143- ] English Literature

143-] English Literature

 Felicia Hemans

Felicia Dorothea Hemans (25 September 1793 – 16 May 1835) was an English poet (who identified as Welsh by adoption). Two of her opening lines, "The boy stood on the burning deck" and "The stately homes of England", have acquired classic status.

Felicia Hemans was a 19th century poet of both English and Irish descent although she also considered herself half Welsh later in life. She was a prolific poet who received criticism and praise in almost equal measures. Female poets in the early 19th century were rare and not, generally, well regarded. Felicia Hemans though attracted the attention and admiration of poets such as Percy Bysshe Shelley, William Wordsworth and Walter Savage Landor. When she died, at the early age of 41, Wordsworth and Landor composed memorial verses in her honour.

She was born on the 25th September 1793 in the city of Liverpool, which was the great gateway to England from Ireland at that time. She came from a well to do family and her grandfather was a consul to the city. The family moved to North Wales and Felicia saw her new Denbighshire home as the:

Wales became, in effect, her adoptive country and her first poetic efforts were published when she was just fourteen and received interest from Shelley. The two corresponded for a while.

A year later she wrote a long, narrative poem which was an extremely mature piece of work for a 15 year old girl. It was a plaintive cry against the Peninsular Wars that were raging between European countries and a direct attack on the tyranny of Napoleon Bonaparte. She prayed for everlasting peace and that “Albion” should prevail, this being the old name for the British Isles. Her poetry clearly demonstrated her patriotism for her country and a passionate desire for no more “useless bloodshed” and no more “waste of human life”.

At the age of nineteen she was taken away from Wales by her marriage to an army officer, who was of a much greater age than her They set up home in Daventry, Northamptonshire for at least two years but the marriage lasted for only four more years beyond that. Despite being busy having five sons Felicia continued to write a great deal of poetry, publishing such titles as:

There are two pieces of work which, perhaps, are best remembered from her collections for different reasons. In 1827 she wrote a poem called The Homes of England and this is thought to contain the first reference to the phrase “The stately homes of England” In the 20th century the famous Noel Coward wrote a song with that title and it is a phrase that is still in common use. Arguably her most famous work though was the 1826 poem Casabianca about one Louis de Casabianca who was the commander of a burning ship during the Battle of the Nile. In it there is a reference to a boy who remains on deck while the ship burns and the first line has since been used in an amusing, slightly ribald, limerick. Here are the first three verses:

From 1831 Felicia was living in Dublin but, alas, her days were numbered. She was now a popular poet in Britain and the United States, especially amongst female readers. It was said that she offered “a woman’s voice confiding a woman’s trials” while others saw a:

Felicia Dorothea Hemans died on the 16th May 1835 of a curious illness called dropsy, which is an abnormal accumulation of fluid beneath the skin and in several cavities of the body. She was 41 years old.

Early life and education

Born in Liverpool, England, Romantic poet Felicia Dorothea Hemans was the daughter of a merchant and a granddaughter of the consul, and the fifth of seven children. Felicia Dorothea Browne was the daughter of George Browne, who worked for his father-in-law's wine importing business and succeeded him as Tuscan and imperial consul in Liverpool, and Felicity, daughter of Benedict Paul Wagner (1718–1806), wine importer at 9 Wolstenholme Square, Liverpool and Venetian consul for that city. Hemans was the fourth of six children (three boys and three girls) to survive infancy. Her sister Harriett collaborated musically with Hemans and later edited her complete works (7 vols. with memoir, 1839). George Browne's business soon brought the family to Denbighshire in North Wales, where she spent her youth. They lived in a cottage within the grounds of Gwrych Castle near Abergele when Felicia was seven years old until she was sixteen and later moved to Bronwylfa, St. Asaph (Flintshire); she later called Wales "Land of my childhood, my home and my dead". Lydia Sigourney says of her education:

The family relocated to Wales following a period of financial difficulty in 1800. A voracious and early reader, Hemans made use of an extensive home library and was instructed by her mother in several languages. She spent two winters in London as a child, and was captivated by the classical art she saw there.

Hemans published her first collection, Poems (1808), at the age of 14. She married Captain Alfred Hemans in 1812, and together they had five children. However, her husband did not return from a trip to Italy in 1818, and from then on Hemans had to support her family with the income from her poetry.

Influenced by William Wordsworth and Lord Byron, Hemans’s poetry was published in 19 volumes, including The Domestic Affections and other Poems (1812), Records of Woman: With Other Poems (1828), and Siege of Valencia (1823). Her metrically assured poems often explore domestic and romantic themes.

"The nature of the education of Mrs. Hemans , was favourable to the development of her genius. A wide range of classical and poetical studies, with the acquisition of several languages, supplied both pleasant aliment and needful discipline. She required not the excitement of a more public system of culture,—for the never-resting love of knowledge was her school master."

Hemans was proficient in Welsh, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. Her sister Harriet remarked that "One of her earliest tastes was a passion for Shakspeare, which she read, as her choicest recreation, at six years old."

Career

Hemans’ first poems, dedicated to the Prince of Wales, were published in Liverpool in 1808, when she was fourteen, arousing the interest of poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, who briefly corresponded with her. She quickly followed them up with "England and Spain" (1808) and "The Domestic Affections" (1812).

From "Casabianca" (1826)

The boy stood on the burning deck,

 Whence all but he had fled;

The flame that lit the battle's wreck

 Shone round him o'er the dead .

Yet beautiful and bright he stood,

 As born to rule the storm;

A creature of heroic blood,

 A proud though childlike form .

