Susie Frances Harrison née Riley (February 24, 1859 – May 5, 1935) (a.k.a. Seranus) was a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

poet, novelist, music critic and music composer who lived and worked in

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

and

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Life

Susie Frances Riley was born in Toronto of Irish-

ancestry, the daughter of John Byron Riley. She studied music with Frederic Boscovitz, at a private school for girls in Toronto, and later in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

. She reportedly began publishing poetry, in the ''Canadian Illustrated News,'' at 16 under the pseudonym "Medusa." After completing her education, she worked as a pianist and singer. In 1880 she married organist John W. F. Harrison, of

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

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, who was the organist of St. George's Church in Montreal. The couple had a son and a daughter.John W. Garvin,
S. Frances Harrison
" ''Canadian Poets'' (Toronto: McClelland, Goodhild & Stuart, 1916), 124, UPenn.edu, Web, Dec. 19, 2010. The Harrisons lived in Ottawa in 1883, when Susie Harrison composed the song "Address of Welcome to Lord Lansdowne" to celebrate the first public appearance of the new

Governor General Governor-general (plural governors-general), or governor general (plural governors general), is the title of an official, most prominently associated with the British Empire. In the context of the governors-general and former British colonies, ...

, the Marquess of Lansdowne. In 1887, the Harrisons moved to Toronto, where John Harrison became organist and choirmaster of St. Simon the Apostle, and Susan Harrison began a literary career under the pseudonym "Seranus" (a misreading of her signature, "S. Frances"), soon publishing articles in "many of the leading journals and periodicals." She wrote a number of songs published in the United States and England under the name Seranus, and published other songs in England under the name, Gilbert King. She was the music critic of ''The Week'' from December 1886 to June 1887 under her pen-name of Seranus. She wrote the "Historical sketch on Canadian music" for the 1898 ''Canada: An Encyclopedia of the Country.'' Susan Harrison was considered an authority on folk music, and often lectured on the subject. She used traditional Irish melodies in her ''String Quartet on Ancient Irish Airs,'' and French-Canadian music in her 1887 ''Trois Esquisses canadiennes'' (Three Canadian Sketches), 'Dialogue,' 'Nocturne,' and 'Chant du voyageur'. She also incorporated French-Canadian melodies in her three-act opera, ''Pipandor'' (with libretto by F.A. Dixon of Ottawa).Elaine Keillor,
Harrison, Susie Frances
" ''Canadian Encyclopedia,'' Dominion Institute, Web, May 4, 2011. Her ''String Quartet on Ancient Irish Airs,'' is likely the first string quartet composed in Canada by a woman.Nocturne
" Performing our Musical Heritage," Web, May 4, 2011. In 1896 and 1897, she presented a series of well-received lectures in Toronto on "The Music of French Canada. For 20 years, Harrison was the principal of the Rosedale branch of the Toronto Conservatory of Music.Natalie King,
Susan Frances Harrison (1859-1935)
, Women Poets of the Confederation, PoetsPathway.ca, Web, May 4, 2001. During the 1900s she contributed to and edited the Conservatory's publication ''Conservatory Monthly,'' and contributed to its successor ''Conservatory Quarterly Review''. She wrote the article on "Canada" for the 1909 ''Imperial History and Encyclopedia of Music''. In addition, she wrote at least six books of poetry, and three novels.

Writing

Poetry

Harrison's musical training is reflected in her poetry: "she was adept in her handling of the rhythmic complexities of poetic forms such as the

sonnet A sonnet is a fixed poetic form with a structure traditionally consisting of fourteen lines adhering to a set Rhyme scheme, rhyming scheme. The term derives from the Italian word ''sonetto'' (, from the Latin word ''sonus'', ). Originating in ...

and the

villanelle A villanelle, also known as villanesque,Kastner 1903 p. 279 is a nineteen-line poetic form consisting of five tercets followed by a quatrain. There are two refrains and two repeating rhymes, with the first and third lines of the first tercet re ...

. Like other Canadian poets of the late nineteenth century, her prevailing themes include nature, love, and patriotism. Her landscape poetry, richly influenced by the works of Charles G.D. Roberts and Archibald Lampman, paints the Canadian wilderness as beguilingly beautiful yet at the same time mysterious and distant." Harrison was a master of the

. The villanelle was a French verse form that had been introduced to English readers by Edmund Gosse in his 1877 essay, "A Plea for Certain Exotic Forms of Verse".

Novels

Her two novels "articulate a fascination with a heavily mythologized Quebec culture that Harrison shared with many English-speaking Canadians of her time ... characterized by a gothic emphasis on horror, madness, aristocratic seigneurial manor houses, and a decadent Catholicism." "Harrison writes elegiacally of a regime whose romantic qualities are largely the creation of an Upper Canadian quest for a distinctive historical identity."

