User:Cheermg/sandbox

and age|df=yes|1824|4|13|1783|9|23}}

| occupation = Poet | movement = Romanticism }}

Jane Taylor (23 September 1783 – 13 April 1824) was an English poet and novelist. She is most known for writing "The Star" which is now known as the song "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star".

The poem is known worldwide, but its authorship is typically forgotten or left out. It was first published under the title "The Star" in Rhymes for the Nursery, a collection of poems by Taylor and her older sister Ann (also known as Mrs. Gilbert). The sisters, and their authorship of various works, have often been confused, in part because their early works were published together.

Ann Taylor's son, Josiah Gilbert, wrote in her biography, "two little poems–'My Mother,' and 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,' are perhaps, more frequently quoted than any; the first, a lyric of life, was by Ann, the second, of nature, by Jane; and they illustrate this difference between the sisters."

Biography

Early Life

Jane Taylor was born in London to parents, Isaac Taylor of Ongar and Ann Taylor (1757–1830). Her father was an engraver and later a minister. He wrote numerous books for the instruction of the young. Her mother Ann Taylor wrote seven works or moral and religious advice. She is the younger sister of Ann Taylor (poet). Ann Taylor co-wrote many books with Jane. The Taylor sisters were not the only well known members of the family. Ann and Jane's brothers, Isaac Taylor and Jefferys also wrote. Isaac was also an engraver like his father and he is the inventor of the beer tap. Jane Taylor lived with her family at Shilling Grange in Shilling Street, Lavenham, Suffolk, where her house can still be seen. Later (1796–1810) she lived in Colchester. It is a majority belief among local historians that the rhyme was written in Colchester – although Ongar still makes a claim, both in Essex.

Literary Career

The 'Original Poems' and Others, by Ann and Jane Taylor and Adelaide O'Keeffe - 1905 edition

The book, Original Poems for Infant Minds by The Taylor Family (i.e. Ann and Jane Taylor and others) was first issued in two volumes in 1804 and 1805. Rhymes for the Nursery followed in 1806, and Hymns for Infant Minds in 1808. In Original Poems for Infant Minds (1805) primarily written by Ann and Jane Taylor and Adelaide O'Keeffe, the authors were identified for each poem, but they were not for Rhymes for the Nursery (1806). The most famous piece in these was 'The Star' more commonly known today as "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star", which was later set to a French tune.

Christina Duff Stewart identifies authorship in Rhymes for the Nursery based on a copy belonging to Canon Isaac Taylor, who noted the pieces by Ann and Jane Taylor. Canon Isaac was Taylor's nephew, a son of her brother Isaac Taylor of Stanford Rivers. Stewart also confirms attributions of Original Poems based on the publisher's records.

Jane Taylor also wrote the popular moral verse, The Violet, which begins:

Down in a green and shady bed,
A modest violet grew;
Its stalk was bent, it hung its head
As if to hide from view.
And yet it was a lovely flower,
Its colour bright and fair;
It might have graced a rosy bower,
Instead of hiding there.

Taylor's novel Display (1814), reminiscent of Maria Edgeworth or perhaps even Jane Austen, went through at least thirteen editions up to 1832. Her Essays in Rhyme appeared in 1816, and contained some significant poetry. In the fictional Correspondence between a Mother and Her Daughter at School (1817) Taylor collaborated with her mother. The Family Mansion. A Tale appeared in 1819, and Practical Hints to Young Females previous to 1822. Throughout her life, Taylor wrote many essays, plays, stories, poems, and letters which were never published.

Death

Jane Taylor died of cancer at the age of 40. She died in her home surrounded by her family. She was buried in Ongar churchyard.

After her death, her brother Isaac collected many of her letters and various other pieces of writing and wrote a biography of her in The Writings of Jane Taylor, In Five Volumes (1832).

Reception

The writings of Jane Taylor were well received by the literary community. Her works were widely read by both adults and children as well as widely translated. It is mentioned in "Women Writers, Nineteenth Century Nursery Rhyme and Lyric Innovation" that Jane “broke more formal ground than that of her fictional counterparts”. It is difficult to attribute any of the works to one specific person as Jane and Ann worked closely on most, if not all of their works. Jane and Ann Taylor also are attributed for somewhat creating the genre of nursery rhyme as it is attributed to Rhymes for the Nursery by the Taylor sisters. The Taylor sisters are also attributed creating double voiced poems within the genre of children's poetry. They stand among William Blake, William Wordsworth, and some others who also used this tactic.

