SOURCE: “Beachy Head, with Other Poems” British Critic 30 (August 1807): 170-74.

In the following review, the author laments the death of Smith and praises her posthumous poems as some of her best work, particularly noting the composition and tone.

Most sincerely do we lament the death of Mrs. Charlotte Smith. We acknowledged in her a genuine child of genius, a most vivid fancy, refined taste, and extraordinary sensibility. We could not, indeed, always accord with her in sentiment. With respect to some subjects beyond her line of experience, reading, and indeed talent, she was unfortunately wayward and preposterous; but her poetic feeling and ability have rarely been surpassed by any individual of her sex. Her sonnets in particular will remain models of that species of composition; and, as Johnson remarked of Gray's Elegy in a Country Church-yard, had she always written thus, it were vain to blame and useless...