Felicia Hemans is little known today
and I was pleased to come across a copy of Hemans’ Poetical Works in a Hay-on-Wye bookshop some years ago. The volume extends to nearly 800 pages with
several hundred separate poems. There can be little doubt, however, that page 396 contains her most famous line
The boy stood on the burning deck
Thus begins the poem Casabianca,
telling the tale of the Admiral’s thirteen
years old son, who remained at his post on the ship Orient in the Battle
of the Nile, perishing when the ship’s powder exploded. It is probably one the
best-known lines in the whole of English verse. However, if her fame today is
diminished it certainly shone brightly in the early nineteenth century. He volumes
sold well both at home and in the USA and she drew praise from such discerning
commentators as William Roscoe and Percy Shelley.
She was born in Liverpool as Felicia
Dorothea Browne, at 118 Duke Street L1 on 25th September 1793. Her
mother, Felicity, was the daughter of
Benedict Wagner, a wine importer at 9 Wolstenholme Square, who served as
the Tuscan and imperial consul in Liverpool. When she married George Browne he
joined his father-in-law’s business, also succeeding him as Tuscan consul. The
family moved to North Wales, near Abergele in 1800, moving to St Asaph in 1809.
By this time the young Felicia had published her first two volumes of verse.
Felicia married Captain Alfred Hemans in 1812, moving to
Daventry, but returning to St Asaph when he left the army in 1814. Between 1813
and 1817 the couple had five sons but then separated in 1818. He eventually
settled in Rome. She successfully resumed her writing career, publishing over
350 poems in magazines and annuals.
In 1828, following the death of mother,
she returned to Liverpool, taking lodgings at 17 Wavertree High Street L15. In
1831 she moved to Dublin on the advice of her doctors, continuing to write and
publish verse. Her health declined quickly after she contracted scarlet fever
in the autumn of 1834 and she died in Dublin on 16 May 1835.
There is a plaque to her memory in St
Asaph Cathedral. The Felicia Hemans Prize is awarded annually by Liverpool
University to "the author of 'a lyrical
poem' of merit, published or unpublished”, it is open to past and present members
and students of the University of Liverpool.
