Clive, Caroline Archer

(1801-1873)

   Born in London, the daughter of Edmund Meysey-Wigley of Shakenhurst, Worcestershire, sometime member of Parliament for Worcester. She married, in 1840, the Rev. Archer Clive, for many years member of Parliament for Hereford, and later chancellor of Hereford Cathedral. She was lame from childhood, a fact that is reflected in some of her writings. She died from burns received when her dress caught fire. She wrote under the pseudonym of V. Some of her publications: IX Poems, 1841, and a larger edition, 1840. I Watched the Heavens, 1842. The Queen's Ball, 1847. The Valley of the Rea, 1851. The Morlas, 1853. Paul Ferroll, 1855 (a novel). Poems 1856. Year after Year, 1858. Why Paul Ferroll Killed His Wife, 1860. Poems, 1872. Some of her poems: "A Last Day," "August 1865," "'Death, Death! Oh! Amiable, Lovely Death!' Shakespeare," "Epitaph for a Young Lady," "Old Age," "The Crab Tree," "The First Morning of 1860," "The Queen's Ball," "Translation from Tasso," "Written in Health," "Written in Illness."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition, 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Oldpoetry (www.oldpoetry.com). Poems by Caroline Clive. Longmans, Green, and Co., 1872. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000.