May Probyn

{{Short description|English poet}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2019}} {{Use British English|date=June 2019}} '''Juliana Mary Louisa Probyn''', known as '''May Probyn''' (12 April 1856 – 29 March 1909) was an English poet, one of a group of lively and somewhat political British ''fin de siècle'' poets.<ref>{{cite book|author=Marshall, Gail |title=The Cambridge Companion to the Fin de Siècle|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qeTERjlW_BcC&pg=PA234|date=2 August 2007|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-85063-6|pages=234–5}}</ref>

She was born in Avranches, France.<ref>"Julian John Webb Probyn", Ancestry.com</ref> Her parents were the writer John Webb Probyn and Mary Christiana ''née'' Spicer;<ref>[http://www.elgar.org/6cctree3.pdf Probyn Family] at elgar.org</ref> and the novelist and short-story writer Sophie Dora Spicer Maude was a cousin.<ref>"Maude, Mrs William – Sophie Dora", ''The Catholic Who's Who & Year Book 1908'', edited by Sir F. C. Burnard (London: Burns & Oates), p. 272.</ref> She was the first love of William Satchell,<ref name=Maoriland>Stafford, Jane and Williams, Mark, ''Maoriland: New Zealand Literature 1872–1914'' (Wellington: Victoria University Press, 2006), p. 232.</ref> who published the first two of her three books of poetry. She published a novel in 1878,<ref>{{cite book|author=Kreuger, Christine L.|title=Encyclopedia of British Writers, 19th and 20th Centuries|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dnqi3gRxgvQC&pg=PA277|date=1 January 2009|publisher=Infobase Publishing|isbn=978-1-4381-0870-4|pages=277–}}</ref> and became a Catholic convert in 1883.<ref name=Tynan>''The Selected Letters of Katharine Tynan: Poet and Novelist'', edited by Damian Atkinson (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016), p. 84, n. 133.</ref> Among her friends were W. B. Yeats,<ref name=Maoriland/> Thomas Westwood, the fishing writer,<ref>{{cite book|author=Moine, Dr Fabienne|title=Women Poets in the Victorian Era: Cultural Practices and Nature Poetry|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UnDnCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA1|date=28 November 2015|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|isbn=978-1-4724-6477-4|page=1}}</ref> Vernon Lee,<ref>Canani, Marco (2014). ''[https://air.unimi.it/retrieve/handle/2434/264137/369484/phd_unimi_R09494_01.pdf Vernon Lee and the Italian Renaissance: Plasticity, Gender, Genre]'', p. 54.</ref> and Katharine Tynan, with whom in 1895 she published ''Christmas Verses'', consisting of four poems by Probyn and two by Tynan.<ref name=Tynan/> thumb|St Mary Magdalen, Mortlake Probyn is buried in St Mary Magdalen Roman Catholic Church, Mortlake.<ref name="Mellor">Meller, Hugh: Parsons, Brian (2011). ''London Cemeteries: An Illustrated Guide and Gazetteer'' (Fifth ed.). Stroud, Gloucestershire: The History Press. p. 261. {{ISBN|978 0 7524 6183 0}}.</ref><ref>[http://androom.home.xs4all.nl/biography/p019680.htm Probyn, May]</ref> Her grave is inscribed 'That, being dead to this world, she may live to thee'.

A number of Probyn's poems have been set to music, including "Vilanelle" by Jacques Blumenthal in 1899<ref>"Vilanelle", ''[http://worldcat.org/title/in-memoriam-book-of-ten-songs-op-102/oclc/156273523 In Memoriam: Book of Ten Songs]'', Op. 102 (1899), no. 10</ref> and "Come What Will, You Are Mine To-day" by Henry Kimball Hadley in 1909.<ref>[https://songofamerica.net/song/come-what-will-you-are-mine-to-day-op-44-no-5/ "Come What Will, You Are Mine To-day"], ''Five Songs'', Op. 44,(1909), no. 5.</ref>

==Works== * ''Once! Twice! Thrice! and Away! A Novel.'' (1878) * ''Robert Tresilian. A Story'' (1880) * ''Who Killed Cock Robin?'' (1880) * ''Poems'' (1881) * ''A Ballad of the Road, and Other Poems'' (1883) * ''Pansies: A Book of Poems'' (1895)

Her poem "Is it nothing to you" is in the ''Oxford Book of English Verse''.<ref>[http://www.publicappeal.org/library/dps/obev/obev281.html Publicappeal.org] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070311093028/http://www.publicappeal.org/library/dps/obev/obev281.html |date=11 March 2007 }} at www.publicappeal.org</ref>

==References== {{Library resources box|by=yes|onlinebooksby=yes|viaf=77868663}} {{Reflist}}

==Sources== *"May Probyn", in Thesing, William B. ''Victorian Women Poets'', 1998. Volume 199 of the ''Dictionary of Literary Biography''.

==External links== {{wikisource|works=or}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=May Probyn}} * {{Librivox author |id=8462}} * [https://digitalcollections-baylor.quartexcollections.com/Documents/Detail/poems-by-may-probyn/284788?item=284797 Poems] * [https://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/may-probyn/pansies--a-book-of-poems-bor/1-pansies--a-book-of-poems-bor.shtml Pansies]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Probyn, May}} Category:1856 births Category:1909 deaths Category:English Catholic poets Category:Victorian poets Category:Victorian women writers Category:Burials at St Mary Magdalen Roman Catholic Church Mortlake Category:British expatriates in France Category:19th-century English women poets Category:19th-century English poets