PPB: The April Day / Caroline Bowles Southey

[George Dance]

Today's poem on Penny's Poetry Blog:
from The April Day, by Caroline Bowles Southey
[...]
There has not been a sound to-day
To break the calm of nature;
Nor motion, I might almost say,
Of life or living creature;
[...]
https://gdancesbetty.blogspot.com/2023/04/the-april-day-caroline-southey.html

#pennyspoems

[George Dance]

On Wednesday, July 26, 2023 at 9:20:31 AM UTC-4, NancyGene wrote:
> “The April Day” Caroline Bowles Southey
> https://groups.google.com/g/alt.arts.poetry.comments/c/Lgxlc7qR1Nw/m/9up0bx1FAwAJ

<snip>
>
> -------
> On his website version of the poem, George Dance made the following changes to Ms. Southey's poem:
>
> George Dance substituted “dropped” for the original “dropt” in Stanza 1, line 1.
> George Dance substituted “fullness” for the original “fulness” in Stanza 1, line 2.
> George Dance substituted “wrapped” for the original “wrapt” in Stanza 1, line 3.
> George Dance put a hyphen into "to day" in Stanza 2, line 1.
> George Dance substituted a semicolon instead of the original colon at the end of Stanza 2, line 4.
> George Dance put in an apostrophe instead of the original punctuation of “rains” in Stanza 4, line 2.
> George Dance substituted “screen” for the original “skreen” in Stanza 5, line 2.
> George Dance substituted “every” for the original “ev’ry” in Stanza 5, line 3.
> George Dance put in a comma in the first line of Stanza 6, line 1, “Sure, since I looked” instead of the original “Sure since I looked, [...]“
> George Dance put a semi-colon into Stanza 6, Line 3, “Have swelled to double growth;” instead of the original “Have swelled to double growth: that thorn […]”
> George Dance substituted “even” for the original “ev’n” in Stanza 7, line 3.
> George Dance put a period at the end of line 4, Stanza 7, instead of the original colon.
> George Dance substituted "everywhere" for the original "ev'ry where" in Stanza 8, line 4.
> George Dance substituted "ere" for the original "e'er" in Stanza 10, line 1. This changes the meaning of the word in the line. "Ere" means before, but "e'er" means ever.

NG, please stop spreading the false story that I made any of the above changes. Whoever made them did so long before I ever saw the poem; and quite a few more that you missed. As proof, here's a 19th-century school reader that contains all of them.

XX.—AN APRIL DAY.

1. All day the low-hung clouds have dropped [“dropped” for the original “dropt”]
Their garnered fullness down; [“fullness” for the original “fulness”]
All day that soft, gray mist hath wrapped [“wrapped” for the original “wrapt”]
Hill, valley, grove, and town.

2. There has not been a sound to-day [put a hyphen into "to day"]

To break the calm of nature;

Hor motion, I might almost say,
Of life, or living creature; [substituted a semicolon instead of the original colon]

3. Of waving bough, or warbling bird,
Or cattle faintly lowing :
I could have half believed I heard
The leaves and blossoms growing,

4. I stood to hear—I love it well—
The rain’s continuous sound ; [put in an apostrophe instead of the original punctuation of “rains”]
Small drops, but thick and fast they fell,
Down straight into the ground.

5. For leafy thickness is not yet,
Earth’s naked breast to screen; [“screen” for the original “skreen”]
Though every dripping branch is set
With shoots of tender green.

6. Sure, since I looked at early morn,
Those honeysuckle buds
Have swelled to double growth ; that thorn [put a semi-colon into Stanza 6, Line 3]
Hath put forth larger studs.

7. That lilac’s cleaving cones have burst,
The milk-white flowers revealing;
Even now, upon my senses first [“even” for the original “ev’n”]
Methinks their sweets are stealing. [a period at the end of line 4, Stanza 7, instead of the original colon]

8. The very earth, the steamy air,
Is all with fragrance rife ;
And grace and beauty everywhere ["everywhere" for the original "ev'ry where"]
Are flushing into life.

