22 Facts About Felicia Hemans

Felicia Hemans was the fourth of six children to survive infancy.

Felicia Hemans later called Wales "Land of my childhood, my home and my dead".

The nature of the education of Mrs Felicia Hemans, was favourable to the development of her genius.

Felicia Hemans was proficient in Welsh, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese.

Felicia Hemans quickly followed them up with "England and Spain", politically addressing the Peninsular War, and "The Domestic Affections".

In contrast to its title, which Felicia 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 Felicia Hemans.

Felicia Hemans published many of her pieces in magazines first, enabling her to remain in the public eye and adapt to her audience, as well as earning additional income.

At the time of her death in 1835, Felicia Hemans was a well-known literary figure, highly regarded by contemporaries, and with a popular following in the United States and the United Kingdom.

On 30 July 1812, Felicia Browne married Captain Alfred Hemans, an Irish army officer some years older than herself.

In 1825, one of Felicia Hemans's brothers purchased her home at Bronwylfa and she moved to Rhyllon near the River Clwyd, her time there would the most tranquil period of her life.

One of the reasons why Felicia Hemans was able to write prolifically as a single parent, was that many of the domestic duties of running a household were taken over by her mother, with whom she and her children lived.

On 11 January 1827, Felicia Hemans' mother died, leading to the breaking up of the household and her mental state.

Whilst pregnant to her fifth child, Felicia Hemans sent her two oldest sons to Rome to join their father, and moved to a suburb of Liverpool with her younger sons.

From 1831, Felicia Hemans lived in Dublin, which was recommended as healthier than Liverpool.

Felicia Hemans was buried in St Ann's Church, Dawson Street, Dublin.

Felicia Hemans's works appeared in nineteen individual books during her lifetime, publishing first with John Murray and later with Blackwoods.

Felicia Hemans's 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 a serious author.

Felicia Hemans's work has resumed a role in standard anthologies and in classrooms and seminars and literary studies, especially in the US.

Felicia 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 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.

Felicia Hemans's 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.

Several of Felicia Hemans's characters take their own lives rather than suffer the social, political and personal consequences of their compromised situations.

Felicia Hemans herself was able to balance both roles without much public ridicule, but left hints of discontent through the themes of feminine death in her writing.