A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Townsend, Eliza
TOWNSEND, ELIZA,
Was born In Boston, Massachusetts, where she still resides, during the latter part of the eighteenth century. All her early poems, though attracting attention and favourable notice for the poetic genius they displayed, were published anonymously, and for many years her authorship was kept a secret, which has prevented her from being as widely known as she would otherwise have been. Her poem on "The Incomprehensibility of God" is generally considered her best; and in a criticism on this, the Rev. Dr. Cheever remarks, that "it is equal in grandeur to the Thanatopsis of Bryant," and that "it will not suffer by comparison with the most sublime pieces of Wordsworth or Coleridge." Though this praise may be somewhat too high, yet it shows among what class of poets Miss Townsend may claim a place—those in whom religious feeling, thoughtfulness, and a deep and quiet enthusiasm are the leading traits. Her productions have generally appeared in the different religious periodicals of New England, and no collection of them has ever been made. Mr. Griswold, whose work on "The Female Poets of America" is well known, says of this writer:—"There is a religious and poetical dignity, with all the evidences of a fine and richly-cultivated understanding, in most of the poems of Miss Townsend, which entitle her to be ranked among the distinguished literary women who were her contemporaries, and in advance of all who in her own country preceded her."