The Poetry of Jane Austen and the Austen Family

“This volume of verse by the Austen family contains all the known poems of Jane Austen herself [and her mother], and a selection of those written by, among others, her sister Cassandra, four of her brothers, her uncle James Leigh Perrot, her nieces Anna and Fanny and her nephew James Edward” (Preface, p. ix). The arrangement is by author: first Jane, then family verse which included verses written for games, then her mother, her brother James, and other family members, listed separately. The book ends with a bibliography, textual notes giving the source of the various poems, then explanatory notes telling something about the poems, and finally an appendix listing poems by other authors in Jane’s handwriting.

Several kinds of poems show more seem to be written as games including riddles and charades, poems written to rhyme with “rose” and poems written to include lines ending in -- verse, sorrow, hearse, purse, and morrow – or words containing those words in that order. The answers to the riddles and charades are given in the explanatory notes section.

In my opinion, the poems written by Jane are not particularly memorable; she was a much better novelist than poet. I particularly enjoyed the poems written by her brother James, which included a poem to his son on the death of his pony, two poems about the same cat, a poem to Jane upon the publication of Sense and Sensibility, and a poem in memory of Jane. show less