WITH THESE DEFIANT WORDS, Helmina von Chézy paid tribute to her grandmother, Anna Louisa Karsch (1722–91), the first poet laureate of Prussia. Unloved, untutored, and unsupported, the Karschin, as she was known, created a body of poetry widely admired among her contemporaries. In her memoirs Helmina von Chézy proudly claimed this heritage; she was third in line in the Karsch poetic dynasty and destined for renown: “bestimmt, in der Welt eine große Rolle zu spielen” (Unvergessenes, 1:138; destined to play a great role in the world). This sense of destiny permeates Chézy's oeuvre, in particular her two memoirs Aurikeln: Blumengabe von deutschen Händen (1818; Primroses: Flowers Given by German Hands) and Unvergessenes (1858; Unforgotten). In Aurikeln she claims her place as an artist and confesses to her burning ambition to become famous; the text also testifies, however, to the cost involved in stepping beyond women's sphere: “Ich habe schwer dafür gebüsst” (97–98; I have suffered much for it). As she clearly recognized, she was caught between her desire to live and work as a writer and the gender restrictions of her time. Her outrage at the world is palpable in these words: “Dies Alles wäre nicht geschehen, wenn ich in der Sphäre der Weiblichkeit geblieben wäre, wenn nicht Alles, was mich umgab, mir vorgespielt hätte, daß eine Frau berühmt und groß werden könne, und daß dies ein schönes Loos sey” (98; None of this would have happened if I had remained within the sphere of femininity, if everything in my environment had not deluded me [to believe] that a woman might be famous and great, and that this would be a beautiful fate).