Phoebe Cary

Introduction

Phoebe Cary was the younger sister of poet Alice Cary and was an American poet. In 1849, the sisters co-published poems and subsequently went on to produce volumes of their own.

The unpublished collections of the sisters' poetry were put together after their deaths in the year 1871.

Birth and Early Life

Phoebe Cary was born on September 4, 1824, in Mount Healthy, Ohio, near Cincinnati, and raised on the Clovernook farm with her sister Alice, which is now in North College Hill, Ohio. They were raised in a Universalist home and held unbiased and progressive political and social beliefs. They frequently attended Christian church services and were friendly with speakers from all of these and other churches.

The sisters were primarily self-taught because they had to take care of the house and were rarely able to attend school. Their mother died in 1835, and two years later, their father remarried. Their stepmother was uninterested in their writing ambitions. The sisters stuck to their goal to study and write when the workday was over, even though they had to assist with household chores to the best of their abilities. They were frequently forbidden the use of candles to the extent that they desired, and the only source of light after the rest of the family had gone to bed was an improved use of a saucer of oil with a piece of cloth for a wick.

They were also involved in the women's rights movement in the early days, with Phoebe Cary working as an assistant editor for Susan B. Anthony's publication, The Revolution.

Their poetry was included in the anthology Female Poets of America, edited by Rufus Wilmot Griswold in 1848, and Poems of Alice and Phoebe Cary was published in 1849 with his assistance. Poet John Greenleaf Whittier was approached to write a letter to the editor but declined. He felt their poetry did not require his approval and expressed a general dislike for prefaces.

Both sisters dwelled in ancient literature under the supervision of an older sister whose death in 1833 had a deep impact on them. Although Phoebe and Alice authored poems as teenagers, their book, Poems of Alice and Phoebe Cary, was not published until 1850, after their work had been noted by luminaries such as Edgar Allan Poe and John Greenleaf Whittier.

The sisters' album received widespread recognition, and following their literary debut in 1850, they relocated to New York City. There, they were central figures in the East Coast intellectual scene, routinely wrote to national periodicals, and frequently gave Sunday evening celebrations, some of which were attended by well-known people such as P. T. Barnum, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, as well as John Greenleaf Whittier. During her time in New York, Phoebe published two books of her poetry, "Poems and Parodies" in 1854 and "Poems of Faith, Hope, and Love" in 1868. Her lyrics were also included in numerous church hymnals, Sunday School cards, and family scrapbooks. "Nearer Home," one of her most popular hymns, was frequently sung at funerals.

In 1876, Canadian composer Robert Ambrose wrote a longer, more complex tune specifically for Cary's lyrics. The Cary-Ambrose score was one of the most popular and often-sold pieces of sheet music in the nineteenth century.

Phoebe chose to perform the greater share of the domestic duties in the combined housekeeping in New York, leaving her with less time for literary engagement. She wrote relatively little poetry, and her poetry was so distinct in style, tone, and manner that the phrases of one sister were rarely mistaken for those of the other.

In 1868, Horace Greeley published a brief account of the lives of Alice and Phoebe. He misspelled Phoebe's name as "Phebe" in the brief.

How The Sisters Died?

Alice died of Tuberculosis in 1871, and Phoebe died of Hepatitis five months later, on July 31, 1871, in Newport, Rhode Island. Both sisters were buried in Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery.

Her Works

She authored various poems and hymns that are present in different volumes of The Wit And Humor Of America and various short poetry collections. Some of the works are-

• Ballad of the Canal
• Day is Done
• I Remember, I Remember
• Jacob
• Psalm of Life
• Ready
• They didn't think
• When Lovely Woman
• The Marriage of Sir John Smith
• Samuel Brown

Poems Compiled And Written By Both The Sisters

• The book named, Poems of Alice and Phoebe Cary were published in 1849.
• Poems and Parodies published in 1854.
• Poems of Faith, Hope, and Love were published in 1867.
• Mary Clemmer Ames collected and edited A Memorial of Alice and Phoebe Cary with Some of Their Later Poems in 1873.
• Mary Clemmer Ames composed and edited Alice and Phoebe Cary's Last Poems in 1873.
• Ballads for Little Folk by Alice and Phoebe Cary gathered and edited by Mary Clemmer Ames in 1873.
• Hymns for All Christians were collected by Charles Force Deems and Phoebe Cary in 1869.