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Pursuit Of Beauty In Anna Barbauld's 'Eighteen Hundred And Eleven'

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The trials and adventures of heroes are seldom beautiful. Often, these escapades include deceit, blood, death, madness, and destruction. All of which, are ugly. One may argue, that the triumph and glory at the end of these adventures represent a beauty that negates the prior ugliness. But, at what cost? Perhaps, the “victory” is pyrrhic, and the “beauty” is ephemeral. Now, apply this structure to war. Victory is sweet, but those burials are sorrowful. Between 3,250,000 and 6,500,000 million people died during the Napoleonic Wars. Anna Barbauld, probably wishes that number was curbed. Even more, she tried. Barbauld’s poem, Eighteen Hundred and Eleven, imagines a future England and London in ruins, visited by travelers from across the Atlantic eager to see the remains of a once-thriving and dominant culture. Through her poem, Barbauld warns that the pursuit of beauty inflicts violence upon the very beauty that is sought after.
Barbauld’s poem is written in heroic couplets, which are used to talk about the adventures of heroes in epics. Although, this style of poetry reached the acme of its popularity in the 17th and 18th century, Barbauld incorporates them in her poem—written in the 19th century. Why would Barbould utilize such an antiquated style? Perhaps, she wants to animate just how destructive the Napoleonic Wars are. For example, consider her depictions of the wreckage of war:
Man calls to Famine, nor invokes in vain/Disease and Rapine follow in her train/The tramp of

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