A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature/Brooks, Maria

by John William Cousin

Brooks, Maria (Gowan) (1795?-1845).—American poetess, was early m. to a merchant, who lost his money, and left her a young widow, after which she wrote highly romantic and impassioned poetry. Her chief work, Zophiël or The Bride of Swen, was finished under the auspices of Southey, who called her "Maria del Occidente," and regarded her as "the most impassioned and imaginative of all poetesses," but time has not sustained this verdict.