Art, pain and immortality: Gendered creativity in Felicia Dorothea Hemans’s sentimental poetry

This paper examines Felicia Dorothea Hemans’s (1793-1835) poetry in relation to pain, female poetic creativity, and literary immortality. Hemans is a prominent figure in the sentimental tradition of English writing, as she is recognised for her unique capacity to integrate personal emotions with domestic concerns, thereby frequently questioning traditional gender roles in poetry. Hemans establishes a unique literary tradition that addresses domestic, national, and political issues by emphasising personal emotions. Despite the constraints imposed on women, Hemans always maintains her feminine identity in her poetry. She welcomes it as a major influence on her creative process. In this light, this paper closely explores the ways Felicia Dorothea Hemans reveals the immortalizing power of works in her two poems “Properzia Rossi” and “The Grave of a Poetess”, published in her collection Records of Women (1828), while also giving their articulation of the individual pain of the female poet either as a lover or as a poet. By exploring how Hemans skilfully transforms personal sorrow into a lasting creative legacy by highlighting the junction of these two elements, Hemans’s works indicate the ability of art to immortalize and preserve the feminine experience, even in the face of pain.