9. Down, down they come—those fruitful stores,
Those earth rejoicing drops !
A momentary deluge pours,
Then thins, decreases, stops.

10. And ere the dimples on the stream ["ere" for the original "e'er"]
Have circled ont of sight,
Lo ! from the west a parting gleam
Breaks forth, of amber light.

11. But yet behold—abrupt and loud,
Comes down the glittering rain;
The farewell of a passing cloud,
The fringes of her train.

> George Dance substituted “long” for “yon” and has “As long tall elm he mounts,” in Stanza 14, line 3. This should be the original “yon tall elm,” not to be confused with “Long Tall Sally.” This change makes the line funny, which Ms. Southey would not have appreciated.

Well, that one was my own accidental change. I restored 3 more of Southey's stanzas, and those I typed in from the book. So you're entitled to laugh at me for that silly mistake, after you've corrected your false story about me.

snip

[George Dance]

> Have circled out of sight,

> Lo ! from the west a parting gleam
> Breaks forth, of amber light.
>
> 11. But yet behold—abrupt and loud,
> Comes down the glittering rain;
> The farewell of a passing cloud,
> The fringes of her train.
>

I should give my source for the above version. I found it on the U.S. Dep't of Education website:
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED621290.pdf

> Well, that one was my own accidental change. I restored 3 more of Southey's stanzas, and those I typed in from the book. So you're entitled to laugh at me for that silly mistake, after you've corrected your false story about me.
>
> snip

That was sent to a "concern troll" thread that NastyGoon and their fellow Bandar-Log have set up about the poem; and I'll copy more of that in for later bumps of the poem. But of course that's not what's most important. If the PPB version of the poem contained errors, the important thing is not to decide who's "at fault" for them; the important thing is to fix them. Which is why I didn't reply until yesterday; I spent Monday and Tuesday looking at Southey's poem (and another poem that is also being concern trolled), and deciding what were "errors" and, for any, how to fix them.

What's apparent from the Appleton version is that Southey's poem has been "modernized," its spelling and punctuation silently updated for contemporary readers (in the same way Shakespeare's sonnets have all been quietly modernized). I wouldn't call that an "error", but I would say the result was not what I wanted here. I'd already decided not to use the Appleton version, and had as I said restored some missing stanzas to the poem. Not all of them, of course -- Southey goes on for another 33 stanzas, most of them being about a sheep whose lamb has died, which the reader can profitably leave to the historical scholar -- but I thought restoring two cut stanzas, and adding s14 to end the poem with "evening" in the last line, was an improvement.

So I decided to take my variation further. I'd already opted for a unique copy for PPB, and working it back toward the original would increase its uniqueness and its value. In that sense, NastyGoon's concern trolling was of benefit; one can pay attention to their factual information while paying none to their false stories.

Another benefit from the concern trolling was that it gave me a better source for Southey's poem:
https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Widow_s_Tale/UkRDAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=inauthor:%22Caroline+Southey%22&printsec=frontcover
The Internet Archive version that I'd previously been using was missing an entire page (p. 21), which was in the Google Books version. That allowed me to do a line-by-line of the entire poem.

Which is what I did on Tuesday. Rather than use NG's list (which was actually incomplete), I checked each line against Southey's original, and decided whether to use that or stick with the modernization. I ended up restoring most of her archaic spellings, as I didn't think "dropt" "wrapt" or even "skreen" would actually confuse a reader, and almost all of her punctuation. I even restored "To day", as I'm confident a reader would understand it meant "today." AFAICS, the blogged poem is identical to the original except for two changes which looked like errors in the 1822 printing:

L37 - "And ere the dimples on the stream". In context, "ere" ("before") is what Southey intended - before the ripples of the raindrops have "circled out", the sun has already broken through. The book''s word, "e'er" changes the meaning, and the result doesn't make sense - (ever the ripples have disappeared, the sun has come out?)

