English Poet. Born to a Liverpool wine merchant on 25 September 1793. Due to the French Revolution, her father’s business failed in 1800. The family moved to Wales. Felicia was so smart that from her early years she read poetry and novels and learned several languages, tutored by her mother, who was a daughter of the Austrian and Tuscan consul to Liverpool. In 1808 when she was fourteen years old, she published her first book, Poems. She was married to Captain Alfred Hemans in 1812, and she published The Domestic Affections and Other Poems in the same year. Five sons were born to Captain Hemans, but Felicia and her husband separated in 1818. Her poetry was very popular and sold well. She and her children continued to live with her mother in Wales, and she was able to support her family with her pen. During hard times from 1827, when the mother died, to 1831, when she moved to Dublin, Felicia visited Scotland to stay with Sir Walter Scott in 1828, and the next year she visited the Lake District to meet Wordsworth. These encounters are reflected in ‘The Funeral Day of Sir Walter Scott’, ‘A Farewell to Abbotsford’, and ‘To Wordsworth’. She has been chiefly remembered for such short but notable pieces as ‘The Landing of the Pilgrim Father’ (1825) and ‘Casabianca’ (1826). She died of a weak heart in Dublin on 16 May 1835.    (H. N.)