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"Oh"

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S.H.D. Commonplace Book (16:35:1),

Martha Dickinson Bianchi Collection,

John Hay Library, Brown University Libraries

 

Note not yet available.

 

Anonymous Verse

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S.H.D. Commonplace Book (16:35:1),

Martha Dickinson Bianchi Collection,

John Hay Library, Brown University Libraries

 

The first quotation is taken from "Michael Field," pseudonym for Katherine Harris Bradley and her niece Edith Emma Cooper. Susan transcribes it elsewhere on a draft of one of her own poems ("Fresher than dawn...").

The second quotation is taken from Milton's Comus. Our thanks to Kate Hamilton for pointing out the reference.

The third quotation is taken from Sir Walter Scott's Redgauntlet.

 

MDB Funeral Poems 1-2

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S.H.D. Commonplace Book (16:35:1),

Martha Dickinson Bianchi Collection,

John Hay Library, Brown University Libraries

 

Note not yet available.

 

Travel Log 1-6

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S.H.D. Commonplace Book (16:35:1),

Martha Dickinson Bianchi Collection,

John Hay Library, Brown University Libraries

 

Note not yet available.

 

Journal Entry

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S.H.D. Commonplace Book (16:35:1),

Martha Dickinson Bianchi Collection,

John Hay Library, Brown University Libraries

 

Note not yet available.

 

"Bible lifts up..."

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S.H.D. Commonplace Book (16:35:1),

Martha Dickinson Bianchi Collection,

John Hay Library, Brown University Libraries

 

Note not yet available.

 

"In Siege"

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S.H.D. Commonplace Book (16:35:1),

Martha Dickinson Bianchi Collection,

John Hay Library, Brown University Libraries

 

Note not yet available.

 

Henry King Quotation

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S.H.D. Commonplace Book (16:35:1),

Martha Dickinson Bianchi Collection,

John Hay Library, Brown University Libraries

 

Henry King was a British poet and Anglican bishop who is best known for his elegies. In 1657, he published a collection, Poems, Elegies, Paradoxes, and Sonets, which included poetry by him and others. He was also a friend of John Donne's, serving as executor of his estate. Susan quotes from Henry King's funereal poem "The Exequy," dated c. 1624, written in memory of his wife, Anne.

The text below comes from the University of Toronto's Electronic Library. Lines quoted by Susan in her commonplace book are found in two different stanzas and appear below in red. Besides the melding of lines in two different stanzas, there are several differences in wording between her version and the poem, perhaps an indication that she used a source that misquotes the original or that she wrote the lines from memory.

1 Accept, thou shrine of my dead saint,


2 Instead of dirges, this complaint;


3 And for sweet flow'rs to crown thy hearse,


4 From thy griev'd friend, whom thou might'st see


5 Quite melted into tears for thee.


6 Dear loss! since thy untimely fate


7 My task hath been to meditate


8 On thee, on thee; thou art the book,


9 The library whereon I look,


10 Though almost blind. For thee (lov'd clay)


11 I languish out, not live, the day,


12 Using no other exercise


13 But what I practise with mine eyes;


14 By which wet glasses I find out


15 How lazily time creeps about


16 To one that mourns; this, only this,


17 My exercise and bus'ness is.


18 So I compute the weary hours


19 With sighs dissolved into showers.

 

20    Nor wonder if my time go thus


21 Backward and most preposterous;


22 Thou hast benighted me; thy set


23 This eve of blackness did beget,


24 Who wast my day (though overcast


25 Before thou hadst thy noon-tide past)


26 And I remember must in tears,


27 Thou scarce hadst seen so many years


28 As day tells hours. By thy clear sun


29 My love and fortune first did run;


30 But thou wilt never more appear


31 Folded within my hemisphere,


32 Since both thy light and motïon


33 Like a fled star is fall'n and gone;


34 And 'twixt me and my soul's dear wish


35 An earth now interposed is,


36 Which such a strange eclipse doth make


37 As ne'er was read in almanac.

 

38    I could allow thee for a time


39 To darken me and my sad clime;


40 Were it a month, a year, or ten,


41 I would thy exile live till then,


42 And all that space my mirth adjourn,


43 So thou wouldst promise to return,


44 And putting off thy ashy shroud,


45 At length disperse this sorrow's cloud.

 

