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Comparative Literature Studies 43.1-2 (2006) 153-170



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Sexual Imagery in the Verse Epistles of Robert Burns and Anna Louisa Karsch

Illinois Wesleyan University

The verse epistle has suffered the fate of occasional poetry as a whole: it tends to be ignored or demoted because it fails to satisfy a normative notion of pure art.1 This holds true despite the fact that two of these standards are completely non-literary: the circumstances under which the poem originated and its purpose or social function. Because it depends on the person to whom it is addressed and has clear designs on the reader, the verse epistle is not "free," which might disqualify it as high art. Yet the charm of the epistles I will discuss here is directly related to their various purposes and social contingencies. Indisputably epistles, a popular verse form during the eighteenth century, work differently than poems of the romantic cannon. Anna Louisa Karsch (1722–1791) and Robert Burns (1759–1796) found the epistle form attractive precisely for its affinity with occasional poetry.

The fact that "the projection of epistolary audience […] unmistakably insists on engagement between poetry and the world"2 appealed to poets like Anna Louise Karsch and Robert Burns. In fact, some of the best poetry of these two artists is to be found in their epistles.3 The dialogic interplay Karsch and Burns cultivate with the addressee and general audience contrasts with the abstract intellectuality of the Augustan epistle and the studied introspection of romantic poetry, which shunned the epistle genre. In addition to providing entertainment, Burns and Karsch congratulate, praise, advise, instruct, or express friendly solidarity in their epistles. What one critic said of Burns's epistles is true of countless others of the eighteenth century, including Karsch's: "To its recipient, a verse-epistle from Burns could be a lifeline, a challenge, a source of humor, an appreciative thump on the back, or a considered appeal for support."4 [End Page 153]

The epistles I have selected for analysis in this paper have for the most part in common their prominence in critical reception, the spontaneous quality of their language, and their carefully considered artistic form. There is a strong consensus that Burns's "verse letters are among the most splendid and original of his poems."5 About half of Karsch's published poems are epistles; the ones I have chosen here are among the most frequently cited and anthologized. Karsch cultivates a vibrant, dynamic diction that enables one critic to speak of "Das Kräftige, Anschaulich-Sinnliche und zugleich Eigenständige dieser Sprache" (Nikisch 79) ["the powerful, sensually concrete and at the same time original quality of this language"], as one can speak of Burns's "racy, unbuttoned, freewheeling verse Epistle."6 Instead of the heroic couplets employed by mainstream British poets, Burns uses the metrically intricate Habbie and Montgomery stanzas.7 In contrast to her more informal epistles, which are non-strophic and irregularly rhymed, Karsch's best epistles are in quatrains or six-line stanzas. We will even examine an epistle she wrote in Greek ode strophes. Such formal complexity was unusual for German epistles, which as a rule avoided strophic forms and complex meters.8

Two important contrasts between the epistles of Karsch and Burns and those of their canonic contemporaries involve the construction of a lyrical subject and the use of physical sensation. In the first place, the "I" persona in the epistles for poets like Karsch and Burns is more clearly anchored in the particulars of their lives and personalities. Secondly, whereas mainstream eighteenth century verse focuses on the evocation of sight and sound in its imagery, Karsch and Burns more frequently evoke touch and physical sensation. The sexual realm provides excellent examples for this.

In the first segment below, I will examine the philosophy of life Karsch and Burns recommend in their epistles: physical love as one of the best consolations life has to offer. This will be followed by a discussion of Karsch and Burns...

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