Under the pen name of "Ianthe", she contributed to the periodicals of the day, and may be considered among the pioneers of female literature in the United States.

[4] During the 1830s and 1840s, she served as a host or guest at literary salons in New York City in the circle including Anne Lynch Botta and Frances Sargent Osgood.

[3] It was an oft repeated remark of Embury, "Unless she read, she could not write," and her earlier poems had similarities with the poets she loved the best.

The peculiar melodiousness of her verse rendered her one of the most graceful of songwriters, while the impassioned earnestness of her nature, her scorn of injustice, her quick sympathy with the oppressed, found expression in her poems, and ran a thread throughout them.

The head of a well ordered household, a tender and devoted wife and mother, an active and sympathizing friend, she passed many years in a constant discharge of her varied duties.

[3] Embury was praised in her lifetime for writing works emphasizing domesticity and feminine virtue with moral messages appropriate for children.