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Jean Ingelow

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Jean Ingelow (17 March 1820 - 20 July 1897), was an English poet and novelist.

Jean Ingelow 001

Jean Ingelow (1820-1897) from The Hawthorne Readers, Book 4, 1904. Courtesy Wikimeida Commons.

Life[]

Overview[]

Ingelow, the daughter of a banker at Boston, Lincolnshire, published 3 volumes of poems, of which perhaps the best known individual piece is "The High Tide on the Coast of Lincolnshire," and several successful novels, including Off the Skelligs (1872), Fated to be Free (1875), and Sarah de Berenger (1879). She also wrote excellent stories for children: Mopsa the Fairy, Stories told to Children, etc. Her poems show a considerable lyric gift.[1]

Youth[]

Ingelow was born at Boston, Lincolnshire, the eldest child of William Ingelow, a banker, and his wife, Jean (Kilgour), a member of an Aberdeenshire family.[2]

She was educated at home.[3]

As a girl she contributed verses and tales to magazines under the pseudonym of “Orris.”[2]

The early years of her life were spent in Lincolnshire, and the effect of the fen scenery is apparent in her verse.[3]

Adult life[]

Ingelow then lived at Ipswich, and before 1863 came to London, where she spent the rest of her life.[3]

Her debut collection, A Rhyming Chronicle of Incidents and Feelings, published in 1850, attracted little attention, although Tennyson found some charming things in it (cf. Life of Tennyson, i. 286-7).[3]

It was not until the publication of the 1st series of Poems in 1863 that the public recognized in Ingelow a poet of high merit. The volume reached a 4th edition in the year of publication. In 1867 an illustrated edition, with drawings by various artists, among them Poynter, Pinwell, A.B. Houghton, and J.W. North, was brought out. By 1879 it was in a 23rd edition.[3]

Her poems were set to music, and sung in every drawing-room, and in America obtained an even greater hold upon public estimation.[2] Some 200,000 copies of her various works had been sold in America by 1901.[3]

In 1867 she published The Story of Doom, and other poems, and then gave up verse for a while and became industrious as a novelist. Off the Skelligs appeared in 1872, Fated to be Free in 1873, Sarah de Berenger in 1880, and John Jerome in 1886. She also wrote Studies for Stories (1864), Stories told to a Child (1865), Mopsa the Fairy (1869), and other excellent stories for children.[2]

A 2nd series of Poems appeared in 1876, and both series were reprinted in 1879. A 3rd series was added in 1885.[3]

Ingelow was a woman of frank and hospitable manners, with a look of the Lady Bountiful of a country parish. She had nothing of the professional authoress or the “literary lady” about her, and, as with characteristic simplicity she was accustomed to say, was no great reader. Her temperament was rather that of the improvisatore than of the professional author or artist.[2]

She was acquainted with Tennyson, Ruskin, Froude, Browning, Christina Rossetti, and with most of the poets, painters, and writers of her time.[3] She resided for the last years of her life in Kensington, and somewhat outlived her popularity as a poet.[2]

She died at Kensington on 20 July 1897, and was buried at Brompton cemetery on 24 July.[3]

Writing[]

Poetry[]

Ingelow's books brought her comparatively large sums of money, but her fame rests on 2 or 3 poems in the volume of 1863. It contained the verses entitled "High Tide on the Coast of Lincolnshire, 1571," which for earnestness and technical excellence is among the finest of modern ballads.[3]

She wrote much under the influence of Wordsworth and Tennyson. Her verse is mainly characterised by lyrical charm, graceful fancy, pathos, close and accurate observation of nature, and sympathy with the common interests of life. The language is invariably clear and simple. She is particularly successful in handling anapestic measures.[3]

Her poems have often the genuine ballad note, and as a writer of songs she was exceedingly successful. “Sailing beyond Seas” and “When Sparrows build” in Supper at the Mill were deservedly among the most popular songs of the day; but they share, with the rest of her work, the faults of affectation and stilted phraseology. The blemishes of her style were cleverly indicated in a well-known parody of Calverley’s; a false archaism and a deliberate assumption of unfamiliar and unnecessary synonyms for simple objects were among the most vicious of her mannerisms. She wrote, however, in verse with a sweetness which her sentiment and her heart inspired, and in prose she displayed feeling for character and the gift of narrative; while a delicate underlying tenderness is never wanting in either medium.[2]