Recognition

Harrison experienced a decline in reputation in her lifetime. In 1916 anthologist John Garvin called her "one of our greater poets whose work has not yet had the recognition in Canada it merits.". "By 1926, Garvin describes her merely as 'one of our distinctive poets'."Wanda Campbell, "Susan Frances Harrison,"
Hidden Rooms: Early Canadian Women Poets
'' Canadian Poetry P, 2002, Canadian Poetry, UWO, Web, May 4, 2010. The ''

Dictionary of Literary Biography The ''Dictionary of Biography in literature, Literary Biography'' is a specialist biographical dictionary dedicated to literature. Published by Gale (Cengage), Gale, the 375-volume setRogers, 106. covers a wide variety of literary topics, periods ...

'' wrote of Susan Frances Harrison, in 1990, that "Harrison's unpublished work has not been preserved, her published work is out of print and difficult to obtain, and her once-substantial position in the literary life of her country is now all but forgotten."Susan Frances Harrison Biography
, ''Dictionary of Literary Biography,'' Bookrags.com, Web, May 4, 2011.

Publications

Selected songs

*''Song of Welcome''. *''Pipandor''. opera *'Trois Esquisses canadiennes'': 'Dialogue,' 'Nocturne,' 'Chant du voyageur'. 1887. *''Quartet on Ancient Irish Airs''.

Poetry

* ''Four Ballads and a Play.'' Toronto: Author,

1890 Events January * January 1 – The Kingdom of Italy establishes Eritrea as its colony in the Horn of Africa. * January 2 – Alice Sanger becomes the first female staffer in the White House. * January 11 – 1890 British Ultimatum: The Uni ...

. *''Pine, Rose and Fleur De Lis''. Toronto: Hart, 1891. *''In Northern Skies and Other Poems''. Toronto: Author,

1912 This year is notable for Sinking of the Titanic, the sinking of the ''Titanic'', which occurred on April 15. In Albania, this leap year runs with only 353 days as the country achieved switching from the Julian to Gregorian Calendar by skippin ...

. *''Songs of Love and Labor''. Toronto: Author,

1925 Events January * January 1 – The Syrian Federation is officially dissolved, the State of Aleppo and the State of Damascus having been replaced by the State of Syria (1925–1930), State of Syria. * January 3 – Benito Mussolini m ...

. *''Later Poems and New Villanelles''. Toronto: Ryerson,

1928 Events January * January – British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly demonstrating that DNA is the genetic material. * January 1 – Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: Boris B ...

. *''Penelope and Other Poems''. Toronto: Author,

1934 Events January–February * January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established. * January 15 – The 8.0 1934 Nepal–Bihar earthquake, Nepal–Bihar earthquake strik ...

. Bibliographical information on poems from Wanda Campbell, ''Hidden Rooms.''

Prose

*''Crowded Out and Other Sketches''. Ottawa: ''Evening Journal'', 1886.CROWDED OUT! And Other Sketches, By Seranus
Project Gutenberg, accessed February 2020. *''The Forest of Bourg-Marie'', novel. Toronto: G.N. Morang, 1898. *''Ringfield'', novel. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1914.Search results: Susie Frances Harrison
Open Library, Web, May 9, 2011.

Edited

*''Canadian Birthday Book''. Toronto: Robinson,

1887 Events January * January 11 – Louis Pasteur's anti-rabies treatment is defended in the Académie Nationale de Médecine, by Dr. Joseph Grancher. * January 20 ** The United States Senate allows the United States Navy to lease Pearl Har ...

. Poetry anthology.

Articles

*"Historical sketch of music in Canada," ''Canada: An Encyclopedia of the Country'', vol 4, J.C. Hopkins ed., Toronto, 1898. * "Canada," ''The Imperial History and Encyclopedia of Music'', vol 3: ''History of Foreign Music'', W.L. Hubbard ed., New York ca 1909.

Discography

Harrison's piano music has been recorded and issued on media, including: *''Keillor, Elaine. By a Canadian Lady Piano Music'' 1841-1997 Carleton Sound *''Keillor, Elaine. Piano Music by Torontonians'' (1984)

References

External links

S. Frances Harrison at ''Canadian Poets''
Biography and 9 poems (Gatineau Point, The Voyageur, Danger, Les Chantiers, Petite Ste. Rosalie, St. Jean B'ptiste, Catharine Plouffe, Benedict Brosse, In March) * * *
The Canadian Birthday Book
' at

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

Music composed, arranged, or with lyrics by Susie Frances Harrison
a
Sheet Music Collection

Library and Archives Canada Library and Archives Canada (LAC; ) is the federal institution tasked with acquiring, preserving, and providing accessibility to the documentary heritage of Canada. The national archive and library is the 16th largest library in the world. T ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harrison, Susie Frances 1859 births 1935 deaths 19th-century Canadian poets 19th-century classical composers 20th-century Canadian poets 20th-century Canadian classical composers Canadian music educators Canadian women poets People from Old Toronto Canadian women classical composers 20th-century Canadian women writers 19th-century Canadian women writers Canadian women music educators 20th-century Canadian women composers 19th-century women composers Canadian music critics Canadian women music critics Poets from Ontario