Christian Milne. Biography

Christian Milne (15 May 1773 in Inverness - 1816) was a Scottish poet of the Romantic Era.

Her parents were poor but the little schooling she had, she used to good account. According to her, her father was a housewright and a cabinet-maker, and her mother died when she was very young; her father remarried a year later, to Mary Denton. She began rhyming before her teens and was sent into service at the age of fourteen in Aberdeen. Shortly after her marriage to a shipcarpenter, her poetry was shown to a man of influence in Aberdeen (Captain Livingston) and together with other gentlemen (the Right Reverend Bishop Skinner and Mr. Ewen) this enabled her to get a subscription list of 500 and sales of 600 on her book, which was published in 1805. The profits of £100 were invested in a vessel in which her husband was made master. She had eight children and although she apparently still wrote poetry she had no further work published. An interview and poem by her is included in Sketches of obscure poets, with specimens of their writings.

Christian Milne's Poems:

1. The Captive Sailor
2. To a Lady Who Said It Was Sinful to Read Novels
3. On My Wedding Gown
4. A Prayer
5. Address to the Shade of Burns
6. The Shipwreck
7. Written on My Little Girl’s
8. The Parting
9. Written in a State of Suspence
10. Written in September, 1804