L 47 - "Reflect in flames of living gold,". I kept the comma as end-line punctuation as per the revision. The 1822 book had a period, which made no sense since that would make L48 ("The concentrated rays.") a sentence, which it obviously isn't.

As Karen Tellefsen used to say, Fix it and that should be the end of it. Sadly, I'm sure it won't be; with concern trolling, the point is not concern but trolling, and I expect that to continue long after any reasons for concern have dissipated.

[Will Dockery]

As we say, at least Nancy G. is good for something.

🙂

[Michael Pendragon]

Why not thank NancyGene for pointing out the errors?

Calling her by childish names when she's done you a huge favor only displays your pettiness.

< plonk >

[Will Dockery]

How do you justify your own childish name-calling, Pendragon?

> < plonk >

Good riddance.

🙂

[Will Dockery]

> 2. There has not been a sound to-day [put a hyphen into "to day"]

> To break the calm of nature;

> Have circled ont of sight,

> Lo ! from the west a parting gleam
> Breaks forth, of amber light.
>
> 11. But yet behold—abrupt and loud,
> Comes down the glittering rain;
> The farewell of a passing cloud,
> The fringes of her train.

> > George Dance substituted “long” for “yon” and has “As long tall elm he mounts,” in Stanza 14, line 3. This should be the original “yon tall elm,” not to be confused with “Long Tall Sally.” This change makes the line funny, which Ms. Southey would not have appreciated.

> Well, that one was my own accidental change. I restored 3 more of Southey's stanzas, and those I typed in from the book. So you're entitled to laugh at me for that silly mistake, after you've corrected your false story about me.
>
> snip

Again, well put, George.

(Moved from the troll thread.)

[Faraway Star]

Yep, just set the record straight and move along....

[George Dance]

I can understand why you'd want to pretend the published version of the poem contained "errors", Lying Michael, as you're just backing up a "colleague," but why do you think I['d want to pretend that?

The fact is NastyGoon found a modernized version of the poem, and decided to call the modernizations "errors" just because they thought I'd made them. As I pointed out, not only were they not errors, but since the poem was modernized at least 125 years ago there's no way I could have made them.

> Calling her by childish names when she's done you a huge favor only displays your pettiness.

NastyGoon has found a couple of errors, and was thanked; but making up "errors" and bogus stories of me travelling back in time to make them only makes them look like a fool. Pat them on the back all you want, and call me all the names you want, but in doing so you're only making yourself look like a fool as well.

> < plonk >

As Will likes to say, "good riddance."

[George Dance]

Since Michael Monkey decided to troll in this thread as well, I should point out again that none of the changes I made (except the "long tall elm", of course) were correcting errors. I went back to the original version because (1) I didn't have an original source for the modern version I'd used, and (2) there weren't too many odd spellings, less than half a dozen. (Nothing like reading, say, Edmund Spenser.)

So I took the 1822 version as my text, and the poem is that with just three changes. I decided to keep a third change --
"There has been no sound to day / To break the calm of nature"
Just seems confusing; so I restored the hyphen to make it "to-day".

That was her poem. In other cases (like Wither's) where I have a definitive modern edition, I'll stick with that; but with NastyGoon opening at least three troll threads on each poem, I'm sure we'll come to them in time. As you say, we'll move along.

[Will Dockery]

Silence is golden, after all.

🙂

[General-Zod]

> What's apparent from the Appleton version is that Southey's poem has been "modernized," its spelling and punctuation silently updated for contemporary readers (in the same way Shakespeare's sonnets have all been quietly modernized). I wouldn't call that an "error", but I would say the result was not what I wanted here. I'd already decided not to use the Appleton version, and had as I said restored some missing stanzas to the poem. Not all of them, of course -- Southey goes on for another 33 stanzas, most of them being about a sheep whose lamb has died, which the reader can profitably leave to the historical scholar -- but I thought restoring two cut stanzas, and adding s14 to end the poem with "evening" in the last line, was an improvement..

