What I find
most interesting about this particular set of sonnets is that not only are they
written by a female author, but they also deal with subjects that most sonnets
do not while still keeping the sonnet convention. I will focus on Sonnet I, as
that is the one I liked the most.
The focus of
this particular sonnet is the Muse, a familiar female figure in literature,
especially that of Romantic poets. The Muse does not get a blazon, but is
presented as the female subject, much like other traditional sonnets have
theirs. However, the Muse is “partial” (line 1) to the speaker instead of being
distant like other figures of desires. In fact, the muse is not desired because
of what she brings to those that she dotes on, “points every pang, and deepens
every sigh/ Of mourning friendship or unhappy love.” Unlike other sonnets, the
presence of the female figure brings out negative emotions in the speaker and amplifies
it so that the speaker would not wish the emotional burden on anyone else.
I like that you point out Smith's use of partial. It might work in another way, too: the Muse is partial to the speaker (favoring her) but also a "partial muse" is only half a muse, a muse that does not fully do what it is supposed to do. This tension is reinforced by the oxymoronic personification on the second line: this Muse "smil'd" on the poet's rugged path, a path she is "doomed" top tread. Smiling on the poet's doom could again be taken in two ways: the smile makes the rugged path easier to follow, or the smile is the Muse mocking the poet's fate. You can trace these tensions to the end of the poem, where the Muse's favours cost" the poet much pain: to write poetry is to suffer, and only suffering can feed poetic production.
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