Anna Laetitia Barbauld was educated at home by her mother in Leicestershire, England. She married Rochemont Barbauld in 1772 and with her husband managed the Palgrave School in Suffolk. Barbauld’s early poetry reflects her involvement with children and child rearing. Her later work addressed social and political issues; she advocated religious freedom and abolition of slavery. She openly criticized her government for declaring war on France in 1793.
By Anna Lætitia Barbauld
Child of distress, who meet’st the bitter scorn
Of fellow-men to happier prospects born,
Doomed Art and Nature’s various stores to see
Flow in full cups of joy—and not for thee;
Who seest the rich, to heaven and fate resigned,
Bear thy afflictions with a...
By Anna Lætitia Barbauld
Yes, injured Woman! rise, assert thy right!
Woman! too long degraded, scorned, opprest;
O born to rule in partial Law's despite,
Resume thy native empire o'er the breast!
Go forth arrayed in panoply divine;
That angel pureness which admits no stain;
Go, bid proud Man his...