46    But woe is me! the longest date


47 Too narrow is to calculate


48 These empty hopes; never shall I


49 Be so much blest as to descry


50 A glimpse of thee, till that day come


51 Which shall the earth to cinders doom,


52 And a fierce fever must calcine


53 The body of this world like thine,


54 (My little world!). That fit of fire


55 Once off, our bodies shall aspire


56 To our souls' bliss; then we shall rise


57 And view ourselves with clearer eyes


58 In that calm region where no night


59 Can hide us from each other's sight.

 

60    Meantime, thou hast her, earth; much good


61 May my harm do thee. Since it stood


62 With heaven's will I might not call


63 Her longer mine, I give thee all


64 My short-liv'd right and interest


65 In her whom living I lov'd best;


66 With a most free and bounteous grief,


67 I give thee what I could not keep.


68 Be kind to her, and prithee look


69 Thou write into thy doomsday book


70 Each parcel of this rarity


71 Which in thy casket shrin'd doth lie.


72 See that thou make thy reck'ning straight,


73 And yield her back again by weight;


74 For thou must audit on thy trust


75 Each grain and atom of this dust,


76 As thou wilt answer Him that lent,


77 Not gave thee, my dear monument.

 

78    So close the ground, and 'bout her shade


79 Black curtains draw, my bride is laid.

 

80    Sleep on my love in thy cold bed


81 Never to be disquieted!


82 My last good-night! Thou wilt not wake


83 Till I thy fate shall overtake;


84 Till age, or grief, or sickness must


85 Marry my body to that dust


86 It so much loves, and fill the room


87 My heart keeps empty in thy tomb.


88 Stay for me there, I will not fail


89 To meet thee in that hollow vale.


90 And think not much of my delay;


91 I am already on the way,


92 And follow thee with all the speed


93 Desire can make, or sorrows breed.


94 Each minute is a short degree,


95 And ev'ry hour a step towards thee.


96 At night when I betake to rest,


97 Next morn I rise nearer my west


98 Of life, almost by eight hours' sail,


99 Than when sleep breath'd his drowsy gale.

 

100    Thus from the sun my bottom steers,


101 And my day's compass downward bears;


102 Nor labour I to stem the tide


103 Through which to thee I swiftly glide.


104 'Tis true, with shame and grief I yield,


105 Thou like the van first took'st the field,


106 And gotten hath the victory


107 In thus adventuring to die


108 Before me, whose more years might crave


109 A just precedence in the grave.


110 But hark! my pulse like a soft drum


111 Beats my approach, tells thee I come;


112 And slow howe'er my marches be,


113 I shall at last sit down by thee.

 

114    The thought of this bids me go on,


115 And wait my dissolutïon


116 With hope and comfort. Dear (forgive


117 The crime) I am content to live


118 Divided, with but half a heart,


119 Till we shall meet and never part.

 

"unsaid for now" (scrap)

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S.H.D. Commonplace Book (16:35:1),

Martha Dickinson Bianchi Collection,

John Hay Library, Brown University Libraries

 

Note not yet available.

 

Religious Testimonial 1-2

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S.H.D. Commonplace Book (16:35:1),

Martha Dickinson Bianchi Collection,

John Hay Library, Brown University Libraries

 

Note not yet available.

 

"outlived it all!" (scrap)

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S.H.D. Commonplace Book (16:35:1),

Martha Dickinson Bianchi Collection,

John Hay Library, Brown University Libraries

 

Note not yet available.

 

"When death shall poise..."

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S.H.D. Commonplace Book (16:35:1),

Martha Dickinson Bianchi Collection,

John Hay Library, Brown University Libraries

 

Another draft of this poem is found at the Houghton Library, Harvard University.

 

"Caesarem Venis."

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S.H.D. Commonplace Book (16:35:1),

Martha Dickinson Bianchi Collection,

John Hay Library, Brown University Libraries

 

Note not yet available.

 

"Dear Josephine" 1-3

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S.H.D. Commonplace Book (16:35:1),

Martha Dickinson Bianchi Collection,

John Hay Library, Brown University Libraries

 

Note not yet available.

 

Oxford Postcard

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S.H.D. Commonplace Book (16:35:1),

Martha Dickinson Bianchi Collection,

John Hay Library, Brown University Libraries

 

Note not yet available.

 

Athens Postcard

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S.H.D. Commonplace Book (16:35:1),

Martha Dickinson Bianchi Collection,

John Hay Library, Brown University Libraries

 

Note not yet available.