Poems, translated and original — A Closer Reading

Translation as Creative Dialogue

Ellet's translations are not merely literal renderings but creative engagements. In 'The Sepulchres,' from Foscolo, she preserves the original's meditative tone while adjusting rhythm for English readers. The preface acknowledges borrowing from Niccolini's play on the same Venetian subject for 'a few occasional passages,' yet insists the plot and leading incidents 'differ materially.' This selective appropriation suggests a translator who adapts source material to her own dramatic purposes. The inclusion of Alfieri's Saul and Pindemonte's 'The Poet's Last Dwelling' further indicates a deliberate choice of Italian authors concerned with political exile, mortality, and the poet's role—themes that resonate across her original poems.

Landscape and the Sublime

Several original poems dwell on American and European landscapes with a Romantic sensibility. 'Lake Ontario,' 'Susquehanna,' and 'Sodus Bay' evoke specific North American settings, while 'The Pictured Rocks' describes a natural formation on Lake Superior. In 'The Northern Hunter's Song,' the speaker summons a 'forest vast' and a 'rushing stream from his fetters free,' blending exhilaration with a hint of Ossianic wildness. The imagery of 'peaks of snow' vanishing beneath the sun and the 'eagle has flown from his cliff-built nest' aligns with the sublime tradition. These poems often personify nature—'the hoarse waves' mingled roar'—and treat the natural world as a stage for human emotion.

Mortality and the Consolations of Memory

Death recurs as a theme across both translations and original works. In 'The Sepulchres,' Foscolo's lines ask whether sleep is 'less heavy' beneath a 'sculptured urn / By fond tears watered.' Pindemonte's 'The Poet's Last Dwelling' imagines a 'nameless stone' marking the poet's grave, with the hope that a friend might pause there. Ellet's own 'Death' and 'The Dying Poet' treat the subject more directly. The closing tragedy, Teresa Contarini, presumably dramatizes a fatal conflict from Venetian history. Throughout, the collection suggests that memory—whether preserved in poetry, tears, or stone—offers a partial victory over oblivion.

Readers approaching this volume may find it useful to read the original poems alongside the translations, noting how Ellet's voice shifts between registers. The tragedy at the end, though based on historical incident, should be considered as a dramatic work rather than a historical document. The index provides a clear map of the collection's contents, allowing for selective reading by theme or source.

I remember this 1835 volume—its Venetian shadows and Ossianic mists taught me how solitude shapes a voice. Years later, when I found Poems by Isaac Rosenberg — Text and Context, I felt that same quiet kinship: two poets speaking from the edge of things, each holding a lantern low, content to let the dark keep its secrets.