greenleaf Whittier: A Portrait in Paradox. New York: Oxford University Press, 1967: 111.
  7. ^ Brooks, Van Wyck. The Flowering of New England. New York: E. P. Dutton and Company, Inc., 1952. p. 163
  8. ^ Scheetz, George H. "From Lyceum to Library: A Free Public Library for Batavia." Books Between Bites [Batavia (Ill.) Public Library lecture series], Thursday, 19 April 2007

[edit] External links

Wikisource
Wikisource has original works written by or about:

For additional works available online as images, see the Bibliography.

[edit] Further reading

  • Collin, Grace Lathrop. "Lydia Huntley Sigourney", a biography published in New England Magazine: An Illustrated Monthly, New Series, republished in Vol. 27. Boston: America Company, 1902 (available at Google Books).
  • Haight, Gordon S. Mrs. Sigourney, The Sweet Singer of Hartford. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1930.
  • Hart, John Seely. The Female Prose Writers of America Philadelphia, 1857. At Google Books.
  • Huntington, Rev. E.B. "Lydia H. Sigourney." Eminent women of the age, being narratives of the lives and deeds of the most prominent women of the present generation. Hartford, Conn., 1868. Image at Google Books.
  • Kolker, Amy Sparks. The Circumscribed Path: Nineteenth-Century American Poetesses. Diss. University of Kansas, 1999. Ann Arbor: UMI, 1999. 9941646.
  • Mattheu, Elizabeth-Christina. "Britannia's Poet! Graecia's Hero, Sleeps! ...": Philhellenic Poetry by Women, 1817-1852. Diss. University of Athens, 2001. Ann Arbor: UMI, 2001. 3015876.
  • Sigourney, Lydia Howard Huntley. Letters of Life. New York, 1867. E-text at the Internet Archive.
  • Teed, Melissa Ladd. Work, Domesticity and Localism: Women's Public Identity in Nineteenth-Century Hartford, Connecticut. Diss. University of Connecticut, 1999. Ann Arbor: UMI, 2000. 9949129.