Helen Maria Williams (1761 or 1762 – 15 December 1827) was a British novelist, poet, and translator of French-language works. A religious dissenter, she was a supporter of abolitionism and of the ideals of the French Revolution; she was imprisoned in Paris during the Reign of Terror, but nonetheless spent much of the rest of her life in France.
A controversial figure in her own time, the young Williams was favorably portrayed in a 1787 poem by William Wordsworth, but (especially at the height of the French Revolution) she was portrayed by other writers as irresponsibly politically radical and even as sexually wanton.
Famous quotes containing the words maria williams, helen, maria and/or williams:
“In each event of life, how clear
Thy ruling hand I see!
Each blessing to my soul more dear,
Because conferred by Thee.”
—Helen Maria Williams (18th century)
“I wish I were where Helen lies,
Night and day on me she cries;
And I am weary of the skies,
For her sake that died for me.”
—Unknown. Helen of Kirconnell (l. 37–40)
“It were a blessed sight to see
That child become a willow tree,
His brother trees among.
He’d be four times as tall as me,
And live three times as long.”
—Catherine Maria Fanshawe (1765–1834)
“At the thick of the dark
the moment of the cold’s
deepest plunge we brought branches
cut from the green trees
to fill our need,”
—William Carlos Williams (1883–1963)