Felicia Dorothea Browne Hemans (1793–1835)

Felicia Dorothea Hemans, née Browne, was born Liverpool, England. She was the fifth of seven children of George Browne, a merchant, and his wife Felicity Wagner. The family relocated to Gwrych on the Welsh coast in 1800, after her father's business failed. A voracious and early reader, she made use of the extensive home library and was taught several languages by her mother. She published her first collection of verses, called simply Poems, in Liverpool in 1808, when she was 14. In 1812, she married Captain Alfred Hemans, an Irish army officer, with whom she had five children. She continued to be a prolific writer. Her husband went to Rome in 1818 and did not return to the family; no reason for their separation is known. From then on, Felicia supported herself and her young children with the income from her poems, which sold well. She also wrote plays, which were unsuccessful. The only one to be performed, The Vespers of Palermo (1823), failed in its Covent Garden debut, though it was later produced in Edinburgh and well-received. She became a literary celebrity, admired by other famous writers such as Lord Byron, William Wordsworth, and Sir Walter Scott. Today she is chiefly remembered for her shorter pieces, notably "The Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers," "Casabianca," (aka "The Boy Stood on the Burning Deck"), and "The Homes of England."