Working-Class Women Poets in Victorian Britain

Florence S. Boos is Professor of English at the University of Iowa. She has written widely on Victorian literature, particularly on the Pre-Raphaelites and on poetry by women.

Acknowledgements
Introduction

Janet Hamilton



Introduction
A Plea for the Doric
A Wheen Aul’ Memories
The Feast of the “Mutches”
Oor Location
Rhymes for the Times II
Rhymes for the Times IV
Rhymes for the Times V
Grannie Visited at Blackhill, Shotts, July, 1805
Auld Mither Scotland
Grannie’s Crack About the Famine in Auld Scotlan’, 1739-40
Grannie’s Dream—A True Incident
Effie—A Ballad
Preface to Poems, Essays and Sketches
Preface to Memorial Edition, James Hamilton
Janet Hamilton at her “Ain Fireside,” Alexander Wallace
Janet Hamilton on the Education of Women
Scottish Peasant Life and Character in Days of Auld Langsyne
Sketch of a Scottish Out-door Communion Sabbath in TimesGone By
Local Changes
Sketch of a Scottish Village
From The Mental and Moral Dignity of Woman, by the Rev. BenjaminParsons

The Rural Poets

Anonymous Celtic Songs Collected by Alexander Carmichael



Introduction
Peace
The Apple Tree
New Moon
My Father and Mother Will Kill Me

Isabella Chisholm



Introduction
The Wicked Who Would Do Me Harm
Exorcism of the Eye
Counteracting the Evil Eye

Elizabeth Duncan Campbell



Introduction
The Death of Willie, My Second Son
A Prison Cell
The Crimean War
The Summer Night
The Mother’s Lament
The Life of My Childhood
Mrs. Campbell: A Criticism, by George Gilfillan

Jane Stevenson



Introduction
Home
The Wandering Dog
The Fairy Dale
The Prophetess, Or Seer of Visions
Preface from Homely Musings

Elizabeth Horne Smith



Introduction
The Armenian Atrocities
A Midnight Meeting with the Ghost of Burns, July, 1896
My Friend
Lines to J —— B——, Dunfermline
“In the Foremost Files. Elizabeth Horne Smith, Farmworker and Poetess.,” by the Rev. P[aul] Anton

Mary MacDonald MacPherson



Introduction
Incitement of the Gaels
Farewell to the New Christmas
A Prose Translation: “Ivory and the Crofters,” Donald Meek

The Factory Poets

“Marie”



Introduction
The Indomitable Will
Posted Books
Sibyl, the Far-Seer
An Autumn Evening, People’s and Howitt’s Journal, 1849

Ellen Johnston



Introduction
Lines to Isabel from the Factory Girl
The Factory Girl’s Reply to Edith
The Last Sark
The Maid of Dundee to Her Slumbering Muse
The Last Lay of “The Factory Girl”
Edith, from Preface to Second Edition, Autobiography, Poems and Songs
Selections from the “Autobiography of Ellen Johnston”

Ruth Wills



Introduction
A Lament
The Seen and the Unseen
Koziell
Zenobia
“The Factory Poetess,” from The Working Man
Application to the Royal Literary Fund, 1863
Last Will and Testament of Ruth Wills

Fanny Forrester



Introduction
Dying in the City
The Lowly Bard
The Bitter Task
To “Sabina”
Application to the Royal Literary Fund from Mrs. Ellen Forrester
“Fanny Forrester,” Ben Brierley’s Journal, 1875

Ethel Carnie



Introduction
A Marching Tune
Faith
An Old Woman’s Hands
A Washerwoman
Shame
A Lament
A Riding Song
“A Lancashire Fairy. An Interview with Miss Ethel Carnie”
“Paddling your Own Canoe,” Miss Nobody
“Modern Womanhood,” The Woman Worker, 1909
Letter from Ethel Carnie to Graham Wallas

Lyricists and Feminists

Eliza Cook



Introduction
Song of the City Artisan
The Streets
A Song:To “The People” of England
They All Belong to Me
Song of the Red Man
Lines Suggested by the Song of a Nightingale
To the Late William Jerdan
“Advice to the Ladies,” from Eliza Cook’s Journal, 1850
Letter from Eliza Cook, 1838
Letter from Eliza Cook, 1864

Mary Smith



Introduction
“Women’s Claims”
Our Village
Life Similes
The Snow Storm
My Mother-Sister
Selections from “Progress”
Selections from The Autobiography of Mary Smith

Jessie Russell



Introduction
Preface to The Blinkin’ O’ the Fire
The Blinkin’ O’ the Fire
Women’s Rights vs.Woman’s Wrongs
The Mother’s Story
Oor Flittin’

Jeannie Graham Paterson



Introduction
A Brighter Dawn
Speak the Words
Class Distinction
A Song of Liberty
A Freen’ly Crack
To One Who Believes that Women are Soulless

Marion Bernstein



Introduction
Mirren’s Autobiography
Wanted in Glasgow
Come Back to Me,Ye Happy Dreams
Manly Sports
Wanted a Husband
A Dream
Application to the Royal Literary Fund, 1904

Bibliography



General Works
Some Little-Educated or Working-Class Victorian Women Poets Who Published Books Not Included in this Anthology
Comprehensive Bibliography
Periodicals

Index of Titles
Index of First Lines