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Poet Elizabeth Bentley was born in Norwich, England, and taught to read and write by her father, a journeyman shoemaker. Bentley worked as a teacher to support her mother. She began writing poetry two years later, and was one of a handful of working-class women to publish poetry in the Romantic era. Bentley’s poetry frequently conveys her views on the abolition of slavery and on animal welfare, and is often set in a rural landscape; she is also the author of several collections of children’s verse.

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