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Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Verse
Description
An account of the resource
<h4>This collection brings together the most complete set of Dickens's verse to date, supplementing the work of existing editions with previously uncollected poems Dickens contributed to albums, or wrote anonymously.</h4>
Though such productions receive scant attention from scholars interested in his fiction and journalism, Dickens composed a surprising amount of verse. It was a genre in which he evidently felt much less at home (and financially rewarded) than when writing in prose. However, several poems gained popular favour during his lifetime; that so many were <a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Song">written to be set to music</a> indicates the permeable boundary between metered verse functioning as poem or song in the nineteenth century, and may explain why some of Dickens’s poems were more enduringly popular than others. Notably, <a href="https://dickenssearch.com/verse/1836-05_Pickwick_Papers_The_Ivy_Green">'The Ivy Green'</a> from <em>Pickwick Papers</em> (1837), a story of time’s inexorable passing, was frequently republished in newspapers.<br /><br />Several poems written to young ladies of Dickens’s acquaintance are released on <em>Dickens Search</em> as part of the author’s poetic output for the first time, testifying to the author’s ability to write impromptu poetry and gallantly turn a phrase. Since keeping <a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?search=&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=94&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Autograph+Album&collection=&type=&tags=&date_search_term=&submit_search=Search+For+Items">autograph albums</a> was a popular pastime for women in the Victorian era, it is possible that further examples of such activity remain to be discovered in various archives and private collections.<br /><br />When writing <a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?search=&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=94&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Letter&collection=3&type=&tags=&date_search_term=&submit_search=Search+For+Items">letters</a> to friends, Dickens occasionally included comedic poems for the recipient. Several of these are included. Considering the enormity of Dickens’s correspondence, likely more instances of this sort of poetic humour will result over time.<br /><br /><a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Epitaph">Epitaphs</a> Dickens wrote for friends and family, whether used or not, are included with Dickens's other verse for the first time. Users can also browse <a href="https://dickenssearch.com/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=94&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Play">verse from Dickens's plays</a>, including songs removed from <em>The Strange Gentleman </em>and <em>Is She His Wife? Or, Something Singular! </em>before performance.<br /><br />Care is necessary when verifying the accuracy of these poems, as some are misattributed to Dickens. Widespread reprintings of 'Dickens poems' in nineteenth-century newspapers are insufficient evidence for authorial attribution, owing to the mistakes intentionally or inadvertently made in ascribing authorship.<br /><br />An unusual example of a poem that is and is not by Dickens, the lines of 'Little Nell’s Funeral' are taken, with minimal alterations, from Chapter 72 of <em>The Old Curiosity Shop</em>. An instance of the strikingly lyrical quality of Dickens’s sentimental prose, they were divided into metered, unrhymed verse by M.A.H. for the 1849 collection <em>Echoes of Infant Voices</em>. Because Dickens did not intend for this passage to be structured in verse form, the poem is not included in the poetry collection of <em>Dickens Search</em>. <a href="https://dickenssearch.com/poetry-dickens-didnt-write">Read our blog post for more on poetry Dickens <em>didn't </em>write.</a><br /><br />Occasionally, Dickens will quote a poem by another author, as in his burlesque <em>Is She his Wife? Or, Something Singular!</em> (1836). The character Mr Felix Tapkins launches into a short hunting song beginning 'The wife around her husband throws/Her arms to make him stay'. As William Chappell noted in 1840, this is a well-known variant of 'A Hunting We Will Go' (1777), by Thomas Arne, though he misattributes its composition to Henry Fielding.<br /><br />Previous notable collections of some of Dickens's poetry include <em>The Plays and Poems of Charles Dickens</em> (1882) edited by Richard Herne Shepherd and <em>The Poems and Verses of Charles Dickens</em> (1903) edited by Frederic G. Kitton.<br /><br />Caution has been taken when ascertaining that each poem is indeed by Dickens. Please <a href="https://dickenssearch.com/contact">contact us</a> with any errors, corrections, suggestions, or other poems written by Dickens.<br /><br />1. Robert Butterworth. 'The Hymn of the Wiltshire Labourers.' <em>The Dickensian</em> 516.118.1 (Spring 2022): pp. 43-56; Eva-Charlotta Mebius. 'Dreams of Dying Girls: The Poetry of Thomas J. Ouseley and Charles Dickens.' <em>Dickens Quarterly</em> 34.3 (September 2017): pp. 256-261; Robert C. Hanna. 'Before Boz; The Juvenilia and Early Writings of Charles Dickens, 1820-1833'. <em>Dickens Studies Annual</em> 40 (2009): pp. 231-364.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
verse
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Emily Bell; Lydia Craig
Poem
Ngram Date
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18440301
Ngram Text
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I put in a book once, by hook or by crook, The whole race (as I thought) of a "feller", Who happily pleased the town's taste (much diseased), – And the name of this person was Weller. I find to my cost that one Weller I lost, Cruel Destiny so to arrange it! I love her dear name which has won me some fame, But great Heaven how gladly I'd change it!
Publication Type
E.g. newspaper/serial
Autograph Album
TEI File
Link to TEI file
<a href="https://dickenssearch.com/teibp/dist/content/1844-03_Christiana_Thompson_The_Grateful_Impromptu.xml" target="_blank" rel="noopener">'The Grateful Impromptu' (March 1844).</a>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
'The Grateful Impromptu'
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Dickens, Charles
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<em><span>The Charles Dickens Museum</span></em>, <a href="http://www.collections.dickensmuseum.com/object-a378" target="_blank" rel="noopener">http://www.collections.dickensmuseum.com/object-a378</a>.
<em>British Library Newspapers</em>
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1844-03
Rights
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<em>British Library Newspapers,</em> <a href="https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000035/18990605/064/0002" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000035/18990605/064/0002</a>. Some rights reserved. This work permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Poem
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
1844-03_Christiana_Thompson_The_Grateful_Impromptu
Bibliographic Citation
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Dickens, Charles. 'The Grateful Impromptu.' <span>Autograph Album of Christiana Weller (March 1844).</span> <em>Dickens Search.</em> Eds. Emily Bell and Lydia Craig. Accessed [date]. <a href="https://dickenssearch.com/verse/1844-03_Christiana_Thompson_The_Grateful_Impromptu">https://dickenssearch.com/verse/1844-03_Christiana_Thompson_The_Grateful_Impromptu</a>.
Description
An account of the resource
From the autograph album of Christiana Weller (March 1844).
Scripto
Transcription
A written representation of a document.
I put in a book once, by hook or by crook,<br />The whole race (as I thought) of a "feller",<br />Who happily pleased the town's taste (much diseased),<br /><span>–</span> And the name of this person was Weller.<br /><br />I find to my cost that <em>one Weller</em> I lost,<br />Cruel Destiny so to arrange it!<br />I love her dear name which has won me some fame,<br />But great Heaven how gladly I'd change it!