Poem Review

Ode to the Peace of Amiens, by Helen Maria Williams, or just Ode to Peace as it is also titled, is a piece of work that cannot be removed from its historical context. It is written solely because of the political climate and milestones at the time, and as such its reception would also be highly reliant on those as well.

Originally written and published in the Morning Chronicle in 1801, and was written about the Treaty of Amiens, or more likely, the approaching treaty, as the actual treaty itself wasn’t signed until 1802. This treaty marked the end of hostilities between France and the United Kingdom, as well as the French Revolutionary Wars. As a woman born and raised in England, but also someone who’s heart belonged to France; and was living there at the time this was happening, this would have been exciting and hopeful news for Williams. As a way to express her feelings she wrote Ode to Peace. Being published in a paper made this work more available to people at the time, and would have given it more widespread notice than if she had written it in a collection of poems. This was obviously the intended goal, as Williams would have known the importance of this time in history, and likely wanted to let as many people as possible know her stance on the matter, especially given that she was an important figure in both English and French literary circles. 

The poem itself is very celebratory and triumphant. The very opening line is “She comes, benign enchantress, heav’n born PEACE!” (line 1) immediately giving readers a very vivid image of a gentle and holy woman, as the incarnation of peace. Just through the first line she paints a warm and pleasant image for readers, which carries on throughout the poem. On top of that she comes with a little bit of holy imagery, being “heav’n born” means to come from God Himself, and also the fact that anything that could be considered a positive force of power was almost always connected back to God in these times. Continuing with this image of Peace, we get to see her end the fighting, “She bids the horrid din of battle cease,/And at her glance savage passions die.” (lines 3-4), which gives her an even more supernatural quality, heightening her holy imagery. With that holy imagery in place, Williams conveys a message of divinity overlooking this exchange, and approving of this peace. Also to note, “savage passions die,” they do not halt, they do not rest, they die, a very strong and final way of phrasing that. This could be indicative of her desire for the fighting to be over for good, she hopes that this treaty will be an end to all the conflict between the UK and France.

Williams also manages to keep this hopeful and celebratory tone to the poem even when talking about the darker aspects that led up to the treaty, like the fighting and bloodshed. Instead of omitting that part for the sake of looking towards a brighter future, Williams acknowledges them, writing, “Ah, not in vain the hero’s noble toil,/Ah, not in vain the patriot’s blood is shed,/That blood shall consecrate his native soil” (lines 18-20). She brings up these losses over the course of this conflict, but she manages to keep it from taking the poem down a darker path, using specific words that evoke powerful images, such as noble, hero, patriot and consecrate, and also keeps the focus on the heroics, not the death. By reading these lines people will not think of a man sent to a senseless death, they will picture a noble sacrifice made, and she even makes sure to establish that these were important deaths, “not in vain”. As she puts it, “your remember’d deeds shall still your country guard” (line 24), saying that even though they have died, they still play their role to this day. It lessens the sense of loss one may normally feel when reading about someone dying, and replaces it more with the feeling of triumph and pride she has been evoking.

She then goes on to write about Britain, and the poem likely gets a little controversial around there. For the poem, the tone still feels the same when she writes about Britain as it does with the rest of the poem, but what Williams says, while at first read through is pleasant, she does have a couple criticisms she seems to hide in there at Britain. She starts her addressing of Britain by calling it her “parental Isle” (line 25), and she brings up a lot of the beautiful scenery, but then as she’s starting to get more to why she brought Britain up she make a point to say “While gothic night obsur’d a world of slaves” (line 28), bringing up the slavery in Britain, a political point she has been heavily against for years. She then continues with “Thy genius, that indignant heard the shock,/Of frantic combat, strife unmeet for thee” which seems to be implying that Britain is taken aback by the conflict in France, and acts as if it is an outrage, when they have their slaves hidden under the darkness of night. She also expresses gratitude that Britain never managed to get involved and “fix” France, “O’, happy thy misguided efforts fail’d.” (line 33), even saying that Britain stepping in would have been a mistake.

She moves on from Britain to France, not even actually naming it, only calling it “My Country,” (line 34) showing how at this point in time she had fully considered France as her home. She describes a lot of aspects of the Reign of Terror in this section, but even still does not spend too much time focusing on it, quickly moving on, calling it “the sacred lesson thou hast taught,” (line 39) looking at it more in a positive way than one would expect. Perhaps the contrast is to highlight the fact that there was no good or bad side to the conflict between Britain and France, which may have weighed a little towards Britain as the force of good due to the bad mark the Reign of Terror would have left in people’s minds about France.

The last few stanzas go on to describe the union between Britain and France, and the religious imagery comes back. “Ah, rather haste to Concord’s holy shrine,” (line 41) is how she starts these stanza’s off, immediately going into a religious site, and the whole stanza is full of it. This could again be implying the divine support of this peace treaty. The very last stanza of the poem takes this up another level, with Williams writing it almost like a prayer or blessing. She addresses the “New Age!” (line 57) and then writes her observations and hopes that have grown from this new development, asking for the new age to “fix thy dauntless eye on Liberty and Light.” (line 64), which can be taken as both a hopeful thought for the future, but also a prayer for this new era to usher in light and liberty.

Overall this poem seems to be mostly reflective of the feelings of most people in Europe at the time, which was excitement over the treaty, and as such they probably would have enjoyed this poem to some degree.