The works that can be attributed to Jane Taylor, as well as her sister Ann, include

• Original Poems for Infant Minds (1804)
• Rhymes for the Nursery (1806)
• Limed Twigs to Catch Young Birds (1808)
• City Scenes; or, A Peep into London: for Good Children (1809)
• Hymns for Infant Minds (1810)
• Original Hymns for Sunday School (1812)
• The Linnet’s Life: Twelve Poems (1822)

The most notable of the books by the Taylors are Original Poems for Infant Minds (1804) and Rhymes for the Nursery (1806). Both of these are collections of poems and nursery rhymes not only written for children, but for the adults who will read them to their children. Original Poems for Infant Minds was issued in two volumes, first in 1804, then in 1805. Sharon Smulders in her journal article, "The Good Mother: Language, Gender, and Power in Ann and Jane Taylor's Poetry for Children", mentions that the voices within the poems in both collections have a maternal speaker that is guiding the child to the moral. With many women writers at the time, both Jane and Ann Taylor use poems or stories to educate children on morals. When studying the impact of their poems it is said that, “their work offers a means of exploring how nineteenth-century children's poetry validates and, at the same time, challenges contemporary assumptions about women's place in literature, education, and society”.

In the journal article “Women Writers, Nineteenth Century Nursery Rhyme and Lyric Innovation”, Gregory mentions that, “this type of woman-authored juvenile verse, a poetic genre featuring maternal speakers and intended to be read aloud to preliterate children by a maternal figure, an actual mother or a nurse”. The Taylors are thus creating a dialogue between mother (or a maternal figure) and child. This form of poetry, while instructive, also can show the intimacy between mother and child according to Gregory. This also creates a maternal education foundation for not only children but adults. This this construction, the Taylor poems are alluding to the fact that a mother, and or woman, should be in the home with her child. In the article “The Good Mother: Language, Gender, and Power in Ann and Jane Taylor's Poetry for Children” Shannon Smulder states that, “in their preference for domestic reality over imaginative reverie, the Taylors privilege, like many Romantic-era women poets, the operations of the rational intellect and the values of quotidian experience”. While the reader may think the poems are just for children, they are actually also just as important and educational for the adults reading them to the children.

As many other nineteenth century writers, both the writings of Jane and Ann Taylor are being studied more so today as education pieces as well as pieces of early feminist writers. Their poetry was pivotal as it introduced topics such as domesticity and life in the home, and it was also educational for all audiences.

Popular Culture References

• Taylor's most famous work, "The Star", is almost always unaccredited; "its opening stanza persists as if it were folklore, the name of its creator almost entirely forgotten." Alternate versions, pastiches, and parodies have abounded for centuries. See main article.
• "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" was parodied in a poem recited by the Hatter in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865).
• Jane Taylor is credited by Robert Browning in the introductory note to a late poem, "Rephan", which he states was "suggested by a very early recollection of a prose story" by her.

References

• Feldman, Paula R. (1997). British Women Poets of the Romantic Era: An Anthology, Baltimore & London: Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Stewart, Christina Duff. (1975). The Taylors of Ongar: An Analytical Bio-Bibliography, New York & London: Garland Publishing.
• Taylor, Ann. Isaac Taylor, Jr., editor. (1832). Memoirs, Correspondence and Poetical Remains of Jane Taylor, Volume I of The Writings of Jane Taylor, In Five Volumes, Boston: Perkins & Marvin.
• Taylor, Ann. Josiah Gilbert, editor. (1874). The Autobiography and Other Memorials of Mrs Gilbert, Formerly Ann Taylor, London: Henry S. King & Co.
• "Taylor, Jane" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
• Gregory, Melissa Valiska. “Women Writers, Nineteenth Century Nursery Rhyme and Lyric Innovation." Literature Compass, vol. 12, no. 3, Mar. 2015, pp. 106-118. MLA International Bibliography, doi:10.1111/lic3.12207.
• Smulders, Sharon. "The Good Mother: Language, Gender, and Power in Ann and Jane Taylor's

Poetry for Children." Children's Literature Association Quarterly, vol. 27, no. 1, 2002, pp. 4-15. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1353/chq.0.1311.

External links

• Works by Jane Taylor at Project Gutenberg
• Error in Template:Internet Archive author: Cheermg/sandbox doesn't exist.
• Works by Cheermg/sandbox at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
• Little Ann and Other Poems From the Collections at the Library of Congress

Category:1783 births Category:1824 deaths Category:English women poets Category:English women writers Category:People from Lavenham Category:Writers from London Category:Children's poets Category:English children's writers