Editing Felicia Hemans (section)

==Personal life==
On 30 July 1812, Felicia Browne married Captain Alfred Hemans, an Irish army officer some years older than herself. The marriage took her away from Wales, to [[Daventry]] in [[Northamptonshire]] (where Alfred was an adjutant of the Northamptonshire militia) until 1814, the year her father died in [[Québec]] on a business trip.<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> During their first six years of marriage, Hemans gave birth to five sons, including [[G. W. Hemans]] and [[Charles Isidore Hemans]], and then the couple separated.<ref name="odnb"/> Marriage had not, however, prevented her from continuing her literary career. Several volumes of poetry were published by the respected firm of [[John Murray (publishing house)|John Murray]] in the period after 1816, beginning with ''The Restoration of the Works of Art to Italy'' (1816) and ''Modern Greece'' (1817). The collection ''Tales and Historic Scenes'' came out in 1819, which she was awarded £50 (equivalent to ~£3,600 in 2024) for the best poem on ''The Meeting of Wallace and Bruce on the Banks of the Carron'', this year would also be Hemans' separation.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Carter |first=Charles Cuykendall |date=2009 |title=A Guide to the Felicia Hemans Manuscript Material in the Pforzheimer Collection |url=https://www.nypl.org/sites/default/files/archivalcollections/pdf/ms_guide_hemans_f.pdf |website=The New York Public Library}}</ref> 
In 1821 Felicia the Royal Society of Literature awarded her for the best poem on the subject of Dartmoor, to which, she began on her play, The Vespers of Palermo.<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>

In 1825, one of Felicia's brothers purchased her home at Bronwylfa and she moved to Rhyllon near [[River Clwyd | the River Clwyd]], her time there would the most tranquil period of her life.<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> After she left this address, it appears that her sister; Harriet Mary Owen moved into Rhyllon with her husband; Rev William HIcks Owen (who was the correspondent for the [[Edward Herbert, 3rd Earl of Powis|Earl of Powis]]). <ref>https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/0f4cc1c0-b183-32ed-923c-c3df5f1f9540?component=c0cdb1a4-e044-349c-97e2-ff2c56e7d1be</ref><ref>Advocate, Wednesday 17 March 1858 - https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000797/18580317/058/0004</ref>

One of the reasons why 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. It was a financial necessity for Hemans to write to support herself, her mother, and the children.<ref name="ncgsjournal.com">{{Cite web |title=Alex Grammatikos, "The Nothingness of Fame, At Least to a Woman": Felicia Hemans and the Price of Celebrity • Issue 10.3 • Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies |url=https://www.ncgsjournal.com/issue103/grammatikos.html |access-date=2024-04-05 |website=www.ncgsjournal.com}}</ref><ref name="Feldman">{{Cite book |last=Feldman |first=Paula R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cg6Jn410aCIC&dq=%22Although+their+influence+and+even+their+existence+has+been+largely+unac-knowledged+by+literary+scholars+and+critics%22&pg=PR25 |title=British Women Poets of the Romantic Era: An Anthology |date=2001-01-19 |publisher=JHU Press |isbn=978-0-8018-6640-1 |language=en}}</ref> On 11 January 1827, Hemans' mother died, leading to the breaking up of the household and her mental state. Whilst pregnant to her fifth child, Hemans sent her two oldest sons to Rome to join their father, and moved to a suburb of Liverpool with her younger sons.<ref name="odnb">{{Cite ODNB |title=Hemans [née Browne], Felicia Dorothea (1793–1835), poet |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-12888 |access-date=2024-04-05 |date=2004 |language=en |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/12888 }}</ref> Felicia and Alfred continued to exchange letters with one another, in these letters they often consulted about their children.<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>

