In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

359 SYDNEY OWENSON, LADY MORGAN (c.1783–1807–1859) Sydney Owenson, novelist, poet and literary celebrity, was the daughter of Robert Owenson, the most famous Irish actor of his day. She was brought up in Dublin and in 1812 married the surgeon in Lady Abercorn’s household, Thomas Charles Morgan, who was afterwards knighted. Her earliest publication, Poems: dedicated by permission to the Right Honorable the Countess of Moira appeared in Dublin in 1801. Throughout her life, and most famously in her popular novel, The Wild Irish Girl (1806), Lady Morgan was an ardent champion of her native country, particularly of its natural beauty. By 1807, when this poem appeared, her fame was such that verse she published in Dublin was immediately reprinted in New York and Philadelphia. The Violet1 To her who sent me the Spring’s first Violet ‘Poiche d’altro honorate Non possom prendi liete Guesti negre VIOLE Dall umor rugiadose’ B. Tasso I Oh! say, didst thou know ’twas mine own idol flower That my heart has just welcom’d from thee? And, guided alone by sweet sympathy’s power, Didst thou rear it expressly for me? 360 II Sure thou didst! And how richly it glows through the tears That dropt o’er its beauties from heaven! Like those which the rosed-cheek of fond woman wears When her bosom to rapture is given. III And meek, modest, and lovely, it still seems to shun, E’en as though it still blush’d in the vale, 10 Ev’ry too glaring a beam of the too ardent sun, Ev’ry rudely breath’d sigh of the gale. IV Oh! dear is the friend whom the blossom resembles, Who as sweet, as retiring is found; In whose eye the warm tear of feeling oft trembles, Who, unseen, sheds her fragrance around. V And thou art that friend! and thy emblem believe Has now found in my bosom a shrine; And ne’er did the holiest relic receive An homage more fervent than mine. 20 ...

Share