Austen, Jane

(1775-1817)

   The daughter of a clergyman and the youngest of seven children, Austen lived most of her life at Steventon near Basingstoke. She eventually settled in to a cottage at Chawton (now a museum) about a mile from Alton, Hampshire, until 1871, when due to ill health she moved to Winchester, where she died. She is buried in Winchester Cathedral, and a tablet commemorates her in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey. Her novels portray life with humor and gentle irony. Her poems are varied in subject and her humor is evident. Part of her final poem, "Written at Winchester on Tuesday the 15th July 1817," written 3 days before she died, seems to be an analogy of her departure. Some of her other poems: "Happy the Lab'rer," "I've a Pain in My Head," "Miss Lloyd has now went to Miss Green," "Mock Panegyric on a Young Friend," "My Dearest Frank, I Wish You Joy," "Ode to Pity," "Of a Ministry Pitiful, Angry, Mean," "Oh! Mr. Best You're Very Bad," "See They Come, Post Haste from Thanet," "This Little Bag."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. Poemhunter (www.poemhunter.com). 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 National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.org.uk). The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. Westminster Abbey Official Guide (no date).