Felicia Dorothea Hemans

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Felicia Dorothea Hemans was a celebrated English poet born on September 25, 1793. Her iconic opening lines, including "The boy stood on the burning deck" and "The stately homes of England," have become timeless classics. Hemans' paternal grandfather, George Browne, hailed from Passage in County Cork, Ireland, while her maternal grandparents were Benedict Paul Wagner, a wine importer at 9 Wolstenholme Square, Liverpool, Lancashire, and Elizabeth Haydock Wagner of Lancashire. Family lore claimed the Wagners originated from Venice, while family heraldry suggested they came from Austria. The Wagners resided in North Hall near Wigan and sent two sons to Eton College. Of their three daughters, only Felicity married; her husband George Browne joined his father-in-law's business and later became Tuscan and imperial consul in Liverpool. Felicia Dorothea Browne was the fourth of six Browne children who survived infancy. Her sister Elizabeth passed away around 1807 at the age of eighteen, while Harriett Mary Browne (1798-1858) married twice, first to the Revd T. Hughes and then to the Revd W. Hicks Owen. Harriett collaborated musically with Felicia and later edited her complete works, which consisted of seven volumes along with a memoir published in 1839. Hemans' eldest brother, Lt-Gen. Sir Thomas Henry Browne KCH (1787-1855), had a distinguished military career; her second brother, George, was a respected figure; while her third brother, Charles, held significant positions. Felicia's literary output included nineteen individual books during her lifetime. After her passing in 1835, her works were widely republished, often as collections of individual lyrics rather than the longer, annotated works that made up her original publications. For women poets like Caroline Norton and Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Americans Lydia Sigourney and Frances Harper, the French Amable Tastu, and German Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, Hemans was a valued model; for male poets including Tennyson and Longfellow, an influence less acknowledged. Her poetry offered readers a woman's voice confiding in women's trials or lyricism seemingly consonant with Victorian chauvinism and sentimentality. Among her notable works were the unfinished "Superstition and Revelation" and the pamphlet "The Sceptic," which sought an Anglicanism more attuned to world religions and women's experiences. Her most successful book, "Records of Woman" (1828), chronicled the lives of women, both famous and anonymous. Hemans' poem "The Homes of England" (1827) gave rise to the phrase "stately home" in English. Despite her illustrious admirers, Hemans' stature as a serious poet gradually declined due to her success in the literary marketplace. Her poetry was considered morally exemplary, often assigned to schoolchildren; as a result, Hemans came to be seen as a poet for children rather than taken seriously on the basis of her entire body of work. However, her critical reputation has been re-examined in recent years, with her work resuming its role in standard anthologies and classrooms, especially in the United States.