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''""..from leaving Wales, and many kind and 'old familiar faces' there, as well as from the breaking up of my family on the occasion of my arrival here, over-shadowed by constant depression."''|source=''[Extract from a letter to Felicia's friend; Mary Howitt (dated December 11, 1828) explaining how she felt leaving Wales] - 'Memoir of the Life and Writings of Felicia Hemans by Miss Browne''' - published 1845<ref>{{cite web|title='''Memoir of the Life and Writings of Felicia Hemans by Miss Browne (1834)''|date=1834|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LxU3AAAAYAAJ&dq=%22felicia+hemans%22+%22depression%22&pg=PA172|via=[[British Newspaper Archive]] |last1=Browne |first1=Miss }}</ref>
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From 1831, Hemans lived in [[Dublin]], which was recommended as healthier than Liverpool.<ref name="odnb"/> Despite the change, she continued to experience poor health. She died on 16 May 1835. Sources suggest that she had suffered from an attack of [[scarlet fever]], followed by a "consumptive decline",<ref name="odnb"/> or by "[[dropsy]]".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hemans |first1=Mrs |title=The Poetical Works of Mrs. Felicia Hemans: With Memoirs and Notes |date=1835 |publisher=American news Company |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bb8vAQAAMAAJ&q=felicia+hemans+dropsy |language=en}}</ref> She may have experienced [[rheumatic fever]] and heart problems as well as circulatory problems.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Black |first=Joseph |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qz8QEAAAQBAJ&dq=felicia+hemans+heart+rheumatic+fever&pg=PA496 |title=The Broadview Anthology of British Literature: Concise Volume B, 3e – Modified eBook International Edition |date=2021-01-01 |publisher=Broadview Press |isbn=978-1-55481-520-3 |language=en}}</ref> She was buried in [[St. Ann's Church, Dawson Street]], Dublin.<ref name="odnb"/> [[William Wordsworth]] mentioned her in a memorial stanza,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kennedy |first=Deborah |date=1997 |title=Hemans, Wordsworth, and the "Literary Lady" |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40003051 |journal=Victorian Poetry |volume=35 |issue=3 |pages=267–285 |jstor=40003051 |issn=0042-5206}}</ref> and [[Letitia Elizabeth Landon]],<ref name="Ryan">{{Cite journal |last=Ryan |first=Brandy |date=2008 |title="Echo and Reply": The Elegies of Felicia Hemans, Letitia Landon, and Elizabeth Barrett |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40347084 |journal=Victorian Poetry |volume=46 |issue=3 |pages=249–277 |jstor=40347084 |issn=0042-5206}}</ref> [[Lydia Sigourney|Lydia Huntley Sigourney]],<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Baym |first=Nina |date=1990 |title=Reinventing Lydia Sigourney |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2926738 |journal=American Literature |volume=62 |issue=3 |pages=385–404 |doi=10.2307/2926738 |jstor=2926738 |issn=0002-9831}}</ref> and [[Walter Savage Landor]] composed memorial verses in her honour.<ref name="odnb"/><ref>{{Citation |last=Robson |first=Catherine |title=Felicia Hemans, "Casabianca" |date=2012-09-24 |work=Heart Beats |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.23943/princeton/9780691119366.003.0003 |access-date=2024-04-05 |publisher=Princeton University Press |doi=10.23943/princeton/9780691119366.003.0003 |isbn=978-0-691-11936-6}}</ref> [[Lydia Huntley Sigourney]] also wrote a memoir to preface an American edition of Hemans' collected works.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Hemans |first1=Felicia Dorothea Browne |url=http://archive.org/details/poeticalworksoff02hema |title=The poetical works of Felicia Hemans. With a memoir |last2=Sigourney |first2=L. H. (Lydia Howard) |date=1853 |publisher=Boston, Phillips, Sampson, and company |others=The Library of Congress}}</ref>

{{Wikisource|Landon in The New Monthly 1835/Stanzas on the Death of Mrs Hemans|Stanzas on the Death of Mrs Hemans, by L. E. L.}}
{{Wikisource|Zinzendorff and Other Poems/Felicia Hemans|Felicia Hemans, by Lydia Huntley Sigourney}}