Eliza Daye

Eliza Daye (b. 1734) was raised a Methodist in Surrey but later became a Quaker. There is very little known about her life, and at times she has been confused with another Eliza Day (without the ‘e’) who lived in America. She does not seem to have married or kept any journals or letters to and from other known authors. What is known of her comes from her one major work, Poems on Various Subjects (1798), which she had printed for herself.  Most of her poems are devotional, but others involve diverse subjects and themes. She uses classical references, folklore, and nature to evoke vivid imagery. Several of her poems resemble Shakespeare, such as the opening poem in her volume, titled “Upon a lady losing a sprig of Myrtle, presented to her by her husband, on the morning of their marriage.” Her longer poem, “The Birth of Genius,” is an allegory of the poet’s process of creation, blending pleasure and practice in a singular poem. The title page to her Poems is highly interesting in its own right: Poems on Various Subjects (Liverpool: Printed by J. M’Creery; And published for the Author, at the Subscription Library, Lancaster; also for Mr. Walmsley and Mr. Holt; for Mr. Jones, Mr. Gore, and Messrs. Wright and Ormandy, Liverpool; and for Mr. Johnson, St. Paul’s Church Yard, London, 1798. Besides its suggestion of the importance of circulating libraries to women writers at that time, it also demonstrates a wider than normal breadth to such a publication at that time (printers and sellers in multiple locations other than London). The presence of Joseph Johnson also is worth noting, for it suggests she may have had connections beyond her Quaker friends, including many among the Unitarians. Her subscription list also reflects the geographical and religious breadth of her publication, with names listed from 45 locations in England, Scotland, and Ireland, including a number of Unitarian ministers and laypersons, such as Andrew Kippis, Thomas Astley, Thomas Barnes, Joseph Yates, James Clegg, Dr. James Currie, and William Roscoe, as well as Mrs. Jane Adams Houseman of Lancaster.