Mary Elizabeth Coleridge (23 September 1861 – 25 August 1907) was a British

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

and

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

who also wrote essays and reviews. She wrote poetry under the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

Anodos (a name taken from

George MacDonald George MacDonald (10 December 1824 – 18 September 1905) was a Scottish author, poet and Christian Congregational minister. He was a pioneering figure in the field of modern fantasy literature and the mentor of fellow writer Lewis Carroll. I ...

). Other influences on her were

Richard Watson Dixon Richard Watson Dixon (5 May 1833 – 23 January 1900), English poet and divine, son of Dr James Dixon, a Wesleyan minister. Biography He was the eldest son of Dr. James Dixon, a distinguished Wesleyan preacher, by Mary, only daughter of the ...

and

Christina Rossetti Christina Georgina Rossetti (5 December 1830 – 29 December 1894) was an English writer of romantic, devotional and children's poems, including "Goblin Market" and "Remember". She also wrote the words of two Christmas carols well known in Brit ...

Robert Bridges Robert Seymour Bridges (23 October 1844 – 21 April 1930) was an English poet who was Poet Laureate from 1913 to 1930. A doctor by training, he achieved literary fame only late in life. His poems reflect a deep Christian faith, and he is ...

, the Poet Laureate, described her poems as 'wonderously beautiful… but mystical rather and enigmatic'.

Biography

Mary Coleridge was born in

Hyde Park Square Hyde Park Square is a residential, tree-planted, garden square one block north of Hyde Park fronted by classical buildings, many of which are listed and marks a crossover of Lancaster Gate and Connaught Village neighbourhoods of Bayswater, Lon ...

, London, the daughter of Arthur Duke Coleridge, who was a lawyer and influential amateur musician. With the singer

Jenny Lind Johanna Maria "Jenny" Lind (6 October 18202 November 1887) was a Swedish opera singer, often called the "Swedish Nightingale". One of the most highly regarded singers of the 19th century, she performed in soprano roles in opera in Sweden and a ...

, her father was responsible for the formation of the London Bach Choir in 1875. Other family friends included

Robert Browning Robert Browning (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose dramatic monologues put him high among the Victorian poets. He was noted for irony, characterization, dark humour, social commentary, historical settings ...

Alfred, Lord Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of his ...

John Millais Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet, ( , ; 8 June 1829 – 13 August 1896) was an English painter and illustrator who was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He was a child prodigy who, aged eleven, became the youngest ...

and

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 ...

. She was the great-grandniece of

Samuel Taylor Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge (; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poe ...

and the great niece of

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 ...

, the author of ''Phantasmion''. Coleridge was educated at home, mostly by the poet and educationalist W. J. Cory, and began writing poetry as a child. She travelled widely throughout her life, although her home was in London, where she lived with her family. She taught at the London Working Women's College for twelve years from 1895 to 1907. She completed five novels. Her first was ''The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus'', published in February 1893 by

Chatto & Windus Chatto & Windus is an imprint of Penguin Random House that was formerly an independent book publishing company founded in London in 1855 by John Camden Hotten. Following Hotten's death, the firm would reorganize under the names of his business ...

. The story (which is unrelated to the

Seven Sleepers of Ephesus In the Islamic and Christianity, Christian traditions, the Seven Sleepers, otherwise known as the Sleepers of Ephesus and Companions of the Cave, is a Middle Ages, medieval legend about a group of youths who hid inside a cave outside the city o ...

legend) centres on a mysterious "Brotherhood" involved in the production of a play in a nineteenth-century German town. It received mixed reviews. The novel was credited only to "M. E. Coleridge", which led at least one newspaper to assume that the author was a man. Edward Arnold published the other four novels. The best known is ''The King with Two Faces'', which earned her £900 in royalties in 1897. Coleridge died of complications arising from

appendicitis Appendicitis is inflammation of the appendix. Symptoms commonly include right lower abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and decreased appetite. However, approximately 40% of people do not have these typical symptoms. Severe complications of a rup ...

while on holiday in

Harrogate Harrogate ( ) is a spa town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Harrogate in North Yorkshire, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the town is a tourist destination and its visitor at ...

in 1907, leaving an unfinished manuscript for her next novel and hundreds of unpublished poems. Her poetry was first published under her own name in the posthumous ''Poems'' (1908). It proved very popular, with four reprints within six months of first publication. In the preface to this volume,

Henry Newbolt Sir Henry John Newbolt, CH (6 June 1862 – 19 April 1938) was an English poet, novelist and historian. He also had a role as a government adviser with regard to the study of English in England. He is perhaps best remembered for his poems "Vit ...

wrote: In 1954 interest was revived by the first comprehensive ''Collected Poems'' to be issued, edited by

