Agnes Ethelwyn Wetherald
Agnes Ethelwyn Wetherald (1857-1940) was a Canadian poet and writer recognized for her contributions to Canadian literature. Born in Rockwood, Ontario, she grew up in a Quaker family and was the sixth of eleven children. Following her early education at Friends Boarding School and Pickering College, Wetherald began her literary career at seventeen when she sold her first poem. Although her writing took off in earnest in 1886, she explored various genres, including prose and poetry, publishing in notable magazines of the time.
Wetherald's writing, especially her poetry, is characterized by its deep appreciation for nature and the changing seasons. She published several volumes of poetry, notably "The House of the Trees, and Other Poems" in 1895, and continued to be prolific in her work during the early 20th century. She adopted a daughter, Dorothy, and often sought solitude in nature to inspire her creativity. Despite being overlooked by some later scholars for the sentimental quality of her work, Wetherald is now recognized as one of the foremost lyricists in Canadian literature, leaving a lasting impact through her vivid and beautiful depictions of the natural world.
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Subject Terms
Agnes Ethelwyn Wetherald
Poet
- Born: April 26, 1857
- Birthplace: Rockwood, Ontario, Canada
- Died: March 9, 1940
Biography
Agnes Ethelwyn Wetherald was born in Rockwood, Ontario, Canada, on April 26, 1857. She was the sixth of eleven children born to Quaker parents Reverend William Wetherald and Jemimia Harris Balls Wetherald. Her father had established the Rockwood Academy in the early part of the nineteenth century and when Wetherald was seven, her father became the superintendent of Haverford College near Philadelphia. Several years later, the family moved to a fruit and dairy farm on the Niagara Peninsula. She was educated at the Friends Boarding School at Union Springs, New York, and later attended Pickering College in Ontario.
When she was seventeen she sold her first poem to Nicholas Magazine, and she later published stories in Rose- Belford’s Canadian Monthly. However, she did not begin to write in earnest until 1886, when she began to write essays and sketches for the Toronto Globe using a pseudonym. For the next several years, she frequently contributed prose and poetry to the Week. In addition, she collaborated with Graeme Mercer Adam to write a novel, An Algonquin Maiden: A Romance of the Early Days of Upper Canada, published in 1886.
By 1889, Wetherald was invited to write for the London Advertiser and a new feminist magazine, Wives and Daughters, in London, Ontario. During this time, she found she was increasingly drawn to poetry. Her poems were published in a number of Canadian and American publications, including Scribner’s, Outlook, the Detroit Free Press, and Youth’s Companion. Wetherald’s frequent poetic contributions to Youth’s Compannion were compiled into her first volume of poetry, The House of the Trees, and Other Poems, published in 1895.
She moved to Philadelphia, where she worked for about a year as an editorial assistant at the Ladies Home Companion. She later lived in Hartford, Connecticut, and St. Paul, Minnesota. However, fearing that her involvement in the production of other people’s work would stifle her creativity, she returned to the family property in Canada to work the farm and concentrate on her own writing. Although she never married, Wetherald adopted a daughter, Dorothy.
The early years of the twentieth century were Wetherald’s most productive period; she published three books of poetry between 1902 and 1907. Her sonnets are known for their mastery of rhyme and meter, and some of her best poetry was written in a tree house where she spent the summer nights. Although her work was largely ignored by later scholars because it was considered too sentimental, the beauty of her poems made her an important figure in Canadian literature. Her poems reflect her love of nature, and they often describe the changing seasons or the creatures that inhabited the woods near her family home. Wetherald was later praised for her work as one of the foremost lyricists in Canadian literature.