Author
Thomas Hood is documented in Fuller’s letters, books, published essays, and reading notebooks (1826–1845). 23 distinct works are named, most often in Thomas Hood., and the most intensive engagement recorded is “excerpted”.
Reprints, Memoirs passages, and repeat notes within a single manuscript are shown but never counted twice. Evidence for this author is selective, not exhaustive. Methodology →
Passages where the evidence goes beyond allusion to indicate that Fuller had Thomas Hood’s work in hand — an explicit statement of reading, sustained excerpting or translation, or a specific reading episode recorded by those who knew her.
“Do you like, also, the ode to Autumn, and — 'Sigh on, sad heart, for love's eclipse'?”
Mem-2 Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli · 'It was a beautiful time when I first read these poems. I was staying in Hallowell, Maine'
Documented date evidence contains explicit statement 'when I first read these poems'.
“Yesterday I took Hood's and Pinkney's poems and Miss Martineau on Scott into the wood.”
Letters of Margaret Fuller ed. Hudspeth · Groton 27th July 1833
"Yesterday I took Hood's...poems...into the wood" documents a specific, dated reading occasion.
“All things are touched with melancholy / Born of the secret soul's mistrust, / To feel her fair ethereal wings / Weighed down with vile, degraded dust. / Even the bright extremes of joy / Bring on conclusions of disgust, / Like the sweet blossoms of the May, / Whose fragrance ends in must. / O, give her, then, her tribute just, / Her sighs and tears and musings holy; / There is no music in the life / That sounds with idiot laughter solely; / There's not a string attuned to mirth, / But has its chord in melancholy.”
This page brings together documented engagements currently identified within the Fuller Reading Worlds catalog.
Selected passages from Fuller’s own writings, in chronological order.
“Autumn by Mr T. Hood': 'The autumn is old / The sear leaves are flying; / He hath gathered up gold / And now he is dying / Old age, begin sighing!”
The same sentence also names "I Remember, I Remember". Counted as one engagement.
Fuller, Margaret. "Reading Notebook 1825–1827." Houghton Library, Harvard University.
Two poems by Thomas Hood copied on p. 64, both attributed 'Mr T.
“Yesterday I took Hood's and Pinkney's poems and Miss Martineau on Scott into the wood. I passed three or four hours there reading passages from them and conversing with you about it.”
Inferred Hudspeth identified the author as Thomas Hood and suggest either Whims and Oddities (1826) or Plea of the Midsummer Fairies (1827), with the earlier collection being more likely.
“the red and yellow garlands are getting ready to crest her 'languid downfal of hair' withal”
Inferred Fuller quotes 'the languid downfal of hair' from Hood's 'Ode: Autumn' without naming Hood in this letter. Hudspeth identified the quoted phrase and the poem; Fuller applies it to personified autumn in describing the autumn landscape.
Hudspeth identified the quoted phrase and the poem; Fuller applies it to personified autumn in describing the autumn landscape.
Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. VI. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988.
“I felt singular pleasure in seeing you quote Hood's lines on 'Melancholy.' I thought nobody knew and loved his serious poems except myself, and two or three others, to whom I imparted them.”
“Do you like, also, the ode to Autumn”
“Sigh on, sad heart, for love's eclipse?”
“I was staying at Hallowell, Maine, and could find no books that I liked, except Hood's poems.”
Inferred Fuller describes an earlier reading experience at Hallowell, Maine — reading Hood's poems ('no books that I liked, except Hood's poems') every afternoon through a September–October season. The specific volume is not named. Hood's serious poetry in the mid-1820s–1830s was published in The Plea of the Midsummer Fairies (1827) and various collected editions.
Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. II. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1984.
“The Schoolmistress Abroad," which was new to us. Miss Crane, a "she Mentor, stiff as starch, formal as a Dutch ledge, sensitive as a daguerreotype...”
The author and title identification are certain.