> So I decided to take my variation further. I'd already opted for a unique copy for PPB, and working it back toward the original would increase its uniqueness and its value. In that sense, NastyGoon's concern trolling was of benefit; one can pay attention to their factual information while paying none to their false stories.

> Another benefit from the concern trolling was that it gave me a better source for Southey's poem:
> https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Widow_s_Tale/UkRDAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=inauthor:%22Caroline+Southey%22&printsec=frontcover
> The Internet Archive version that I'd previously been using was missing an entire page (p. 21), which was in the Google Books version. That allowed me to do a line-by-line of the entire poem.

> Which is what I did on Tuesday. Rather than use NG's list (which was actually incomplete), I checked each line against Southey's original, and decided whether to use that or stick with the modernization. I ended up restoring most of her archaic spellings, as I didn't think "dropt" "wrapt" or even "skreen" would actually confuse a reader, and almost all of her punctuation. I even restored "To day", as I'm confident a reader would understand it meant "today." AFAICS, the blogged poem is identical to the original except for two changes which looked like errors in the 1822 printing:

> L37 - "And ere the dimples on the stream". In context, "ere" ("before") is what Southey intended - before the ripples of the raindrops have "circled out", the sun has already broken through. The book''s word, "e'er" changes the meaning, and the result doesn't make sense - (ever the ripples have disappeared, the sun has come out?)

> L 47 - "Reflect in flames of living gold,". I kept the comma as end-line punctuation as per the revision. The 1822 book had a period, which made no sense since that would make L48 ("The concentrated rays.") a sentence, which it obviously isn't.

> As Karen Tellefsen used to say, Fix it and that should be the end of it. Sadly, I'm sure it won't be; with concern trolling, the point is not concern but trolling, and I expect that to continue long after any reasons for concern have dissipated.

Inetesting read G.D.

[W.Dockery]

Agreed.

[George Dance]

On Sunday, August 6, 2023 at 11:40:21 AM UTC-4, W.Dockery wrote:
> General-Zod wrote:
>
> > George Dance wrote:
>
> >>
> >>> > Today's poem on Penny's Poetry Blog:
> >>> > from The April Day, by Caroline Bowles Southey
> >>> > [...]
> >>> > There has not been a sound to-day
> >>> > To break the calm of nature;
> >>> > Nor motion, I might almost say,
> >>> > Of life or living creature;
> >>> > [...]
> >>> > https://gdancesbetty.blogspot.com/2023/04/the-april-day-caroline-southey.html
> >>> >
> >>> > #pennyspoems

