Poetry of Joanna Baillie

Joanna Baillie was born on 11th September 1762 in Bothwell in Lanarkshire, Scotland. As a child she displayed little interest in books preferring the childhood of an outdoors girl exploring nature and her surroundings. In 1784 she moved with her mother to London to help keep house for her brother Matthew who had inherited from a medical colleague. It was here that she became increasingly attracted to the literary world. Joanna excelled as both a poet and a dramatist and came to be very well known during career despite the obstacles of being a woman writer. When she finally settled in Hampstead in London she hosted a literary society in her cottage. Joanna Baillie died at the age of 88 in full possession of her faculties on February 23rd 1851. Here we publish a selection of her very fine work.