Maria Gowen Brooks

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Maria Gowen Brooks (born around 1794, died in 1845) - American poet.

She was born as Abigail Gowen. Her father was interested in literature, which in the past poet was awakened by innate talent. When he died when the girl was 13 years old, she went under the care of Boston merchant John Brooks, whom she later married. After his death, he lived with his brother in a plantation in Cuba. In 1829, the poet completed her most famous work, the poem Zophiël, or the Bride of Seven, based on the biblical Book of Tobit, on which she worked for many years, publishing the first song in 1825. The introduction to the song is written with a six-level stanza with mirror rhyme, which Robert Browning later used in the poem Meeting in the Night. Thou with the dark blue eye upturned to Heaven, And cheek now pale, now warm with radiant glow, Daughter of God,— most dear,— Come with thy quivering tear. And tresses wild, and robes of loosened flow,— To thy lone votaress let one look be given!

The rest of the work is written with a four-point stanza with cross rhyme: The time has been — this holiest records say— In punishment for crimes of mortal birth, When spirits banished from the realms of day Wandered malignant o'er the nighted earth.

In time, Maria Gowen Brooks was admired by Robert Southey and Edgar Allan Poe. The poet even used the pseudonym Maria of the West, Maria del Occidente, invented by Southey. It is now almost completely forgotten. Bibliography

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