In the spring of 1831 Mrs. Memento left England for Dublin, where she took lodgings. Her health, from the time of her leaving England, became rapidly worse, to which the advancing age of the eons remaining under her care was an additional cause of anxiety. The latter months of 1333 were busily spent by Mrs. Hemans in arranging and preparing for publication the three collections of her poems which were published in the spring and summer of 1834: ' Hymns for Childhood ;" National Lyrics and Songs for Music;' and 'Scenes and Hymns of Life.' In August 1S34, Mrs. Hemline took the scarlet fever, and when imperfectly recovered, caught a cold; ague was euperinduced, and never left her till it was subdued by her last fatal malady, dropsy, which before the end of 1834 had assumed an unequivocally dangerous aspect The summer residence of the Archbishop (1Vhately) of Dublin was placed at her disposal; change of scene and the kind attentions of the archbishop and his wife afforded some relief, but no permanent benefit; and in order to be near her physicians, she was taken back to Dublin. On the 26th of April 1835, 31ra. Hemans dictated her last poetical effort, the ' Sabbath Sonnet.' She continued to sink gradually till May 12, 1S35, when, after a long and quiet sleep, she died without a sigh or movement. She was buried in St. Anne's Church, Dawson-street, Dublin, which is close to the house in which she died. A tablet was erected by her brothers in the cathedral of St. Asaph, "in memory of Felicia Hemans, whose character is best pourtrayed in her writings." A volume of 'Poetical Remains' was
published after her death.
11ra. Hemans's love of the art to which she had devoted herself was intense, and her appreciation of it was serious and high, as a means to purify and elevate the mind. In her later years her religious impressions became stronger, and her poetry became more tinctured with religious thoughts and feelings. Poetry was the object of all her studies, and she sought for its materials in history, voyages and travels, and the fine arts ; but her especial delight was to contemplate the scants of nature in all their aspects of beauty, and to muse upon the associations and sympathies connected with them. Her thoughts are unborrowod, are never vague or indistinct, and always seem to flow naturally from the scene or circumstance present to her mind. She is moat successful when the subject is native, something which she has wen, or something which by its associations calls up the sympathies which are familiar to her. Her poetry is thus peculiarly and strikingly the representatiou of her own character, of the thoughts and feelings of the woman ; it is essentially lyrical and descriptive, lllhd with imagery, sometimes overflowing with it. She has no dramatic power; she cannot enter into the thoughts and feelings of others; she can only exhibit her own. Her tragedy was deservedly condemned. licr great defect is the similarity of tone and treatment which pervades all her works. Many of her lyrical pieces are exceedingly beautiful.
(Chorley, Memoirs of Mrs. Unmans; Mrs. Hemline's' Poems.)