Poet Felcicia Dorothea Hemans (nee Browne) was most famous for the poem Casabianca, which opens with the line 'The boy stood on the burning deck'. In America, her poem 'The Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers' is traditionally recited at Thanksgiving. Her first volume of works were published when she was 15 years old.
Felicia was born in Liverpool in 1793, the daughter of a merchant. When she was 7 years old the family moved to North Wales and she married Captain Alfred Hemans, who served in the army with her brother, in 1812.
From 1828 to 1831 she lived in Liverpool again and by now her husband had left her to look after five children alone. She tthen lived in Dublin until her death in 1835, but was buried in Liverpool.
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