Caroline Atherton Mason


Caroline Atherton Briggs Mason was an American poet whose works include Do They Miss Me At Home? and The King's Quest. Many of her poems became popular hymns in the Unitarian church.

Early years

Mason was born in Marblehead, Massachusetts, the daughter of physician Dr. Calvin Briggs and Rebecca Briggs. She was educated at Bradford Academy in Bradford, Massachusetts, and began writing when quite young. In 1852, her family moved to Fitchburg, Massachusetts.

Published works

Her first poems were published in the Salem Register under the name "Caro". Mason was also published in The Congregationalist, The Liberal Christian, The Monthly Religious Magazine, The Independent and The Christian Union. She contributed largely to the hymnology of the Unitarian church, and her poetry generally is strong in the didactic element.
She published a collection of poetry, Utterance: or Private Voices to the Public Heart in 1852 and a Sunday school story, Rose Hamilton in 1859. In 1891, she published Lost Ring and other Poems in 1891.
She contributed largely to the hymnology of the Unitarian church, and her poetry generally is strong in the didactic element.

Major works

One of her early poems, Do They Miss Me At Home? was set to music by S.M. Grannis and published by mid-1852. It obtained immediate and widespread popularity in the United States and in England. Its popularity carried into the Civil War, where Mason's lyrics, written as a homesick girl away from home at school, readily translated to the plight of the soldiers on both sides, and was among the songs soldiers would sing.
Several of Mason's poems were honored, notably “The King's Quest.”

Personal life

Mason married Charles Mason, an attorney in Fitchburg, in 1853.

List of works