Her first collection, "Songs by John Oland", was published in 1911, and had a particular focus on the conflict between men and women, depicted in such poems as "Song of the Low-Caste Wife", "Surrender" and "Divorce". Other subjects included the ambition to be a writer, a post-Darwin loss of religious faith, and motherhood. Her husband was angered at her publishing a book, and subsequently also captured the interest of one of his friends in his astronomical circles. He was known to be possessive, and generally unsupportive of her singing and writing, which may have been a major factor leading to her breakdown and psychiatric hospitalisation.