Mary Ann H. Dodd (after marriage Shutts; March 5, 1813January 18, 1878) was a 19th-century American poet.

Biography

Mary Ann Hanmer Dodd was born at

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...

, March 5, 1813, and always resided in that city. She was the daughter of Elisha Dodd. She was at school at Wethersfield, and in her native town, where she completed her studies in 1830, at Mrs. Kinnear's Seminary. Her first published articles appeared in 1834, in the ''Hermethenean'', a magazine conducted by the students of Washington College (now

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

), in Hartford. She wrote but little until 1835, since which time she was a frequent contributor to ''The Ladies' Repository'', a magazine published in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, and the ''Rose of Sharon'', an annual, in which the greater part of her writings appeared. A volume of her poems, published at Hartford in 1843, was marked by a gentle melancholy and a deep religious feeling. She married Henry Shutts, of

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, at

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, in 1855. She was a Universalist, and published many of her pieces in denominational prints. She died on January 18, 1878, near

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Critical reception

Caroline May (1848) noted that Dodd "possesses a poetical sensibility, and the power of deducing moral lessons from the changes of life". Samuel Austin Allibone (1863) characterized "The Lament", "the Mourner", "To a Cricket", "The Dreamer", and "The Dove's Visit", as compositions of rare excellence. According to Wilson & Fiske (1887), "Her writings would have been known more generally, and perhaps more favorably, if she had not confined herself so much to denominational channels of publication."

Selected works

* ''Poems'', 1844 * ''Frederick Lee, or, The Christmas present'', 1847

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dodd, Mary Ann H. 1813 births 1878 deaths 19th-century American poets 19th-century American women writers American women poets Writers from Hartford, Connecticut American Universalists