Rose Fyleman

Rose Amy Fyleman (1877–1957) was an English writer and poet, noted for her works on the fairy folk, for children. Her poem There are fairies at the bottom of our garden[1] was set to music by English composer Liza Lehmann. Her Christmas carol Lift your hidden faces, set to a French carol tune, was included in the Anglican hymnal Songs of Praise (1931) as well as in the Hutterian Brotherhood's Songs of Light (1977).

Life and works

Rose Fyleman was born in Nottingham on 6 March 1877, the third child of John Feilmann and his wife, Emilie, née Loewenstein, who was of Russian extraction. Her father was in the lace trade, and his Jewish family originated in 1860 from Jever in the historical state of Oldenburg, currently Lower Saxony, Germany.[2]

As a young girl, Fyleman was educated at a private school, and at the age of nine first saw one of her compositions published in a local paper. Although she entered University College, Nottingham, she failed in the intermediate and was thus unable to pursue her ambition of becoming a schoolteacher. Despite this, Fyleman had a good singing voice, and therefore decided to study music. She studied singing in Paris, Berlin and finally at the Royal College of Music in London, where she received her diploma as associate of the Royal College of Music. She returned to Nottingham shortly afterward, where she taught signing and helped in her sister's school. Along with other members of her family, she anglicised the spelling of her name at the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.

When she was forty, Fyleman sent her verses to Punch magazine and her first publication "There are Fairies at the Bottom of Our Garden" appeared in May 1917. The immense response from publishers prompted Fyleman to submit several other fairy poems. Her verses enjoyed tremendous success among readers and her first collection Fairies and Chimneys (1918) was reprinted more than twenty times over the next decade. During the 1920s and early 1930s Rose Fyleman published multiple verse collections, wrote drama for children, and for two years, edited the children's magazine Merry-Go-Round. Fyleman was also a skilled linguist who translated books from German, French and Italian.

Rose Fyleman was one of the most successful children's writers of her generation and she saw much of her earlier poetry become proverbial. She died at a nursing home in St. Albans, Hertfordshire on 1 August 1957.[3]

Poem about Winnipeg

In December 1929, Rose Fyleman was invited to Winnipeg, Canada, as the guest speaker at a couple of women's clubs.[4] She was staying at the Fort Garry Hotel, near the Manitoba Parliament Building on Broadway Ave. One evening, Rose and the president of one of the clubs decided to take a stroll to the parliament building, so that Rose could view the statue of Queen Victoria, located on its front lawn.[5]

Queen Victoria, Winnipeg
Queen Victoria statue, Winnipeg—taken in 2013

It was such a beautiful winter evening that when they got back to the hotel, Rose was inspired to write a poem entitled "In Winnipeg at Christmas."[6] The poem appeared in print soon after—on New Year's Day, 1930—in the British magazine Punch.[7] This poem is familiar to many inhabitants of Winnipeg, who were first exposed to it in school, and is often cited during the Christmas season. Fred Penner, a children's entertainer from Winnipeg, included it on his 1990 recording for Christmas, entitled "The Season."

Published works

(from the Poetry Foundation)[8]

Juvenile

Poetry; Juvenile

Plays; Juvenile

Translations; Juvenile

Other

Notes

  1. ↑ Fyleman, Rose (March 2007). Fairies And Chimneys. Neilson Press. p. 68. ISBN 1-4067-0471-7.
  2. ↑ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
  3. ↑ Selected Poetry of Rose Fyleman (1877–1957). Representative Poetry Online, Toronto, CA. Retrieved 25 December 2010.
  4. ↑ "Social and Personal". Manitoba Free Press. Winnipeg, MB. 5 December 1929. p. 10.
  5. ↑ Winnipeg at Christmas at the Wayback Machine (archived 8 April 2008). Retrieved 25 December 2010.
  6. ↑ "In Winnipeg at Christmas" Poem by Rose Fyleman. The Winnipeg Time Machine. Retrieved 25 December 2010.
  7. ↑ "Social and Personal". Manitoba Free Press. Winnipeg, MB. 23 December 1930. p. 7.
  8. ↑ Rose Fyleman (1877–1957). Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 25 December 2010.
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Rose Fyleman
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