The Warrior’s Return and Other Poems, Opie’s second volume of verses, exhibits noticeable differences from the earlier Poems. Perhaps in response to criticism mixing praise for the affective power of her verse with anxiety concerning her sympathetic representations of class and racial suffering, this volume contains only two poems based on marginal figures and focuses on more refined subjects, such as distraught lovers and distressed exemplars of filial piety. The poems in this volume were partly praised and partly censured, considered important enough to be widely reviewed and acknowledged as contributions to her literary fame, but they also raised questions that would soon eclipse her reputation.
Contents
The Warrior’s Return
Julia, or The Convent of St. Claire, a Tale founded on Fact
The Mad Wanderer, a Ballad
Lines written in 1799
Song. “I am wearing away like the snow in the sun”
To Lorenzo
Ode to Borrowdale in Cumberland
The Lucayan’s Song
Song. “Was it for this I dearly loved thee”
Ballad, founded on Fact
Song. “Yes, thou art changed”
Stanzas to Cynthio
The Origin of the Sail
Sonnet on the Approach of Autumn
To Laura
Love Elegy, to Laura
Love Elegy, to Henry
To Henry. “Think not, while fairer nymphs invite”
To Henry. [Written to a Russian Air] “How I hail this morn’s appearing!”
Lines on the Opening of a Spring Campaign
Lines on the Place de la Concorde at Paris, Originally called the Place de Louis Seize, — next the Place de la Revolution, where the perpetual guillotine stood
The Moon and the Comet, a Fable
To Lothario
To Henry. “Suppress that cruel doubt, dear youth!”
To Anna
Remembrance
Secret Love
To a Maniac
Lines on Hearing, Three or Four Years Ago, that Constantinople was swallowed up by an Earthquake A Report, though false, at that time generally believed
Song. “While many a fond”
To Henry. “Thy fatal form, where’er I go”
Song. [Written to a Hindoo Air, and published by Mr. Biggs.] “Ask not, whence springs”
Song. “Yes…though we’ve loved”
Song. [Written to some of the Welsh Airs which are soon to be published by Mr. Thomson of Edinburgh.] “How fondly I gaze”
Song. “Where dost thou bide”
Song. “Low hung the dark clouds”
Song. “You ask why these mountains”
Editions
The Warrior’s Return and Other Poems. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1808.
——–. 2nd ed, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1808.
Reviews
Annual Review, vol. 7, 1808, pp. 522-4.
Le Beau Monde, vol. 4, 1808, pp. 364-5.
British Critic, vol. 34, Aug. 1809, pp. 183-4.*
Eclectic Review, vol. 5, Mar. 1809, pp. 274-7.*
Gentleman’s Magazine, vol. 78, no. 2, July 1808, pp. 612-3.*
Monthly Pantheon, vol. 2, Jan. 1809, pp. 6-17.
Monthly Review, vol. 57, Dec. 1808, pp. 436-8.*
Poetical Register, vol. 6, 1811, p. 541.*
Universal Magazine, ns, vol. 9, Apr. 1808, pp. 306-7.
Modern Editions
The Warrior’s Return/The Black Man’s Lament. Intro. Donald H. Reiman, 1808/1826.
New York: Garland, 1978.
The Amelia Alderson Opie Archive 