SOURCE: "Life and Writings of Mrs. Hemans," in The Dublin Review, Vol. 2, No. 3, December, 1836, pp. 245–75.

In the following excerpt, the author reviews Hemans's writings in the context of the then just-published Memorials collected by Henry Chorley, which the reviewer rejects as too trivializing of Hemans as a poet.

It is to the causes to which we have here adverted, rather, perhaps, than to any special inclination in the genius of the writers themselves, that we must attribute the particular form under which the great body of our recent poetry has appeared. In the absence of that encouragement, which gave birth to poetical ventures of greater length, amongst their predecessors, the modern aspirants to the honours of the muse have been content to support their titles by efforts of less pretension; and the public, which would have set its face against more imposing displays of the art, has been...