Constance Naden

CN was a poet, atheist, scientific theorist, and philosopher. Her verse, published early in her short, late-nineteenth-century career, reflects her interests in the biological sciences, the question of evolution, issues of religious faith and doubt, and the position of women. In both dramatic monologues and third-person narrative poems, she presents dilemmas of the head and heart in contemporary and historical settings with vivid perception and often with humour or even satire. After publishing two collections of poetry she abandoned writing verse. An accomplished student of science, she produced a number of speeches on scientific and political subjects, and later turned to philosophical writing, most of which remained unpublished till after her death.