Hemans, FELICIA DOROTHEA, poetess, was born at Liverpool, 25th September 1793. Her father, George Browne, was a Liverpool merchant, of Irish extraction; her mother, whose maiden name was Wagner, was of mixed Italian and German descent. Felicia was distinguished for her beauty and precocity, and at an early age she manifested a taste for poetry, in which she was encouraged by her mother. Family reverses led to the removal of the Brownes to Wales, where the young poetess imbibed a strong passion for nature, read books of chronicle and romance, and gained a working knowledge of the German, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese languages. She also cultivated her excellent musical taste. Her first volume was published in 1808, when she was only fifteen years of age, and contained a few pieces written about four years earlier; her second, entitled The Domestic Affections, appeared in 1812. In the same year she married Captain Hemans of the 4th Regiment, whose health had suffered in the retreat on Corunna, and afterwards in the Walcheren expedition, and who settled in Italy in 1818. After this time they never met again; their marriage was understood not to have been happy. Mrs Hemans, though in poor health, now devoted herself to the education of her children, to reading and writing, and spent the rest of her life in North Wales, Lancashire, and latterly at Dublin, where she died, 16th May 1835. Her principal works are: The Vespers of Palermo, a tragedy (1823), which proved a failure when acted at Covent Garden; The Siege of Valencia, The Last Constantine, and other Poems (1823); The Forest Sanctuary (1827); Records of Women (1828); The Songs of the Affections (1830); and Hymns for Childhood, National Lyrics and Songs for Music (1834); and Scenes and Hymns of Life (1834). A volume of Poetical Remains was published after her death, and subsequently a complete edition of her works, with a memoir by her sister, was issued in 7 vols. (1839). During a visit that she paid to Abbotsford, Scott complimented her on her musical talents: 'I should say you had too many gifts, Mrs Hemans, were they not all made to give pleasure to those around you.' And on parting he said: 'There are some whom we meet and should like ever after to claim as kith and kin; and you are one of these.'
Mrs Hemans, without great originality or force, is yet sweet, natural, and pleasing. But she was too fluent, and wrote much and hastily; her lyrics are her best productions; her more ambitious poems, especially her tragedies, being, in fact, quite insipid. Still, she was a woman of true genius, though her range was circumscribed, and some of her little lyrics, The Voice of Spring, The Better Land, The Graves of a Household, The Treasures of the Deerp, and The Homes of England, are perfect in pathos and sentiment, and will live as long as the English language. These are found in almost every school collection, and this early familiarity with her sweet and simple lyrics has helped to keep her memory green.
Besides her sister's memoir, there are Memorials by H. F. Chorley (1836); Recollections by Mrs Lawrence (1836); Poetical Remains, with memoir by Delta (1836); and Poetical Works, with memoir by W. M. Rossetti (1873). See also Espinasse's Lancashire Worthies (1874).