Victoria Martin: https://victoriamartin.art.blog/2020/04/22/letter-to-louisa/

Hi Victoria, Wow! I have read through many letters to Louisa and yours sticks out to me by far. Immediately I am drawn into your blog with your use of the question “have you noticed the moon tonight”? Straight away I am catapulted into the peaceful tone that your letter proceeds to maintain throughout its entirety and this is exactly the kind of comfort that Louisa would have needed. I love how you have taken the approach of wanting to distract Louisa instead of reminding her of her troubles. You cleverly achieved this through cosmic questions; forcing Louisa to step way beyond the things that are in front of her. I love the imagery that you have utilised to do this, especially the concept of the goddesses dancing around the spinning planets. To me this brings an almost dream-like presence to your blog, further accentuating its peaceful tone. Your use of verbs throughout to draw in the reader are also extremely alluring. I found myself fixated on the words “detangle”, “squint”, “spinning” and “dare”, allowing me to be thrown into the rhythm of your blog. I like how at the end you have subtly captured some of the context of the Victorian Era through your reference of “facts” and “systems”, however, I would have loved to have seen you subtly contextualise a little more throughout to further link your letter to the novel and perhaps make your blog ever longer. Other than that, this is an amazing and very creative blog. Keep up the good work!

Anna Castagnella: https://literaturewithanna.art.blog/category/19th-century-literature/critical-blogs-19th-century-literature/

Hi Anna,

I think this blog is very well written. Your choice of wording to describe the painting is particularly alluring. I love the way you explained yourself engaging with the painting as your “eyes were drawn to the salience of the lake, and then wondered up the mountains and into the sky”. For me, this was very pleasant to read and provoked a sense of true tranquility like you have explained the painting achieves. I believe this line demonstrates how you, yourself engaged with the nature presented in front of you which was a key theme in Romantic ideology. I also like the way you have discussed how the mountains appear superior to humans and how this superiority makes it hard for humans to truly understand nature. Perhaps in this part you could have also mentioned how the darker tones of the mountains contrast the beauty of the sky which ultimately evokes a sense of mystery about nature as this was a time where in which humans were just beginning to re-engage with nature. Furthermore, perhaps you could have related your poem to Percy Shelley’s Mont Blanc to strengthen your understanding of literary themes for this period, that is just a suggestion though! I think that you have beautifully captured this artwork!

Isabella Bousaid: https://isabellabousaid.wordpress.com/2020/03/10/blog-1/

Hey Bella,

I really love this blog entry! As I was reading, it painted a perfect narrative in my head. I love how it felt like I was following your mind along in the writing process, it’s evident that you feel pretty passionate about what you are writing about. I particularly loved the first lines “Autumn approaching, petals wilting, my heart is in pieces”. For me, this drew me straight into your emotions. I love how you correlated your emotions directly to the season, it painted a clear picture, setting me up for the rest of the poem and reeling me in. I think you have clearly shown us how nature taught you to love your surroundings, I respect that a lot! I also really enjoyed your use of full stops and short sharp sentences, it gave your poem true emotive flare. I feel that to strengthen your poem, I would have love to have to read more about the water itself to get a sense of truly being there with you in the moment. Although I know this is a free verse poem, perhaps definite stanzas would also strengthen the poem and give it some structure for different ideas. However, I also like how it is structured to be fast paced right now so just a suggestion! Keep up the good work!!