Effusions of Relative and Social Feeling - John Thelwall

John Thelwall's Effusions poems (Paternal Tears) deal with the death of his daughter, Frances Maria Thelwall on the 28th of December 1799. Effusions II and III are written five months later, two days apart from one another on the rivers Taff and Wye respectively. 

Thelwall's bitter loss negates the beauty that he sees around him. The way that he compares her (and the way he feels about her) to nature almost sounds petrarchan:

"Who wert my spring of comfort-- On thy cheekBloom'd fairer hopes than ever vernal gale" (II)

However, in this case her being better than nature explains his distaste for everything he sees. Thelwall can't enjoy anything in a world without Maria in it. 

The recurrent imagery of spring lends to the juxtaposition between what can be gained from nature and the loss of his daughter.

Effusion III is taken as a response/reaction to Wordsworth's poem Tintern Abbey. Thelwall fails to hear Wordsworth's "still sad music of humanity" over the sound of his own breathing, "thy lov'd name, Maria!--Oh! Maria!" (III)

Overcome with 'paternal anguish' and lost in an 'afflictive trance' Thelwall describes his senses, 

"Sight or the list'ning sense, unheeded meets The unconscious organ;" (III)

Questions:1. Does Thelwall's 'attack' on his friend Wordsworth go beyond his poetry to his personal beliefs and inspiration?

2. Is Thelwall just grieving, or is this a defining moment of his art? Will he move on?


--Wesley D. Armstrong