Poet and essayist. Dedicated throughout her life to benevolent and humanitarian works—the welfare of the poor, the care of the afflicted, the prevention of cruelty to animals. Worked actively in support of Royal Albert Asylum for idiots and imbeciles. Contributed to Ladies' Companion, North British Review, Good Words, and other periodicals. Several of her poems included in Home Thoughts and Home Scenes, 1865, a collection of poems for children. From 1848 to 1876 published seven volumes of poems, e.g., Carmina Crucie, 1869; The Soul's Legend, 1873. Was as true a poet, wrote Dr. John Brown, as George Herbert, Henry Vaughan, or Cowper (North British Review, February 1861). Published several books on the religious and spiritual life; the best known of these, The Patience of Hope, praised by Whittier for its earnest Christian spirit and its beauty of style. Wrote biography of Jean Lacordaire, 1867, and brief memoir of John Woolman, 1871.

In a letter of June 14 1871, Charles Dickens, Jr., wrote to Miss GreenweIl that a poem that she had submitted to A.Y.R. was too long for his present arrangements, but that he would be happy if at a future time he could use material that she might send (A.Y.R. Letter-Book).

Author: Anne Lohrli; © University of Toronto Press, 1973.

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography