Poetry by Anne Hunter

Anne Hunter was born to Robert Boyne Home of Greenlaw Castle, Berwickshire, in 1742. She was the eldest daughter, and while we don't know much about her early life, we do know that She began writing as early as the 1760s. In 1765, her lyrical poem "Flowers of the Forest" was published in The Lark, an Edinburgh periodical, and offered her a moment of fame. In 1771, she married acclaimed scientist and surgeon John Hunter. They eventually had two children, and Anne would go on to host elaborate salons with the chief literary personalities of her time. Those parties would introduce her to the Bluestockings, a group of women who would become Anne's friends. They encouraged her poetry, and she published a collection in 1802 but received little acclaim. One critic even said her poetry had no depth of thought, but rather a natural feeling of expression that may make them worth reading. After her husband's death in 1793, Anne fell on hard times until the combined efforts of parliament and her son-in-law bailed her out of debt and set her up for retirement, where she lived until her death in 1821. We are reading from the Modern Scottish Minstrel, an anthology of poetry compiled by Charles Rogers LL. D. and published around 1855.