I lived from 1773-unknown. I was from Scotland, and am in the English category.
Christian Ross attended school in Audechentoul in Scotland where she first became interested in poetry and began making secret copies of her favourite poems.
After leaving school at the age of 14 and starting work as a servant she started to write her own poetry. When she was 18 Ross developed consumption and at the age of 23 married a ship’s carpenter.
At the age of 28 writing as Christian Milne she published her major work Simple Poems on Simple Subjects. In a review the following year The Monthly Magazine 20 (1806) notes: "Mrs. Milne's 'Simple Poems on Simple Subjects' deserve particular encouragement; not so much, perhaps, for the extraordinary merit of her poetry, as on account of the singular circumstances under which it appears to have been written. The Muse is rarely auspicious to a life of manual labour"
The book earned her the princely sum of £100 a not insignificant amount of money for anyone in those days but especially for a housewife with 8 children. Later she invested it in a part share in a ship.
Although Christian Milne is firmly embedded in the category of Working Class Poets there are dimensions to her seemingly "simple" works that also distinguish her within that genre, raising her above the previous writers in that field. Milne's patriotic pacifism, as well as her readiness to adopt different personae in her poems, provides a distinctive contribution to the tradition of working-class writing
After leaving school at the age of 14 and starting work as a servant she started to write her own poetry. When she was 18 Ross developed consumption and at the age of 23 married a ship’s carpenter.
At the age of 28 writing as Christian Milne she published her major work Simple Poems on Simple Subjects. In a review the following year The Monthly Magazine 20 (1806) notes: "Mrs. Milne's 'Simple Poems on Simple Subjects' deserve particular encouragement; not so much, perhaps, for the extraordinary merit of her poetry, as on account of the singular circumstances under which it appears to have been written. The Muse is rarely auspicious to a life of manual labour"
The book earned her the princely sum of £100 a not insignificant amount of money for anyone in those days but especially for a housewife with 8 children. Later she invested it in a part share in a ship.
Although Christian Milne is firmly embedded in the category of Working Class Poets there are dimensions to her seemingly "simple" works that also distinguish her within that genre, raising her above the previous writers in that field. Milne's patriotic pacifism, as well as her readiness to adopt different personae in her poems, provides a distinctive contribution to the tradition of working-class writing
Popular poetry
- ADDRESSED TO THE PARENTS.
THIS happy change will teach the pious mind17 lines - WHY heave my sighs, and thus my tears
Why do they flow so fast?55 lines - COME ! rosy Health, with smiling face!
Thou chiefest gift to human race--19 lines - "I wonder," said a friend of mine,
"How many names of taste will shine29 lines
