(Let's call it) Poetry Month (cause why not?)

 

— Poetry Month —

Ancient Greek Song of Exile, Felicia Hemans

First published 1823, The New Monthly Magazine

Later published 1825, The Forest Sanctuary, and Other Poems

                                                           

Felicia Dorothea Hemans (née Browne) was a Late Romantic poet very popular in her time both in Britain and in the United States, sales coming in second to Lord Byron, and is still admired today. She was born in Liverpool on the 25th of September in 1793. She moved with her family to a cottage on the grounds of Gwrych Castle in Wales in 1800, where she lived until the age of sixteen when they moved to Bronwylfa, St. Asaph, in Flintshire. Her first volume of poetry, Poems, was published in 1808, when she was just fourteen years old; it was dedicated to the Prince of Wales. The work was noticed by Percy Bysshe Shelley, with whom she corresponded for a short time.

During her life Hemans wrote upon war, patriotism, feminism, death, feminism and death, stately homes (she originated the phrase), and a bit of nature; she was also friends with Sir Walter Scott. She knew Welsh, German, French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese well. According to her sister Harriet, she enjoyed reading Shakespeare even at the age of six. She married Capt. Alfred Hemans in 1812.

As time went on the strength of her reputation was weakened by her popularity. Added to this, her work began to feature in classrooms, causing her to become thought of as a poet for children rather than a serious writer. Her poem "Casabianca", opening "The boy stood on the burning deck", was taught in schools into the 1950s, and even I, who notably post-date the 1950s, have heard a portion of it somewhere.

Felicia Hemans died in Dublin, Ireland, on May 16th, 1835.

I first discovered her in a library book-sale in Wyoming c. 2018 in a book called Poems of Nature, edited by one Gail Harvey. Her poem "The Song of the Willow" became very special to me, owing to the vast clumps of willow trees around our house there. I had one specific place where I would sit under them and practice memorizing the piece, trying to create a sort of 'Secret Garden' amongst the sagebrush. I've chosen to share "Ancient Greek Song of Exile" in honor of Homer's Iliad, which I finished earlier this week (huzzah!).

I don't know if "Poetry Month" will be a regular post, but I think it might be nice to do from time to time. It was a sudden decision today, so forgive me for having little more than reworked Wikipedia information to relate. For the moment, it shall suffice!

                                                           

Where is the summer, with her golden sun?

    —That festal glory hath not pass'd from earth:

For me alone the laughing day is done!

    Where is the summer with her voice of mirth?

        —Far in my own bright land!

Where are the Fauns, whose flute-notes breathe and die

    On the green hills?—the founts, from sparry caves

Through the wild places bearing melody?

    The reeds, low whispering o'er the river waves?

        —Far in my own bright land!

Where are the temples, through the dim wood shining,

    The virgin-dances, and the choral strains?

Where the sweet sisters of my youth, entwining

    The Spring's first roses for their sylvan fanes?

        —Far in my own bright land!

Where are the vineyards, with their joyous throngs,

    The red grapes pressing when the foliage fades?

The lyres, the wreaths, the lovely Dorian songs,

    And the pine forests, and the olive shades?

        —Far in my own bright land!

Where the deep haunted grots, the laurel bowers,

    The Dryad's footsteps, and the minstrel's dreams?

—Oh! that my life were as a southern flower's!

    I might not languish then by these chill streams,

        Far from my own bright land!