Foreign poetesses are not a whit better than English; think of Madame DesbordesValmont (we think that is the way she spells her name), think of her pitiful wails and lamentations, „Mes Pleurs“ and „Mes Larmes“ innumerable, enough to fill an ocean. As for Germany’s songstresses, though she has several, they are all unknown to fame, save „Betty Paoli“, whom we admire greatly, and should rank upon a level with Mrs. Browning and Miss Lowe, for artistic power; that is, we recognize hers as a kindred spirit with those of Germany’s greatest bards, one who may justly claim equality with them; but then we have always called her „the female Byron,“ so sad is she, so bitter, so painfully passionate; nevertheless, she is great. We recommend Betty Paoli’s poems to the study of every lover of German poetry; they are pure and noble artistic creations, earnest-hearted and earnest-minded, and, above all, not diffuse (wonderful to relate); her words rarely or never outrun the thoughts they represent.
Still, in every country, female poetry it doleful or morbid, and generally speaking it is weak and diffuse, and therefore, as we said at starting, it does not present a too delightful theme.“
The eclectic magazine of foreign literature, science, and art. Volume 2, 1851
