Scrapped Sentiment: Letitia Landon and Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap-Book, 1832–1837

This essay examines several ‘companion poems’ that Letitia Elizabeth Landon (L. E. L.) wrote for the literary annual Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap-Book between 1832 and 1838. Each of these poems was designed to ‘complement’ the visual content of an engraving with which the poem was paired. Most of the poems are written in the first person. The ‘I’ that speaks each one seems motivated by a particular set of ideological allegiances that clash with the apparent ideological allegiances of other ‘I's. No attempt is made to account for the discrepancies. I argue that the companion poems ultimately showcase the unsettling resemblance between moral convictions and commodities. The net effect is that the annual implies – in the words of Dickens's villainous character James Harthouse – that ‘any set of ideas will do just as much good as any other set, and just as much harm as any other set’.