Editing Felicia Hemans (section)

==Career==
Hemans' first poems, dedicated to the [[George IV of the United Kingdom|Prince of Wales]], were published in Liverpool in 1808, when she was fourteen,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Langbauer |first=Laurie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vzRADQAAQBAJ&dq=Hemans%E2%80%99+first+poems,+dedicated+to+the+Prince+of+Wales,+were+published+in+Liverpool+in+1808&pg=PA191 |title=The Juvenile Tradition: Young Writers and Prolepsis, 1750-1835 |date=2016-03-25 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-105972-8 |language=en}}</ref> arousing the interest of poet [[Percy Bysshe Shelley]], who briefly corresponded with her.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bieri |first=James |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=agbHUJEnHPMC&dq=Hemans+Percy+Bysshe+Shelley+corresponded&pg=PA149 |title=Percy Bysshe Shelley: A Biography : Youth's Unextinguished Fire, 1792-1816 |date=2004 |publisher=University of Delaware Press |isbn=978-0-87413-870-2 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Wolfson |first=Susan J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NU0gEAAAQBAJ&dq=Hemans+Percy+Bysshe+Shelley+corresponded&pg=PA526 |title=Felicia Hemans: Selected Poems, Letters, Reception Materials |date=2021-05-11 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1-4008-2401-4 |language=en}}</ref> She quickly followed them up with "England and Spain" (1808), politically addressing the [[Peninsular War]],<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sánchez |first=Juan |date=2014 |title="England and Spain" and "The Domestic Affections": Felicia Hemans and the Politics of Literature |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24247280 |journal=Studies in Romanticism |volume=53 |issue=3 |pages=399–416 |jstor=24247280 |issn=0039-3762}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediabrit0013unse_t5q7/page/256/mode/2up?q=felicia | title=The Encyclopedia Britannica (A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature and General Information) Eleventh Edition Volume XIII (13) | date=1910 | publisher=Cambridge, England at the University Press }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Taylor |first=Barbara D. |date=2014-01-02 |title=Felicia Hemans and The Domestic Affections, and Other Poems ; or Mrs Browne's Publishing Project |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09699082.2014.881060 |journal=Women's Writing |language=en |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=9–24 |doi=10.1080/09699082.2014.881060 |issn=0969-9082}}</ref>
{{Quote box |align=right |quoted=true |bgcolor=#FFFFF0 |salign=right
 |quote =<poem>
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.
</poem>|source =From "[[Casabianca (poem)|Casabianca]]"<br />October 1826<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=A2lEAQAAMAAJ&dq=casabianca+A+library+of+poetry+and+song&pg=PA487 ''A Library of Poetry and Song: Being Choice Selections from The Best Poets. With An Introduction by William Cullen Bryant''], New York, J.B. Ford and Company, 1871, p. 487.</ref>}}

Between 1821 and 1823, she started to study German. Her favourite German poet was [[Theodor Körner (author)|Theodor Körner]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediabrit0013unse_t5q7/page/256/mode/2up?q=felicia | title=The Encyclopedia Britannica (A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature and General Information) Eleventh Edition Volume XIII (13) | date=1910 | publisher=Cambridge, England at the University Press }}</ref>

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 [[Walter Scott | Sir Walter Scott]] (who became Felicia's cordial friend), an alteration which was requested by [[Joanna Baillie]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediabrit0013unse_t5q7/page/256/mode/2up?q=felicia | title=The Encyclopedia Britannica (A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature and General Information) Eleventh Edition Volume XIII (13) | date=1910 | publisher=Cambridge, England at the University Press }}</ref> 

Hemans' major collections, including ''The Forest Sanctuary'' (Which started in 1824 and published in 1825), ''Records of Woman'' and ''Songs of the Affections'' (1830) were highly popular.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kastan |first=David Scott |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DlMUSz-hiuEC&dq=Hemans%E2%80%98+major+collections,+including+The+Forest+Sanctuary+(1825),+Records+of+Woman+and+Songs+of+the+Affections+(1830)+were+popular,+especially+with+female+readers&pg=RA2-PA30 |title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature: 5-Volume Set |date=2006-03-03 |publisher=Oxford University Press, USA |isbn=978-0-19-516921-8 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Sweet"/> 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.<ref name="Sweet">{{Cite book |last1=Sweet |first1=N. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iSWFCwAAQBAJ&dq=hemans+especially+with+female+readers+popular&pg=PA125 |title=Felicia Hemans: Reimagining Poetry in the Nineteenth Century |last2=Melnyk |first2=J. |date=2016-02-02 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-0-230-38956-4 |language=en}}</ref> Many of her pieces were used for schoolroom recitations and collections were presented as school prizes, especially to female readers.<ref name="Hughes">{{cite book |last1=Hughes |first1=Linda K. |title=The Cambridge Companion to Victorian Women's Poetry |date=14 March 2019 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-18247-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vlqHDwAAQBAJ&dq=hemans+especially+with+female+readers+popular&pg=PA184 |language=en}}</ref>

Her last books, published in 1834, were ''Scenes and Hymns of Life'' and ''National Lyrics, and Songs for Music''. It has been suggested that her late religious poetry, like her early political poetry, marks her entry into an area of dispute that was both public and male-dominated.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Winckles |first=Andrew O. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MHJvEAAAQBAJ&dq=hemans+%22Scenes+and+Hymns+of+Life%22&pg=PA237 |title=Eighteenth-Century Women's Writing and the Methodist Media Revolution: 'Consider the Lord as Ever Present Reader' |date=2019-11-05 |publisher=Liverpool University Press |isbn=978-1-78962-435-9 |language=en}}</ref>

At the time of her death in 1835, Hemans was a well-known literary figure, highly regarded by contemporaries, and with a popular following in the United States and the United Kingdom.<ref name="ch">{{cite web |title=Felicia Hemans 1793–1835 |url=https://chawtonhouse.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Felicia-Hemans.pdf |website=Chawton House}}</ref> Both Hemans and [[William Wordsworth|Wordsworth]] were identified with ideas of cultural domesticity that shaped the Victorian era.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kim |first=Benjamin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gV0rAQAAQBAJ&q=Hemans+literary+figure,+Wordsworth |title=Wordsworth, Hemans, and Politics, 1800–1830: Romantic Crises |date=2013-09-26 |publisher=Bucknell University Press |isbn=978-1-61148-532-5 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rothstein |first=David |date=1999 |title=Forming the Chivalric Subject: Felicia Hemans and the Cultural Uses of History, Memory, and Nostalgia |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25058438 |journal=Victorian Literature and Culture |volume=27 |issue=1 |pages=49–68 |doi=10.1017/S1060150399271033 |jstor=25058438 |issn=1060-1503}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hawkins-Dady |first=Mark |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ww5ddqXGPVYC&dq=Hemans+was+a+well-known+literary+figure,+highly+regarded+by+contemporaries+such+as+Wordsworth&pg=PA867 |title=Reader's Guide to Literature in English |date=2012-12-06 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-31417-0 |language=en}}</ref>