2. Poet Introduction

Caroline Anne Bowles was born on \(6\) December \(1786\) in Lymington, England. She was the only child to her parents and therefore led a secluded life. Her father was a retired officer from East India Company, and she had to spend most of her childhood in a small summer cottage with her uncle, who was in the military. She did not attend a school but had private home tuitions with one of the most famous writers and artists of the time, William Gilpin. He introduced the idea of Picturesque in Modern-day England. She was highly influenced by art and made sure to work on it.

 

Bowles lost her inheritance through an improper dealing of one of her guardians. She initially began writing to support herself and to get financial aid. She submitted her work 'Ellen Fitzarthur' to Robert Southey, one of the most famous Poets of the time. Southey was famously associated with great poets like Wordsworth, Coleridge etc., who were termed as 'Lake Poets'. Southey was impressed with her work and wanted to collaborate with her. She later got married to him. They wrote on the bandit hero 'Robin Hood', but it was published only after Southey's death.

 

She has to her credit five books of verse, two books of prose tales and one mixed prose and verse. She wrote extensively at the beginning of her life but was not recognised. Alfred H. Miles, author and journalist, can be quoted saying, "She had a greater charm for her own generation than it can ever have again". She published her work anonymously until her last work, which revealed her original name.

 

Famous works of C.A. Bowles: