In 1884, William McGee published Lizzie Mary Little’s poetry collection Persephone, and Other Poems. McGee occupied a prominent position in the Dublin publishing business. His publishing house, located at 18 Nassau Street in Dublin, issued a wide range of literature, including poetry, histories, religious documents, and scientific texts. Interestingly, Lizzie Mary Little’s work, particularly her poem “Voices of the Age,” represents each of the aforementioned disciplines; McGee, therefore, was an appropriate choice of publisher.

Having read the scathing criticism of his late wife, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and her work in the recently published letters of Edward Fitzgerald within the opening days of the month, Robert Browning penned a response, "To Edward Fitzgerald," published in the July 13th, 1889, no. 3220 edition, that would spark an uproar and result in his declining health, leading to Browning's death in December.

The River Elwy is a tributary of the River Clwyd in the north of Wales. The Elwy Valley inspired some of Gerard Manley Hopkins’s most beloved poetry when he was at Saint Beuo’s Seminary. Hopkins said that his poem, “Hurrahing in Harvest,” was “the outcome of half an hour of extreme enthusiasm as I walked home alone one day from fishing in the Elwy.”