A volume of selections from her poems appeared in 1886, and a complete edition in 1 volume in 1898.[4]

Other works[]

As a novelist Ingelow does not rank so high. Her best long novel, Off the Skelligs, appeared in 1872 in 4 volumes. The Studies for Stories, published in 1864, are admirable short stories. She depicted child life with great effect, and her best work in that line will be found in Stories told to a Child, published in 1865.[4]

Other works by Ingelow are: 1. 'Allerton and Dreux; or the War of Opinion,' 2 vols. 1851. 2. 'Tales of Orris,' 1860. 3. 'Mopsa, the Fairy,' 1869. 4. 'Fated to be Free,' 3 vols. 1875; new edit. 1876. 6. 'Sarah de Berenger,' 3 vols. 1879; new edit. 1886. 6. 'Don John : a Story,' 3 vols. 1881. 7. 'John Jerome,' 1886. 8. 'The little Wonder-box,' 1887. 9. 'Very Young and Quite another Story,' 1890.[4]

Critical introduction[]

by Thomas Humphry Ward

When Jean Ingelow published her earliest book, A Rhyming Chronicle, in 1849 or 1850, a relative of hers sent it to Tennyson and he acknowledged it saying: “Your cousin must be worth knowing; there are some very charming things in her book.” Then followed some rather sharp criticisms, and it may have been in part owing to them that the young lady hesitated for a dozen years before issuing another volume. That however, the Poems of 1863, had great and immediate success, for although it failed to satisfy readers in search of profound thought or exceptional technique, it appealed to that wide public which seeks for common themes intelligibly treated, tender feeling, and melodious verse.

Nobody, not even the schoolgirls who adored her, ever claimed for Miss Ingelow a place among the great poets, but thousands of quiet folk enjoyed her ballads, her narratives, and her songs, because they expressed in a charming way the thoughts of which they themselves had been vaguely conscious and described in clear language situations and characters that they could understand and appreciate. The poems which we have selected, and which will be well known to the older generation of readers, will explain and justify this success, and those who read them, whether for the 1st time or as pieces with which they were once familiar, will admit that a poem so true and so tragic as "The High Tide," or such a song as "When Sparrows Build," are worth preserving and that their author ought not to be forgotten.[5]

Publications[]

Poetry[]

Novels[]

  • Allerton and Dreux. London: Wertheim & Macintosh, 1851; New York: Garland, 1975.
  • Off the Skelligs. London: Henry S. King, 1872; Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1872.
  • Fated to Be Free. London: Tinsley, 1875; Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1875.
  • Sarah de Berenger. London: 1879; Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1879; (3 volumes), London: Sampson Low, 1880. Volume I, Volume II, Volume III.
  • Don John. (3 volumes), London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, 1881; Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1881. Volume I, Volume II, Volume III.
  • John Jerome: His thoughts and ways. London: Sampson Low, 1886; Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1886.
  • Poor Matt; or, The clouded intellect. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1866.
  • Quite Another Story. New York: John W. Lovell, 1890.

Short fiction[]

Non-fiction[]

  • Gems from Jean Ingelow. London & Glasgow: Collins Clear-Type Press, 1850.
  • The Jean Ingelow Birthday Book. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1882.

Juvenile[]


Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.[6]

See also[]

References[]

Notes[]

  1. ↑ John William Cousin, "Ingelow, Jean," A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: Dent / New York: Dutton, 1910, 207. Wikisource, Web, Sep. 16, 2017.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Ingelow, Jean, Encyclopædia Britannica 11th edition, volume 14, 563. Web, Feb. 13, 2017.
  3. ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 Lee, 31.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Lee, 32.
  5. ↑ from Thomas Humphry Ward, "Critical Introduction: Jean Ingelow (1820–1897)," The English Poets: Selections with critical introductions (edited by Thomas Humphry Ward). New York & London: Macmillan, 1880-1918. Web, Mar. 24, 2016.
  6. ↑ Search results = au:Jean Ingelow, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Sep. 7, 2013.

External links[]

Poems
Books
About

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement (edited by Sidney Lee)​. London: Smith, Elder, 1901. Original article is at: Ingelow, Jean

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