Felicia Hemans

Felicia Dorothea Hemans (25 September 1793 – 16 May 1835) was an English poet (who identified as Welsh by adoption). Regarded as the leading female poet of her day, Hemans was immensely popular during her lifetime in both England and the United States, and was second only to Lord Byron in terms of sales. Two of her opening lines, "The boy stood on the burning deck" and "The stately homes of England", have acquired classic status.

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 Harriet 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 in 1809 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 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."

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), politically addressing the Peninsular War, and "The Domestic Affections" (1812). In contrast to its title, which Hemans did not choose, many of the book's poems explore issues of patriotism and war, this was published on the eve to her marriage to captain Alfred Hemans.

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.

Between 1821 and 1823, she started to study German. Her favourite German poet was Theodor Körner.

On December 12, 1823, her 'Vespers of Palermo' works was reenacted as a play at Covent garden, the leading actors were; Welsh actor Charles Kemble and English actor Charles Mayne Young, for this, she received £200 for the copyright (£20,000 in 2024 after inflation). The play was a failure and any other planned shows were cancelled. The following year, the show was put on again at Edinburgh with greater success with Harriet Siddons reciting the epilogue written by Sir Walter Scott (who became Felicia's cordial friend), an alteration which was requested by Joanna Baillie.