Author
Felicia Hemans is documented in Fuller’s letters, reading notebooks, and manuscripts (1826–1833). 2 distinct works are named, most often in Letter to James F. Clarke, and the most intensive engagement recorded is “excerpted”.
Reprints, Memoirs passages, and repeat notes within a single manuscript are shown but never counted twice. Evidence for this author is selective, not exhaustive. Methodology →
Passages where the evidence goes beyond allusion to indicate that Fuller had Felicia Hemans’s work in hand — an explicit statement of reading, sustained excerpting or translation, or a specific reading episode recorded by those who knew her.
“I have read sundry books and one beautiful bit of poesy by- Mrs Hemans "Ay I did weep Kind heavens how I did weep.”
Letters of Margaret Fuller ed. Hudspeth · [ca. 17? June 1833]
"I have read sundry books and one beautiful bit of poesy by Mrs Hemans" is an explicit reading statement.
“To the eye — Mrs Hemans. — / "Throne of expression! whence the spirit's ray / Pours forth so oft the light of mental day, / Where fancy's fire, affection's melting beam, / Thought, genius, passion reign in turn supreme … When Genius lends thee all his living light, / When the full beams of intellect unite … A flame unquenchable, unearthly streams? / That pure, tho' captive effluence of the sky, / The vestal ray, the spark that cannot die.”
This page brings together documented engagements currently identified within the Fuller Reading Worlds catalog.
Selected passages from Fuller’s own writings, in chronological order.
“To the eye — Mrs Hemans. — / "Throne of expression!”
Fuller, Margaret. "Reading Notebook 1825–1827." Houghton Library, Harvard University.
Attributed 'To the eye — Mrs Hemans.' on p. 67.
“gets rid in short of the victim—the Mrs Hemans part of her troubles—”
Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Vol. I: 1817-1838. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.
Hudspeth identified Hemans as a writer of popular verse, best known for 'Casabianca,' though Fuller names no specific work herself.
“Mrs Hemans's poetry could not force its way where there was not strong predisposition &c I should think your remarks went to prove that no poetry could.”
Inferred Fuller judges that "Mrs Hemans's poetry could not force its way where there was not strong predisposition," making a critical assessment of Hemans's popular reach in the context of Clarke's article on poetry's influence, though no specific title is named.
“I have read sundry books and one beautiful bit of poesy by- Mrs Hemans / "Ay I did weep / Kind heavens how I did weep.”
Inferred Fuller quotes two lines she attributes to Mrs. Hemans (Felicia Hemans): 'Ay I did weep / Kind heavens how I did weep,' calling it 'one beautiful bit of poesy.' She confirms active recent reading of Hemans's works, though the specific poem containing these lines remains unidentified despite scholarly search.
Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. VI. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988.
Undated
Pieces with no legible date. They are part of the record but cannot be placed on the lifeline.
“Mrs. Hemans Miss Landon Miss Jewsbury and other flattered poetesses mourn over womans lot as something peculiar”
Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. VI. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988.
Inferred Hudspeth identified Fuller was fond of Hemans's poetry, which was widely read in the 1830s, most notably Records of Woman (1828).
“The female lyricists / of England, Mrs Norton / Mrs Hemans &c”
Fuller, Margaret. "Notes, 1st Issue of the Dial." Houghton Library, Harvard University; MS Am 1086.
“The female lyrists / of England, Mrs Norton / Mrs Hemans & c”
Fuller, Margaret. "Outline for a Collected Volume." Houghton Library, Harvard University.