“He has tried his powers on themes where he had great rivals ? in the "Plea of the Midsummer Fairies," and "Hero and Leander.”
“Hero and Leander." The latter is one of the finest subjects in the world...”
“Lycus the Centaur" is also a poem once read never to be forgotten. The hasty trot of the versification, unfit for any other theme, on this betokens well the frightened horse.”
“All things are touched with melancholy / Born of the secret soul's mistrust, / To feel her fair ethereal wings / Weighed down with vile, degraded dust.”
Inferred Fuller quotes extensively from Thomas Hood’s 'Ode to Melancholy,' attributing the poem to him with the comment, “Hood knew and welcomed the dower which nature gave him at his birth, when he wrote thus.” The poem was published in Hood’s 1827 volume, The Plea of the Midsummer Fairies, Hero and Leander, Lycus the Centaur, and Other Poems.
“SONNET.”
Fuller, Margaret. Life Without and Life Within; or, Reviews, Narratives, Essays, and Poems. Edited by Arthur B. Fuller. Boston: Brown, Taggard and Chase, 1860.
“Although Hood’s poem, “The Bridge of Sighs,” has been inserted once before in this paper, we are anxious to make use of it again, as more touching and forcible than any thing that has been or is likely to be written on this subject.”
Fuller, Margaret. "Asylum for Discharged Female Convicts." New-York Daily Tribune, 19 June 1845. · 19 June 1845
“We wish several others from Hood had been added, which are little known, such as “The Peasant Lover.”
“One more unfortunate, Weary of breath, Rashly importunate, Gone to her death! Take her up tenderly, Lift her with care; Fashioned so slenderly Young and so fair.”
Fuller, Margaret. "Review." New-York Daily Tribune, 16 January 1845.
“The curse of Adam, the old curse of all Though I inherit in this feverish life Of worldly toil, vain wishes, and hard strife, And fruitless thought in care’s eternal thrall, Yet more sweet honey than of bitter gall I taste through thee, my Eva, my sweet wife.”
“All things are touched with Melancholy Born of the secret soul’s mistrust, To feel her fair ethereal wings Weigh’d down with vile degraded dust; Even the bright extremes of joy Bring on conclusions of disgust, Like the sweet blossoms of the May, Whose fragrance ends in must.”
“We have now in view to speak rather of a little volume of poems published by him some years since, republished here, but never widely circulated.”
“He has tried his powers on themes where he had great rivals—In ‘The plea of the Midsummer Fairies’ and “Hero and Leander.”
“Oh!”
“Fair Ines,” “The Ballad,” “She’s up and gone, the graceless Girl,” and “I remember,” more widely known than most of those from having been set to music, are all of equal originality and beauty.”
“SHE stood breast high amid the corn, Clasped by the golden light of morn. Like the sweetheart of the Sun, Who many a glowing kiss had won.”
“SIGH on, sad heart, for Love’s eclipse And Beauty’s fairest queen.”
“I SAW old Autumn in the misty morn Stand shadowless like silence, listening To silence, for no lonely bird would sing Into his hollow ear from woods forlorn, Nor lowly hedge nor solitary thorn;— Shaking his languid locks all dewy bright With tangled gossamer that fell by night, Pearling his coronet of golden corn.”
“Miss Crane, a “she Mentor, stiff as starch, formal as a Dutch hedge, sensitive as a Daguerreotype, and so tall, thin and upright, that supposing the Tree of Knowledge to have been a poplar, she was the very Dryad to have fitted it,”
“The younger, Miss Ruth, was somewhat less disconcerted.”
Fuller, Margaret. "Thomas Hood." New-York Daily Tribune, 18 July 1845.
“This volume contains many charming and amusing pieces from Hood. We need say no more after our late remarks on the subject in general.”
“How funny and pretty the note of Lamb after Hood had written “The Widow,” in imitation of his manner.”
Fuller, Margaret. "Thomas Hood." New-York Daily Tribune, 9 August 1845.