{"id":24460,"date":"2014-04-04T15:03:09","date_gmt":"2014-04-04T19:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/?p=24460"},"modified":"2014-04-04T15:03:09","modified_gmt":"2014-04-04T19:03:09","slug":"national-poetry-month-and-arb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/2014\/04\/national-poetry-month-and-arb\/","title":{"rendered":"National Poetry Month and ARB"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: \u00a0Kevin Grace<\/em><\/p>\n

\"PoemBecause April is celebrated as National Poetry Month, over the next few weeks the Archives & Rare Books Library will blog about some of its significant holdings in the Rare Books Collection.\u00a0 Perhaps the best subject with which to begin is ARB\u2019s outstanding collection of 18th<\/sup> century poetical pamphlets.\u00a0 Eighteenth-century literature is one of the hallmarks of the rare books holdings, encompassing drama, poetry, fiction, philosophy, theology, travel, history, and geography.\u00a0 And the core of this area is what we have traditionally called the Anonymous Poetical Pamphlet Collection.<\/p>\n

\"Poem<\/p>\n

\"Ballad<\/a>These pamphlets, consisting of approximately 1100 anonymous poems published between 1701 and 1801, were purchased in 1933 from London bookseller Percy Dobell, hence another name we attach to them, the \u201cDobell Collection.\u201d\u00a0 Most of them were published in London but there are also a great number from smaller English cities as well as Edinburgh, Scotland and Dublin, Ireland.\u00a0 The collection of these poems include amatory verse, odes, satires, verse epistles, lampoons, elegies, and ballads \u2013 all chronicling the Enlightenment decades by addressing social class (Miss Kitty, a Parody on Lenora, <\/i>1797), politics, romance, religion, and specific individuals in royalty (A poem dedicated to the Queen and presented to the Congress at Utrecht, <\/i>1713), philosophy (Tit for Tat, To which is annex\u2019d an Epistle from a Nobleman to a Doctor of Divinity, <\/i>1734) and government.\u00a0 Many of them are pointedly insulting, and others somewhat bawdy.\u00a0 A few are drinking songs, such as Beef and Butt Beer, Against Mum and Pumpernickel<\/i> (1743), a disparaging jab at German soldiers:<\/p>\n

\u2026Their bellies so full, too unwieldy to Fight\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

\u2018Twas Fear made \u2018em Sh__te\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

So Old England for ever!<\/i><\/p>\n

\"Fight<\/a>The pamphlets were most often occasional in nature, with each title printed in relatively few numbers.\u00a0 They sold for a few pence or a shilling on the streets and in bookshops, and their authors\u2019 identities were mainly unknown at the time of publication.<\/p>\n

Over time, the Dobell purchase has been augmented with additional poems, primarily through the efforts of the late J. Keith Stewart who, as a professor in the Department of English, taught 18th c. poetry and fiction and helped build the collection.\u00a0 As he once remarked of these materials, they are of considerable variety and evident of the literary activity of the time.\u00a0 As such, they have often been used not only for literature classes, but for political science, history, and philosophy courses as well.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/a><\/p>\n

Though we often still refer\u00a0to them as \u201canonymous\u201d\u00a0poems, in the decades since the pamphlets were acquired, scholarship has revealed some to be authored by the notable poets of the day, such as Alexander Pope.\u00a0 While many are extremely rare with only a few copies known, in some instances the UC copy of a particular poem is unique.<\/p>\n

\"Poem<\/a>The English Short Title Catalogue and David Foxon\u2019s English Verse, 1701-1750 <\/i>(1975) cover most of the pamphlets, but in actuality their use has been somewhat hampered by how they are currently bound \u2013 diverse pamphlets and subject matter gathered together in folios<\/p>\n

and quartos, cheek by jowl and elbow by arse.\u00a0 Then again, we do have a listing of all of them and the aspect of serendipitous discovery (for instance, the poems on the gin craze in England) has led to some insightful teaching and learning.<\/p>\n

As autumn semester begins this coming August, several of these remarkable pieces of literature will be on view in the Archives & Rare Books Library as part of an ARB exhibit on the Enlightenment.<\/p>\n\n\t\t