Louisa Catherine Shore (February 1824, Potton, Bedfordshire – 24 May 1895

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, England) was an English poet. She was an active writer who often worked with her sister, Arabella Susanna Shore. They were both taught by their elder sister, who died young, but is now known as a diarist.

Biography

Louisa Catherine Shore, was the youngest daughter of three daughters and two sons of Margaret Anne Twopeny and Thomas Shore. Louisa Shore and her two sisters, (Margaret) Emily Shore and Arabella Susanna Shore, were intelligent with a passion for learning and an interest in literature. Emily who died young was the tutor to her two younger sisters. She is now a noted diarist. Louisa Shore often worked as a writer with her sister Arabella Shore. The first composition Louisa Shore wrote was ''War Music'' which was a poem on the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...

. Arabellla sent this poem in to ''The Spectator'' without her knowledge and then the two sisters came to an agreement and the composition was reprinted as ''War Lyrics.''

Other literary works

The two remaining sisters, composed many other literary productions together such as ''Gemma of the Isles, a Lyrical Poem'' in 1859, ''Fra Dolcino, and other Poems'' in 1871 and ''Elegies and Memorials'' in 1890. In their last production together, Louisa Shore published two elegies, one was for the loss of her oldest sister Margaret Emily Shore who suffered from

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and the other was for her brother Mackworth Charles Shore who was lost at sea in 1860. The two sisters published a selection from Margaret Emily Shore's Journal and it proves how talented a writer she was. Louisa and Arabella were supporters of the cause of women, Louisa was also a Liberal and a

suffragist Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to v ...

. In April 1874, Louisa Shore submitted an article for the ''

Westminster Review The ''Westminster Review'' was a quarterly British publication. Established in 1823 as the official organ of the Philosophical Radicals, it was published from 1824 to 1914. James Mill was one of the driving forces behind the liberal journal until ...

'', which discussed the women's movement and it was reprinted several times. In this pamphlet, she discusses with verve the nature of contemporary marriage. Shore's literary works reflect the feminist art movement because her poems often reflect women's experiences. In her younger days, Louisa Shore spent time in

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...

where she met the actress

Fanny Kemble Frances Anne "Fanny" Kemble (27 November 180915 January 1893) was a British actress from a theatre family in the early and mid-19th century. She was a well-known and popular writer and abolitionist, whose published works included plays, poetry ...

and the author

Sara Coleridge Sara Coleridge (23 December 1802 – 3 May 1852) was an English author and translator. She was the third child out of four and the only daughter of the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge and his wife Sara Fricker. She gained further popularity with in ...

. She traveled around France and stayed in Paris for three years. In 1861, Shore published ''Hannibal'' which is a two-part drama with five acts in each two part verse. This drama received excellent reviews from '' The Athenaeum'' and '' The Saturday Review''. In the later life, she resided at Orchard Pyle, Poyle with her sister Arabella. On 24 May 1895, Catherine Louisa Shore died at 16 Hillside in

, at the age of seventy one. She was cremated at Woking Crematorium in Wimbledon. Her sister Arabella, published a memoir of her and her works.

Works

* ''War Lyrics'', 1855 * ''Gemma of the Isles, a Lyrical Poem'', 1859 * ''Hannibal: a Poem in two Parts,'' published separately in 1861 * ''Fra Dolcino, and Other Poems'', 1871 * ''Elegies and Memories,'' 1890 A selection of her unpublished poems was edited, after her death, by her sister in 1896, with an appreciative notice by Mr. Frederic Harrison, and a reissue of some of her dramas and poems appeared in 1897

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shore, Louisa Catherine 1824 births 1895 deaths 19th-century English poets English feminists English women poets 19th-century English women writers 19th-century British writers People from Potton