Felicia Hemans was the most widely read woman poet in the nineteenth-century English-speaking world. Broadview’s edition shows why she was one of the few standard poets to be found in middle-class homes on both sides of the Atlantic, despite being routinely disparaged as a “merely” feminine poet. Included here is poetry representative of her entire career, from often-anthologized works, such as “The Homes of England” and “Casabianca,” to several long poems in their entirety, such as “The Forest Sanctuary.”
Also included are selections of her prose and letters, a comprehensive introduction, and selections of views and reviews showing her changing and controversial place in culture into the twentieth century. All selections are edited, annotated, and introduced.
Acknowledgments
About this Edition
Introduction
Felicia Hemans: A Brief Chronology
Selected Poems, Prose, and Letters
From Poems (1808)
- “To the Muse”
“A Tribute to the Genius of Robert Burns”
“The Farewell”
From England and Spain; or, Valour and Patriotism (1808)
From The Domestic Affections, and Other Poems (1812)
- “Sonnet To Italy”
“War Song of the Spanish Patriots”
“The Domestic Affections”
From The Restoration of the Works of Art to Italy (1816)
From Modern Greece (1817)
From Translations from Camoens and other Poets (1818)
- from Camoens: Sonnet 282: “Wrapt in sad musings”
from other poets: Vincenzo da Filicaja: Italia! Italia! O tu cui diè la sorte
from Original Poetry: “Guerilla Song”
From Tales and Historic Scenes (1819)
- “The Widow of Crescentius”
“The Wife of Asdrubal”
From A Selection of Welsh Airs (1822)
- “The Rock of Cader-Idris”
From The Siege of Valencia … with Other Poems (1823)
- from The Siege of Valencia
from Other Poems
“Songs of the Cid”
“The Cid’s Departure into Exile”
“The Cid’s Death-bed”
“The Cid’s Funeral Procession”
“The Cid’s Rising”
from Greek Songs
“The Voice of Scio”
“The Spartan’s March”
“The Tombs of Platæa”
“England’s Dead”
“The Voice of Spring”
From The Vespers of Palermo (1823)
From The Forest Sanctuary; with Other Poems
- from the first edition (1825): “The Forest Sanctuary”
from Miscellaneous Pieces: “The Treasures of the Deep”
from the second edition (1829):
“Casabianca”
“Evening Prayer at a Girls’ School”
“The Lost Pleiad”
“The Breeze from Shore”
From Records of Woman: with Other Poems (1828)
- from Records of Woman
“Arabella Stuart”
“The Switzer’s Wife”
“Properzia Rossi”
“Pauline”
“The Grave of a Poetess”
from Miscellaneous Pieces:
“The Homes of England”
“To Wordsworth”
“Körner and His Sister”
“The Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers in New England”
“The Palm-tree”
“The Child’s Last Sleep”
“The Illuminated City”
“The Graves of a Household”
“The Image in Lava”
From The Amulet (1829)
From Songs of the Affections, with Other Poems (1830)
- from Songs of the Affections: “Woman on the Field of Battle”
from Miscellaneous Poems
“Corinne at the Capitol”
“The Ruin”
“The Song of Night”
“The Diver”
“The Requiem of Genius”
“Second Sight”
From Hymns on Nature, for the Use of Children (1833)
From the New Monthly Magazine (1834)
- from “Scenes and Passages from the Tasso’ of Goethe”
From Scenes and Hymns of Life, with Other Religious Poems (1834)
- Preface
from “Scenes and Hymns of Life”: “Prisoners’ Evening Service”
from “Miscellaneous Poems”:
from “Female Characters of Scripture”:
“I. Invocation”
“II. Invocation Continued”
“IV. Ruth”
“VII. The Annunciation”
“IX. The Penitent Anointing Christ’s Feet”
“XV. Mary Magdalene bearing Tidings of the Resurrection”
“Communings with Thought”
from “Sonnets, Devotional and Memorial”
“I. The Sacred Harp”
“Elysium”
From National Lyrics, and Songs for Music (1834)
- from “National Lyrics”:
“Introductory Stanzas: The Themes of Song”
“Rhine Song of the German Soldiers after Victory”
from “Miscellaneous Poems”:
“Books and Flowers”
“Scene in a Dalecarlian Mine”
From the New Monthly Magazine (1835)
- from “Thoughts During Sickness”:
“Intellectual Powers”
“Sickness like Night”
“The Recovery”
From Poetical Remains (1836)
- from “Records of the Spring of 1834”:
“V. A Thought of the Sea”
“XII. A Remembrance of Grasmere”
“XIII. On Reading Paul and Virginia in Childhood”
from “Records of the Autumn of 1834”:
“I. The Return to Poetry”
“II. On Reading Coleridge’s Epitaph Written by Himself”
“VII. Design and Performance”
“IX. To Silvio Pellico, on Reading his Prigione’”
“X. To the Same, Released”
“To the Mountain Winds”
“Sabbath Sonnet”
Appendix A: Selected Letters
Appendix B: Views and Reviews
Select Bibliography
Gary Kelly is Canada Research Chair in Literature and Language in Society, Department of English, University of Alberta. He has published widely on eighteenth-century literature, and edited the Broadview Literary Texts edition of Millenium Hall.
