The Poddington Project: Christine DeWinter

Christine DeWinter (1830-1870): Born and lived her life in the
village of Poddington-on-Slossip, Cornwall. Her poem The Fairie
Museline was admired by Browning and is regarded by many as
a direct precursor to similar themes in the poems of C. Rosetti (see
pp. 372-376). Her love of obscurity and a tendency to publish under
a variety of pseudonyms has rendered much of this poetess' work
unfindable. Died by her own hand in her fortieth year.
--From Bewick's History of English Poetry, 1915

Grief on the Slossipath

". . . . originally published in . . . Lady's Purview under the name
of Alice Winter. . . ." (from Bewick's Bibliography of English
Poetry, 1916)

The Faerie Museline

". . . . the obvious French influence has been given a faux-naive
treatment, and localized according to traditional Cornish legend . . .
originally published in Our Monthly Visiter [sic]. . . ."
(from Bewick's Bibliography of English Poetry, 1916)

A Letter from Robert Browning

" . . . felt moved, after the death of his wife, to write the obscure
poetess Miss Christine DeWinter, whose poem The Fairy
Melusine [sic] she had much admired. . . ."
(from Robert Browning: Life and Letters, 1904)

The Stone Lady

". . . . also appeared in Lady's Purview under the name of
Alice Winter. . . ."
(from Bewick's Bibliography of English Poetry, 1916)

Shadow Dance

". . . . a most tantalizing fragment, never published, found in the
DeWinter Library. . . ."
(from Bewick's Bibliography of English Poetry, 1916)

A clipping from a scrapbook

A letter from a physician

The Queen's Promenade

". . . . fantastical elements charged by Elizabethan legends. . . ."
(from Bewick's Bibliography of English Poetry, 1916)

Two Queens

". . . . like the best fairy tales. A rousing tale with a lyrical
meter that originally appeared in Our Monthly Visiter. . . ."
(from Bewick's Bibliography of English Poetry, 1916)

The River's Cry

". . . . very much a return to the themes of The Fairie
Museline both in style and content. Originally appeared
in Our Monthly Visiter under the name of Bertha Mason,
clearly a reference to the madwoman of Jane Eyre. . . ."
(from Bewick's Bibliography of English Poetry, 1916)

The Forest of Ice

". . . . is the last poem of the poetess yet to be discovered that
was printed in a periodical. Curiously, Miss DeWinter signed
the poem only as 'Anonymous'. . . ."
(from Bewick's Bibliography of English Poetry, 1916)

From the journals of Christine DeWinter

". . . .these tantalizing fragments were all the DeWinter
family would allow us to copy out, but show the artist both
before and after her mental deterioration. . . ."
(from Bewick's Bibliography of English Poetry, 1916)

"My Last Poem"

". . . .exists only in manuscript form in the DeWinter estate. . . ."
(from Bewick's Bibliography of English Poetry, 1916)