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Title
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Verse
Description
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<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
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verse
Contributor
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Emily Bell; Lydia Craig
Poem
Ngram Date
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18560101
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(Curtain rises; mists and darkness’ soft music throughout.) One savage footprint on the lonely shore Where one man listen’d to the surge’s roar, Not all the winds that stir the mighty sea Can ever ruffle in the memory. If such its interest and thrall, O then Pause on the footprints of heroic men, Making a garden of the desert wide Where Parry conquer’d death and Franklin died. To that white region where the Lost lie low, Wrapt in their mantles of eternal snow, - Unvisited by change, nothing to mock Those statues sculptured in the icy rock, We pray your company; that hearts as true (Though nothings of the air) may live for you; Nor only yet that on our little glass A faint reflection of those wilds may pass, But that the secrets of the vast Profound Within us, an exploring hand may sound, Testing the region of the ice-bound soul, Seeking the passage at its northern pole, Softening the horrors of its wintry sleep, Melting the surface of that ‘Frozen Deep.’ Vanish, ye mists! But ere this gloom departs, And to the union of three sister arts We give a winter evening, good to know That in the charms of such another show, That in the fiction of a friendly play, The Arctic sailors, too, put gloom away, Forgot their long night, saw no starry dome, Hail’d the warm sun, and were again at Home. Vanish, ye mists! Not yet do we repair To the still country of the piercing air; But seek, before the cross the troubled seas, An English hearth and Devon’s waving trees.
Publication Type
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Play
Publication
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The Frozen Deep
TEI File
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<a href="https://dickenssearch.com/teibp/dist/content/1856_The_Frozen_Deep_Prologue.xml" target="_blank" rel="noopener">'Prologue.' <em>The Frozen Deep </em>(1856).</a>
Dublin Core
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Title
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'Prologue'
Creator
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Dickens, Charles
Source
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Volume 20 of <em>The Works of Charles Dickens</em> (1911). London: Chapman and Hall; pp. 486-487, <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Works_of_Charles_Dickens/91s4AAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=The%20frozen%20deep" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Works_of_Charles_Dickens/91s4AAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=The%20frozen%20deep</a>.
Publisher
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Chapman and Hall
Date
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1856
Type
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Prologue
Identifier
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1856_The_Frozen_Deep_Prologue
Bibliographic Citation
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Dickens, Charles. 'Prologue' to <em>The Frozen Deep</em> (1856), co-author Wilkie Collins. Printed in Volume 20 of <em>The Works of Charles Dickens</em> (1911). <em>Dickens Search.</em> Eds. Emily Bell and Lydia Craig. Accessed [date]. <a href="https://dickenssearch.com/verse/1856_The_Frozen_Deep_Prologue">https://dickenssearch.com/verse/1856_The_Frozen_Deep_Prologue</a>.
Description
An account of the resource
Prologue to <em>The Frozen Deep</em> (1856), co-author Wilkie Collins.
Scripto
Transcription
A written representation of a document.
<p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">(Curtain rises; mists and darkness’ soft music throughout.)<br /></span></em></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">One savage footprint on the lonely shore</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Where one man listen’d to the surge’s roar,</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Not all the winds that stir the mighty sea </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Can ever ruffle in the memory.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If such its interest and thrall, O then</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Pause on the footprints of heroic men,</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Making a garden of the desert wide</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Where Parry conquer’d death and Franklin died.</span></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">To that white region where the Lost lie low,</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Wrapt in their mantles of eternal snow, - </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Unvisited by change, nothing to mock</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Those statues sculptured in the icy rock,</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">We pray your company; that hearts as true</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">(Though nothings of the air) may live for you;</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Nor only yet that on our little glass</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A faint reflection of those wilds may pass,</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But that the secrets of the vast Profound </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Within us, an exploring hand may sound,</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Testing the region of the ice-bound soul,</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Seeking the passage at its northern pole,</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Softening the horrors of its wintry sleep,</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Melting the surface of that ‘Frozen Deep.’</span></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Vanish, ye mists! But ere this gloom departs,</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">And to the union of three sister arts</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">We give a winter evening, good to know</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That in the charms of such another show,</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That in the fiction of a friendly play,</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Arctic sailors, too, put gloom away,</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Forgot their long night, saw no starry dome,</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Hail’d the warm sun, and were again at Home.</span></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Vanish, ye mists! Not yet do we repair</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">To the still country of the piercing air;</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But seek, before the cross the troubled seas,</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">An English hearth and Devon’s waving trees.</span></p>