Ellen Johnston was one of the few working-class women of Scotland who published a book of poems in the nineteenth-century and received a wide public acclaim. Her Autobiography, Poems and Songs of Ellen Johnston, the Factory Girl is important in that it has some distinctive qualities of working-class poetics that separate her poetry from the main stream, mid-upper class literature. Johnston follows the romantic tradition of rebellion. From the early years of her life, she left home to escape from the oppression of her stepfather and worked in a factory, establishing her life and poetic identity around factory and factory labor. In fact, these two exact elements were her most important poetic subjects. By detaching herself from a Victorian home, the ideal place for women, Johnston was able to criticize the domestic discourse and oppression women suffered there, from a viewpoint outside of it. She also made a poignant critique of the various social problems that she had experienced while engaged in factory work. Her social critique and reformist ideas had certain limits; nonetheless, they were an important and rarely heard public voice from a working-class woman in the contemporary Victorian society. (Hannam University)