Emily Lawless--listed on the title pages of her books as "The Hon. Emily Lawless"--wrote poetry, novels, a history of Ireland, and articles on entomology. Although she spent her formative years in Ireland and considered herself an Irish patriot, she lived in England most of her adult life. A sense of exile is especially strong in her poems, most of which were published during the last decade of her life.

Lawless was born at Lyons House, County Kildare, the fourth of nine children and eldest daughter of Edward Lawless, third Baron Cloncurry, and Elizabeth Lawless, née Kirwan, a renowned beauty from an ancient west-of-Ireland family. Emily was baptized on 21 December 1845; no record of her birth date exists. Her family belonged to the Ascendancy, the 10 percent of the population that conformed to the Church of Ireland rather than the Roman rite; only a member of that church...