Monody on Major André by Anna Seward

Abstract

On 2 May 1784, Canadian poet Eliza Cottram wrote a letter (Cottram, Eliza. 1784. “Letter from Eliza Cottram.” Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Lichfield Record Office Letters, D262/1/18) to Anna Seward in praise of her Monody to British war hero, John André (Seward, Anna. 1781. Monody on Major André, by Miss Seward, to which are added letters addressed to her by Major André in the year 1769. Lichfield: J. Jackson), who was hanged as a spy in 1780 during the American War of Independence. Cottram was as interested in André’s life story as his military exploits. She was not alone; British and American men and women were fascinated with André’s history, reading and avidly discussing his career and his fate. Seward’s timely monody on her friend expressed the nation’s grief while hel** elevate André’s glamorous status as a patriotic hero and her own reputation as a writer of significance. She took the unprecedented step of appending three of André’s personal letters to the poem, in addition to comprehensive footnotes. This unusual combination stretches the boundaries of poetry by conflating the imagery of vital youth and tragic death; Seward’s way of imagining the futility of war is to create a sharp contrast between the brutality of combat and the emotions of its combatants. Not only do the letters and notes complement the poem’s content, they deliver a form of life-writing that is embedded in personal experience and reveals a human face that contemporary depictions of the military hero frequently ignore. In this case, Seward’s synthesis of subjectivity, feminine sensibility, and political context was far-reaching in its influence. The European Magazine approved the inclusion of the letters, writing of “a literary portrait which heightens our distress” (Anon. 1810. Review of Monody on Major André. European Magazine and London Review 58 (July): 291) and in her letter, Cottram applauds “a sensibility that spoke to the Heart” (Cottram, Eliza. 1784. “Letter from Eliza Cottram.” Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Lichfield Record Office Letters, D262/1/18), neatly summarizing the work’s impact.