Muriel Stuart (1885,

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– 18 December 1967), born Muriel Stuart Irwin, was a poet, the daughter of a Scottish barrister. She was particularly concerned with the topic of sexual politics, though she first wrote poems about

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

. She later gave up poetry writing; her later publications are on gardening. She was hailed by Hugh MacDiarmid as the best woman poet of the Scottish Renaissance although she was Scottish only by family origin and lived all her life in England. Despite this, his comment led to her inclusion in many Scottish anthologies.

Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry of William Wor ...

described her poetry as "superlatively good". Like other female poets of her era, she reflects the weight of social expectations on women and the experience of post-war spinsterhood.Jane Dowson and Alice Entwistle, ''A History of Twentieth-Century British Women's Poetry'', Cambridge / New York: Cambridge University, 2005,
p. 83
Her most famous poem, "In the Orchard", is entirely dialogues and in no kind of verse form, which makes it innovative for its time. She does use rhyme: a mixture of half-rhyme and rhyming couplets (a,b,a,b form). Other famous poems of hers are "The Seed Shop", "The Fools" and "Man and his Makers". She married twice, the second time to the publisher Alfred William Board. Later in life she stopped publishing poetry and wrote books on gardening: ''Fool’s Garden'' (1936) was a best-seller and ''Gardener's Nightcap'' has been reprinted by

Persephone Books ''Persephone Books'' is an independent publisher based in Bath, England. Founded in 1999 by Nicola Beauman, Persephone Books reprints works largely by women writers of the late 19th and 20th century, though a few books by men are included. The ...

References

* *
Gardener's Nightcap
''at Persephone Books

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* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Stuart, Muriel 1885 births 1967 deaths Scottish women poets Place of death missing 20th-century Scottish poets 20th-century British women writers Scottish Renaissance 20th-century Scottish women

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