Emma Tatham (31 October 1829 – 4 September 1855) was a 19th-century English poet. Her work is seldom read today, but she was regarded in the

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the reign of Queen Victoria, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. Slightly different definitions are sometimes used. The era followed the ...

as a prodigy and a poetic genius.

Life

Tatham was born near

Gray's Inn The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and Wale ...

, London, to George and Ann Tatham, and educated at Miss Jolly's school in

Great Ormond Street Great Ormond Street Hospital (informally GOSH, formerly the Hospital for Sick Children) is a children's hospital located in the Bloomsbury area of the London Borough of Camden, and a part of Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foun ...

up to the age of 16. Her older sister had died before she was born. Her biographer, a

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

minister and family friend, states (pp. 3 and 7) that her father's family came from

West Witton West Witton is a village and civil parish in the county of North Yorkshire, England. Located in Wensleydale in the Yorkshire Dales it lies on the A684 road, A684 (the main road between Leyburn and Hawes). The civil parish also includes the ham ...

, North Yorkshire, and kept an upholstery shop in

Holborn Holborn ( or ), an area in central London, covers the south-eastern part of the London Borough of Camden and a part (St Andrew Holborn (parish), St Andrew Holborn Below the Bars) of the Wards of the City of London, Ward of Farringdon Without i ...

. Her mother came from

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

.Benjamin Gregory: ''Memoir of Emma Tatham... with "the Angel's Spell" and other pieces not published during her lifetime'' (London, Hamilton, 1859). A transcript of the legend on her gravestone appears on p. 124. The family moved to 7 Addington Square,

Margate Margate is a seaside resort, seaside town in the Thanet District of Kent, England. It is located on the north coast of Kent and covers an area of long, north-east of Canterbury and includes Cliftonville, Garlinge, Palm Bay, UK, Palm Bay and W ...

in 1847, largely for the sake of Emma's health (p. 35). She began to write poetry early, and from the age of 16 to 18, she rapidly wrote an abundance of poems. A collection of these appeared in 1854 as ''The Dream of Pythagoras and Other Poems'' and was reprinted at least three times. Thereafter some critics compared her to

Mary Shelley Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley ( , ; ; 30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic novel ''Frankenstein, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' (1818), which is considered an History of science fiction# ...

Praise from Arnold

Matthew Arnold Matthew Arnold (24 December 1822 – 15 April 1888) was an English poet and cultural critic. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold (academic), Tom Arnold, literary professor, and Willi ...

wrote in praise of her. He compared her with the French poet

Eugénie de Guérin Eugénie de Guérin (; 29 January 1805 – 31 May 1848) was a French writer and the sister of the poet Maurice de Guérin. Her ''Journals'' (1861, Eng. trans., 1865) and her ''Lettres'' (1864, Eng. trans., 1865) indicated the possession of gif ...

, and remarked elsewhere that "she had a sincere vein of poetical feeling, a genuine aptitude for composition." As she was then a Protestant who resided in

, she was further described by Arnold as a "fervid Christian". A book of verse dedicated to Tatham was published in 1857 as ''Etchings and Pearls; or, a Flower Planted on the Grave of Emma Tatham'', by Mrs. J. Cooke Westbrook. A biography of her by the Methodist minister Benjamin Gregory (1820–1900) appeared after her death.''The Dream of Pythagoras and Other Poems''. London, Hamilton & Co., 1858

/ref> Emma Tatham died in 1855 while on a visit to

Redbourn Redbourn is a village and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England. It is located from Harpenden, from St Albans and from Hemel Hempstead. The civil parish had a population of 6,913 according to the 2011 Census. History To the south-west of ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...

, and was buried there in the graveyard of the Independent Chapel.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tatham, Emma 1829 births 1855 deaths 19th-century English poets Victorian poets Victorian women writers 19th-century English women writers English women poets People from Holborn People from Margate