American poet and author, born in Dudley, MA, her parents removing to Rhode Island while she was still a baby. She was a precocious reader, and her first story, The Shipwreck, was written when she was eight years old, but never published. Her first successful poem, Tying Her Bonnet Under Her Chin, was published in a Washington newspaper, but obtained an almost worldwide circulation. Another poem, After the Ball, achieved as great popularity; and in 1874 her first volume of poems, After the Ball, and Other Poems, was published. She also wrote The Tragedy of the Unexpected (1880); Book of Love Stories (1881); For a Woman (1885); New Songs and Ballads (1886); A Flock of Girls (1887); Lyrics and Legends (1891); A Rosebud Garden of Girls (1892); Hope Benham (1894); and Three Little Daughters of the Revolution (1896). She was a frequent contributor to magazines. She died in Dudley, MA, on the 13th of May 1896.