From "Casabianca" October 1826

Hemans‘ major collections, including The Forest Sanctuary (1825), Records of Woman and Songs of the Affections (1830) were popular, especially with female readers. Her last books, sacred and profane, were Scenes and Hymns of Life and National Lyrics, and Songs for Music. She was by now a well-known literary figure, highly regarded by contemporaries such as Wordsworth, and with a popular following in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Personal life

In 1812, she married Captain Alfred Hemans, an Irish army officer some years older than herself. The marriage took her away from Wales, to Daventry in Northamptonshire until 1814. During their first six years of marriage, Hemans gave birth to five sons, including G. W. Hemans and Charles Isidore Hemans, and then the couple separated. Marriage had not, however, prevented her from continuing her literary career, with several volumes of poetry being published by the respected firm of John Murray in the period after 1816, beginning with The Restoration of the Works of Art to Italy (1816) and Modern Greece (1817). Tales and Historic Scenes was the collection which came out in 1819, the year of their separation.

From 1831, Hemans lived in Dublin. At her death of dropsy, William Wordsworth, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Lydia Huntley Sigourney and Walter Savage Landor composed memorial verses in her honour. She is buried in St. Ann's Church, Dawson Street.

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Stanzas on the Death of Mrs Hemans, by L. E. L.

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Felicia Hemans, by Lydia Huntley Sigourney

Legacy

Felicia Hemans

Hemans's works appeared in nineteen individual books during her lifetime. After her death in 1835, they were republished widely, usually as collections of individual lyrics and not the longer, annotated works and integrated series that made up her books. For surviving female poets, such as Caroline Norton and Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Lydia Sigourney and Frances Harper, the French Amable Tastu and German Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, she was a valued model. To many readers she offered a woman's voice confiding a woman's trials; to others, a lyricism consonant with Victorian sentimentality. Among the works, she valued most were the unfinished "Superstition and Revelation" and the pamphlet "The Sceptic," which sought an Anglicanism more attuned to world religions and women's experiences. In her most successful book, Records of Woman (1828), she chronicles the lives of women, both famous and anonymous.

Hemans' poem "The Homes of England" (1827) is the origin of the phrase "stately home", referring to an English country house.

From "The Homes of England"

The stately Homes of England,

How beautiful they stand!

Amidst their tall ancestral trees,

O’er all the pleasant land;

The deer across their greensward bound

Through shade and sunny gleam,

And the swan glides past them with the sound

Of some rejoicing stream.

The free, fair Homes of England!

Long, long in hut and hall,

May hearts of native proof be reared

To guard each hallowed wall!

And green forever be the groves,

And bright the flowery sod,

Where first the child's glad spirit loves

Its country and its God.

From "The Homes of England"(1827)

Despite her illustrious admirers her stature as a serious poet gradually declined, partly due to her success in the literary marketplace. Her poetry was considered morally exemplary, and was often assigned to schoolchildren; as a result, Hemans came to be seen as more a poet for children rather than on the basis of her entire body of work. Schoolchildren in the U.S. were still being taught "The Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers in New England" in the middle of the 20th century. But by the 21st century, "The Stately Homes of England" refers to Noël Coward's parody, not to the once-famous poem it parodied.

However, her critical reputation has been re-examined in recent years. Her work has resumed a role in standard anthologies and in classrooms and seminars and literary studies, especially in the US. Other anthologised poems include "The Image in Lava," "Evening Prayer at a Girls' School," "I Dream of All Things Free", "Night-Blowing Flowers", "Properzia Rossi", "A Spirit's Return", "The Bride of the Greek Isle", "The Wife of Asdrubal", "The Widow of Crescentius", "The Last Song of Sappho", "Corinne at the Capitol" and "The Coronation Of Inez De Castro".

Casabianca

First published in August 1826 the poem Casabianca (also known as The Boy stood on the Burning Deck) by Hemans depicts Captain Luc-Julien-Joseph Casabianca and his 12-year-old son, Giocante, who both perished aboard the ship Orient during the Battle of the Nile. The poem was very popular from the 1850s on and was memorized in elementary schools for literary practice. Other poetic figures such as Elizabeth Bishop and Samuel Butler allude to the poem in their own works.

"'Speak, Father!' once again he cried / 'If I may yet be gone! / And'—but the booming shots replied / And fast the flames rolled on." 'Casabianca' by Felicia Hemans.

The poem is sung in ballad form (abab) and consists of a boy asking his father whether he had fulfilled his duties, as the ship continues to burn until the magazine catches fire. Hemans adds the following note to the poem: 'Young Casabianca, a boy about thirteen years old, son to the Admiral of the Orient, remained at his post (in the Battle of the Nile) after the ship had taken fire, and all the guns had been abandoned, and perished in the explosion of the vessel, when the flames had reached the powder.'

Martin Gardner, Michael R. Turner, and others wrote modern-day parodies that were much more upbeat and consisted of boys stuffing their faces with peanuts and bread. This contrasted sharply with the dramatic image created in Casabianca as Hemans wrote it.

England and Spain, or, Valour and Patriotism

Her second book, England and Spain, or, Valour and Patriotism, was published in 1808 and was a narrative poem honouring her brother and his military service in the Peninsular War. The poem called for an end to the tyranny of Napoleon Bonaparte and for a long-lasting peace. Multiple references to Albion, an older name for Great Britain, emphasize Hemans's patriotism.

"For this thy noble sons have spread alarms, and bade the zones resound with BRITAIN's arms!"