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"Oh"

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

Martha Dickinson Bianchi Collection,

John Hay Library, Brown University Libraries

Note not yet available.

Anonymous Verse

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

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

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

Martha Dickinson Bianchi Collection,

John Hay Library, Brown University Libraries

Note not yet available.

Journal Entry

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..."

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

Martha Dickinson Bianchi Collection,

John Hay Library, Brown University Libraries

Note not yet available.

"In Siege"

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

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)

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

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)

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..."

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."

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

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

Martha Dickinson Bianchi Collection,

John Hay Library, Brown University Libraries

Note not yet available.

Oxford Postcard

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

Martha Dickinson Bianchi Collection,

John Hay Library, Brown University Libraries

Note not yet available.

Athens Postcard

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

Martha Dickinson Bianchi Collection,

John Hay Library, Brown University Libraries

Note not yet available.

Unnumbered Pages