author
A little-known American poet whose surviving work turns famous religious paintings into lyrical, reflective verse. Her best-known book, The Angel of Thought and Other Poems, offers a quiet blend of art, devotion, and imagination.
Published in 1909, The Angel of Thought and Other Poems: Impressions from Old Masters is the work most clearly associated with Ethel Allen Murphy. The collection responds to paintings by artists including Botticelli and Dürer, turning visual art into meditative poetry with a strong spiritual and emotional tone.
Reliable biographical details are scarce, but records connected with her published work and memorial listings identify her as an American writer born in 1877 and deceased in 1949. A university record also links her name to a study of Shelley's rhythm, suggesting a serious interest in poetry and literary analysis alongside her own creative writing.
Because so little has been preserved about her life, her poems do most of the introducing. They present a writer drawn to beauty, faith, and the inner life, and they give today's readers a glimpse of a voice that might otherwise have been forgotten.