Rupert Hart-Davis Sir Rupert Charles Hart-Davis (28 August 1907 – 8 December 1999) was an English publisher and editor. He founded the publishing company Rupert Hart-Davis Ltd. As a biographer, he is remembered for his ''Hugh Walpole'' (1952), as an editor, f ...

and with an introduction by Theresa Whistler. More recently, her work has been further re-assessed and included in anthologies of ''fin de siècle'' Victorian women's poetry by

Angela Leighton Angela Leighton, FBA (born 23 February 1954) is a British literary scholar and poet, who specialises in Victorian and twentieth-century English literature. Since 2006, she has been a Senior Research Fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge. Previous ...

and Margaret Reynolds, and

Isobel Armstrong Isobel Armstrong, (born 1937) is a British academic. She is professor emerita of English at Birkbeck, University of London and a senior research fellow of the Institute of English Studies at the University of London. She is a fellow of the Br ...

and Joseph Bristow. Heather Braun contributed a substantial introduction to a reprint of her final published novel, ''The Lady on the Drawingroom Floor'' (with selected poetry and prose) in 2018.

Musical settings

The relative simplicity of Mary Coleridge's lyrical poetry, combined with its touch of mysticism and strong imagery, proved congenial to composers. Both

Hubert Parry Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, 1st Baronet (27 February 18487 October 1918) was an English composer, teacher and historian of music. Born in Richmond Hill in Bournemouth, Parry's first major works appeared in 1880. As a composer he is b ...

and

Charles Villiers Stanford Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (30 September 1852 – 29 March 1924) was an Anglo-Irish composer, music teacher, and conductor of the late Romantic music, Romantic era. Born to a well-off and highly musical family in Dublin, Stanford was ed ...

were friends of Mary's father, and frequent visitors to the family home at 12, Cromwell Place, South Kensington. Parry set seven of her poems as songs for voice and piano in his ''English Lyrics, Ninth Set'', published in 1909. In the opinion of

Trevor Hold Trevor Hold (21 September 1939 – 28 January 2004) was an English composer, poet and author, best known for his song cycles, many of them setting his own poetry. Biography Born in Northampton, Hold suffered an attack of polio at the age of seven, ...

, "no-one set her more sympathetically than Parry." Stanford composed two sets of eight choral

partsongs A part song, part-song or partsong is a form of choral music that consists of a song to a secular or non-liturgical sacred text, written or arranged for several vocal parts. Part songs are commonly sung by an SATB choir, but sometimes for an all ...

, Op. 119 and Op. 127 (both 1910). By far the best known of these (and of any Coleridge setting) is " The Blue Bird", from Mary's poem originally published in 1897 under the French title "L'Oiseau Bleu". Other settings include several by

John Ireland John Benjamin Ireland (January 30, 1914 – March 21, 1992) was a Canadian actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in ''All the King's Men'' (1949), making him the first Vancouver-born actor to receive an Oscar nomina ...

and

Roger Quilter Roger Cuthbert Quilter (1 November 1877 – 21 September 1953) was a British composer, known particularly for his art songs. His songs, which number over a hundred, often set music to text by William Shakespeare and are a mainstay of the En ...

, three poems (including "Thy Hand in Mine") by

Frank Bridge Frank Bridge (26 February 187910 January 1941) was an English composer, violist and conductor. Life Bridge was born in Brighton, the ninth child of William Henry Bridge (1845-1928), a violin teacher and variety theatre conductor, formerly a m ...

, and the ''Four Dramatic Songs'', Op. 44 for solo voice and orchestra by

Cyril Rootham Cyril Bradley Rootham (5 October 1875 – 18 March 1938) was an English composer, educator and organist. His work at Cambridge University made him an influential figure in English music life. A Fellow of St John's College, where he was also or ...

(1913 - later also arranged for voice and piano). William Busch set "L'Oiseau Bleu" in a German translation as "Der blaue Vogel" (1944).

Published works

* * ** Collection of poems. Republished as * ** Collection of poems, including eleven repeated from ''Fancy's Following''. * * * ** Collection of brief essays. * * * * ** Posthumous, with an introduction by

. * ** Posthumous study of the eponymous artist. *''The Collected Poems of Mary Coleridge'', ed. Theresa Whistler. London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1954 *''The Lady on the Drawingroom Floor with Selected Poetry and Prose'', ed. Heather Braun. Vancouver: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2018.

References

External links

* * * *
Performance of "The Blue Bird", Charles Villiers Stanford, by the Choir of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coleridge, Mary Elizabeth Place of birth missing 1861 births 1907 deaths Mary Elizabeth English women poets English women novelists Victorian women writers Victorian poets 19th-century English women writers 19th-century English novelists 20th-century English novelists 20th-century English women writers 19th-century English poets 20th-century English poets