Handwritten or printed poem on this book plate?

We all click the image to enlarge it to full size, but there may be some who do not realize that if one holds down the CTL key (on a PC) and then taps the + key the image (or text) on the screen can also be enlarged......sometimes it really helps me!!! I also see some lines and what looks like some erased text.

 

That's wonderful that you have the card and have been able to trace your family to that extent.

When I started doing research on my family during the past year, I found more than I expected in some lines, but hit dead ends in lines I'd like to know more about. I haven't had time to do more on it.

There were three times in my adult life that I seriously considered moving to the San Francisco area and almost applied to a graduate school in Oakland. I knew my mother was born in Merced and that her father had a house in Oakland, but it wasn't until I did the research this past year that I realized how much time my mother and her family spent in the Oakland area.

 

Thanks, everyone, for your assistance with this book plate. It's helped me feel confident about the writing.

 

Finding "surprises" in family history is the best part of the journey!

 

Agreed, but sometimes it's been sad, too.

 

Definitely.

 

Yes. <3

 

btw : The screen on a Mac can be enlarged by pressing:
{command} {shift} { + } keys all at the same time.

 

I use the enlarge feature often. Sometimes I make the page smaller, too, to fit more of the page on my short laptop screen.

 

Well, the plot thickens with the poem on this book plate. I started working on a listing for it so typed out the poem, and then compared it to the versions printed in the different mid-19th century publications I had found.

The version in my plate is missing the first stanza and another in the middle. That doesn't surprise me since there was limited room inside the garland.

What does surprise me is that although most of the lines and words are the same, there are some significant differences in the words in some of the lines. So now I'm left to ponder... did Miss Post use "poetic license" with the words to fit her taste? Or did she base her version on a different printed version that I haven't located? Or, perhaps, could she have been the poet in the first place and this was an earlier version?

Having written some poetry in my time, the changes feel like the type a poet might make, but that may be wishful thinking on my part.

The person Bakers located, who I think is most likely "my" Ms. Post, was born early enough that she could have been the poet or could have seen a version that was even earlier than the earliest publication I found. I did more searches and didn't locate anything that could provide answers. Anyone have any suggestions?

Other than to tell me, that is, to stop being such a perfectionist since I plan on selling this and it isn't likely to go for much anyway and knowing whether she was the poet or where the poem first appeared probably won't affect the price.

 

Can you give a couple examples of the "significant differences" in wording, Pat?

 

Okay, here's what's in my book plate...

I culled the best sprigs of the rose and vine,
By the morning's gentle sun;
And twined me a garland for childhood's prime,
And indeed twas a lovely one.
But withered the rose,
Ere the day was gone;
Or the twilight hues,
Of the evening come.

Then I thought of the ne'er fading amaranth bowers,
Which blossom for ever above,
And thought me, eternity's beautiful flowers,
Must bloom in those regions of love.
And I sigh to reach there,
To twine me a wreath,
Unprofaned by a tear,
Or mortality's breath.

Here's what I found in one of the printed versions... I think this is the most complete one I found. Some printed versions left a bit of it out, but I think they all had the same wording that you see here rather than the wording in my plate. The words in italic were either left out of the plate or were different...

I sought the fairest and gayest flowers
Of the new spring's beautiful blossoms
And i gathered them in at morn's first hours
And placed them in childhood's bosom
Yet sorrowing there
The dewdrop hung
And the pearly tear
To the young flower clung

I culled the best sprigs of the rose and vine
By the summer's noonday sun
And twined me a garland for manhood's prime
And in truth twas a lovely one
But withered the rose
Ere the day was done
And the purple hues
Of the grape were gone

I wandered at night o er the dreary lea
Mid the wintry tempest's rage
And I took of the yew and the cypress tree
And wove a dark wreath for age
And when I arose I beheld them wave
Their sable hues O er the old man's grave

Then I thought of the ne'er fading amaranth bowers
Which blossom for ever above
And thought me eternity's beautiful flowers
Must blow in those regions of love
And I sigh to reach there
To twine me a wreath
Unprofaned by a tear
Or mortality's breath

 

Well, other than the missing stanzas, your version is written from the female perspective - the difference between "childhood" and "manhood" in particular, so perhaps there were different versions of a common root for male and female audiences/readers? The difference between "blow" and "bloom" might also be related to the audience or could just be attributable to copyist error.

Without any indication (that we've found) for exactly who wrote it, I would take the approach in your final paragraph.

 

This publication had just the verses that are on my plate, but had the wording from the longer version I included above. It's from one of the earlier versions I found, and I think maybe the one that was published the earliest.



https://books.google.com/books?id=I...K6#v=onepage&q="To twine me a wreath"&f=false

 

Actually, it looks like what I just posted is a hybrid of the two versions in terms of the wording. That's even more of a puzzle!

 

The earliest one that I found (and I think you found it as well) appears to have been in The Parlor Book: or Family Encyclopedia of Useful Knowledge and General Literature; ornamented with fine colored engravings. The one that comes up in Google Books was published in 1837. There was an 1835 edition of the book that appears in digital form in HathiTrust. However, it differs in that the plate where this poem appears in 1837 does not seem to appear in the 1835 edition. There is a chance that the plate did appear in 1835 and was missing from the digitized version. I'm not sure.

In the 1837 edition it's on page 16, near where the definition of Amaranth is in the encyclopedia. Here is a link. The poem appears with a lovely color plate of an amaranth flower. https://books.google.com/books?id=r...ned by a tear, or mortality's breath"&f=false

In the 1835 edition that is in HathiTrust, page 16 would have been a good place for that plate, but it does not appear.
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89094396132;view=1up;seq=39

The author of this book was John Lauris Blake (1788-1857), an author and clergyman who was born in New Hampshire: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lauris_Blake

I don't know whether he wrote the poem or not. He seems to have been multi talented!

Pat, I did look in a few reference books that have "first line" indexes and "last line" indexes to poems. I did not find this anywhere. And not knowing what the first line really was, I tried several options. I'm all out of ideas for finding the author of this. Overall, it probably doesn't matter if you are going to sell it. I know we are all curious, though!

Fig

 

Thanks so much for your efforts, Fig!

So I was wrong thinking the version I saw that started with the second verse was the earliest I saw. I guess it will remain a puzzle on why the different versions.

A related question... in the early to mid-1800s, were written works by women usually credited to them? The reason I ask, is that a book I posted about earlier in Antiquers was written by a woman but her name was never given... it just said the author was "a mother."

It makes me wonder if bias against women in those days would have gone so far as to not give them credit for their work? And if that were the case, perhaps it explains no author given for this poem? It wouldn't prove that the poet was Miss Post, but at least might explain why there's no credit given.

 

I've seen a lot of those types of attributions, too. (A Mother, etc.) Or sometimes "Mrs. ___" might be the only author given. And Mary Ann Evans used the pen name George Eliot because she wanted her work to be taken seriously. But there were also successful women authors who used their names: Louisa May Alcott, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Jane Austen (who started out in late 18th century but also wrote in early 19th), and many others.

 

Good point, Fig, about the novelists. This is one of those times I wish I had a way-back machine....

 

Just a thought - could someone have copied the poem themselves thus the changes?