Hello blog,<\/p>\n
I managed to get two days in the British Library last week and spent some of those reading Joanna Baillie\u2019s letters. There\u2019s quite an extensive correspondence between her and Lady Jane Davy, Sir Humphry\u2019s wife and I\u2019ve come across a couple of really interesting things: in 1816 Joanna Baillie tells Jane Davy that she showed some of Humphry\u2019s poetry to her brother Matthew Baillie, the surgeon, and \u2018My brother, who does not read much poetry, has been delighted with Sir Humphrey\u2019s [sic<\/em>] verses’. In another letter, written to Sir Thomas Lawrence in 1822\/3, Baillie writes that Sir Humphry has given her a poem for a collection she was putting together to raise money for a friend but the editor of Baillie\u2019s letters notes that if Davy did in fact give Baillie a poem for the collection it must be an anonymous one. So I ordered this collection on Friday without much hope – and there’s a Davy poem in there! It’s called ‘Life’ but it’s a recognisable version of a poem that I’ve worked on before, which Coleridge suggests revisions for in a letter dated 1800. It was a poem he clearly continued to work on throughout his life, and it was published posthumously by his brother in his 1839-40 Memoirs<\/em> under the title \u2018Written after recovery from a dangerous illness\u2019 (this version dated 1807). I wonder why his brother didn\u2019t use the version Davy published in Baillie\u2019s collection in 1823? I wonder what the impetus is behind Davy\u2019s revisions of this poem? Why does he keep returning to it and what authority do the various versions have? In yet another version of the poem in one of Davy\u2019s notebooks some of Coleridge\u2019s suggested changes have clearly been made but these lines don\u2019t make their way into the published versions.<\/p>\n Yesterday gave a paper at Bishop Grosseteste University College\u2019s research seminar, and was able to use this poem as an example to illustrate points about \u2018Science and Poetry in the Romantic Era\u2019. In the coming months I’m going to have a think about the differences between them. It’s a real discovery because we didn’t think he had published anything beyond three poems in the Annual Anthology <\/em>poems and the prologue to\u00a0The Honeymoon<\/em>. For those of you who know Wahida Amin, you\u2019ll know that she\u2019s writing a PhD on Humphry Davy\u2019s poetry, the first study to look solely at his poetry, and this just shows that there is lots out there to find!<\/p>\n I was in London partly to have a planning meeting for event 3 (how quickly they are coming now!) with the Royal Institution and the National Maritime Museum. It’s going to be a great event and already we have some great sessions and speakers planned.<\/p>\n I hope that people will sign in to listen to me interview Peter Buse about his work on polaroid on Monday 8th March (see the blog post from LitSciMed for more details). It’ll be lovely to hear from you and have a virtual seminar before event 2.<\/p>\n Finally, I also heard on Friday that we have been successful in another grant application for the Davy letters project, this time \u00a37,390 from the British Academy for travel to archives where we\u2019ve found new material and to pay for a research assistant \u2013 which will really help with the work that we need to do! I\u2019ll be writing the job spec soon and then we\u2019ll be advertising the post.<\/p>\n All best,<\/p>\n Sharon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hello blog, I managed to get two days in the British Library last week and spent some of those reading Joanna Baillie\u2019s letters. There\u2019s quite an extensive correspondence between her and Lady Jane Davy, Sir Humphry\u2019s wife and I\u2019ve come … Continue reading