Author: Powell, Anne
Biography:
POWELL, Anne (fl 1821)
Powell must have been her married name; her birth name has not yet been found and there are too many candidates for possible dates of marriage and death. (She might be the Ann Powell buried at Clifton on 26 Mar. 1825, but no age is given for that person so it is no more than a possibility.) In the preface to her only known publication, Clifton, Caractacus, Boadicea, and Other Pieces, she explains that without neglecting her family or the “solemn duties” of religion, she has been in the habit of devoting the hours from five to seven in the morning, in milder seasons, to writing, and that she was persuaded to publish by the encouragement of friends and her own “numerous progeny.” She reveals further that Clifton (or perhaps Bristol) was her “native city.” Her interests are broadly historical and educational; she aims to pass on the learning she has been able to acquire, in the entertaining form of verse. Hence the historical subjects and the several pages of Notes at the end of the volume. The occasional poems take up middle- or upper-class subjects: the death of Princess Charlotte; a memorial to Burns; an impromptu on hearing a lady play a harp; and a fantasy about the wide-ranging flights of a robin. (ancestry.com 6 Nov. 2023; findmypast 6 Nov. 2023) HJ