>

> >> What's apparent from the Appleton version is that Southey's poem has been "modernized," its spelling and punctuation silently updated for contemporary readers (in the same way Shakespeare's sonnets have all been quietly modernized). I wouldn't call that an "error", but I would say the result was not what I wanted here. I'd already decided not to use the Appleton version, and had as I said restored some missing stanzas to the poem. Not all of them, of course -- Southey goes on for another 33 stanzas, most of them being about a sheep whose lamb has died, which the reader can profitably leave to the historical scholar -- but I thought restoring two cut stanzas, and adding s14 to end the poem with "evening" in the last line, was an improvement..
>
> >> So I decided to take my variation further. I'd already opted for a unique copy for PPB, and working it back toward the original would increase its uniqueness and its value. In that sense, NastyGoon's concern trolling was of benefit; one can pay attention to their factual information while paying none to their false stories.
>
> >> Another benefit from the concern trolling was that it gave me a better source for Southey's poem:
> >> https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Widow_s_Tale/UkRDAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=inauthor:%22Caroline+Southey%22&printsec=frontcover
> >> The Internet Archive version that I'd previously been using was missing an entire page (p. 21), which was in the Google Books version. That allowed me to do a line-by-line of the entire poem.
>
> >> Which is what I did on Tuesday. Rather than use NG's list (which was actually incomplete), I checked each line against Southey's original, and decided whether to use that or stick with the modernization. I ended up restoring most of her archaic spellings, as I didn't think "dropt" "wrapt" or even "skreen" would actually confuse a reader, and almost all of her punctuation. I even restored "To day", as I'm confident a reader would understand it meant "today." AFAICS, the blogged poem is identical to the original except for two changes which looked like errors in the 1822 printing:
>
> >> L37 - "And ere the dimples on the stream". In context, "ere" ("before") is what Southey intended - before the ripples of the raindrops have "circled out", the sun has already broken through. The book''s word, "e'er" changes the meaning, and the result doesn't make sense - (ever the ripples have disappeared, the sun has come out?)
>
> >> L 47 - "Reflect in flames of living gold,". I kept the comma as end-line punctuation as per the revision. The 1822 book had a period, which made no sense since that would make L48 ("The concentrated rays.") a sentence, which it obviously isn't.
>
> >> As Karen Tellefsen used to say, Fix it and that should be the end of it. Sadly, I'm sure it won't be; with concern trolling, the point is not concern but trolling, and I expect that to continue long after any reasons for concern have dissipated.
>

> > In[tere]sting read G.D.
> Agreed.

[General-Zod]

On Thursday, August 17, 2023 at 3:34:02 PM UTC-4, George Dance wrote:
> On Sunday, August 13, 2023 at 11:40:21 AM UTC-4, ill .Dockery wrote:

> > General-Zod wrote:
> > > George Dance wrote:
>
> > >>> > Today's poem on Penny's Poetry Blog:
> > >>> > from The April Day, by Caroline Bowles Southey
> > >>> > [...]
> > >>> > There has not been a sound to-day
> > >>> > To break the calm of nature;
> > >>> > Nor motion, I might almost say,
> > >>> > Of life or living creature;
> > >>> > [...]
> > >>> > https://gdancesbetty.blogspot.com/2023/04/the-april-day-caroline-southey.html
> > >>> >
> > >>> > #pennyspoems
>
> >

> > >> What's apparent from the Appleton version is that Southey's poem has been "modernized," its spelling and punctuation silently updated for contemporary readers (in the same way Shakespeare's sonnets have all been quietly modernized). I wouldn't call that an "error", but I would say the result was not what I wanted here. I'd already decided not to use the Appleton version, and had as I said restored some missing stanzas to the poem. Not all of them, of course -- Southey goes on for another 33 stanzas, most of them being about a sheep whose lamb has died, which the reader can profitably leave to the historical scholar -- but I thought restoring two cut stanzas, and adding s14 to end the poem with "evening" in the last line, was an improvement..

> >
> > >> So I decided to take my variation further. I'd already opted for a unique copy for PPB, and working it back toward the original would increase its uniqueness and its value. In that sense, NastyGoon's concern trolling was of benefit; one can pay attention to their factual information while paying none to their false stories.
> >
> > >> Another benefit from the concern trolling was that it gave me a better source for Southey's poem:
> > >> https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Widow_s_Tale/UkRDAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=inauthor:%22Caroline+Southey%22&printsec=frontcover
> > >> The Internet Archive version that I'd previously been using was missing an entire page (p. 21), which was in the Google Books version. That allowed me to do a line-by-line of the entire poem.
> >
> > >> Which is what I did on Tuesday. Rather than use NG's list (which was actually incomplete), I checked each line against Southey's original, and decided whether to use that or stick with the modernization. I ended up restoring most of her archaic spellings, as I didn't think "dropt" "wrapt" or even "skreen" would actually confuse a reader, and almost all of her punctuation. I even restored "To day", as I'm confident a reader would understand it meant "today." AFAICS, the blogged poem is identical to the original except for two changes which looked like errors in the 1822 printing:
> >
> > >> L37 - "And ere the dimples on the stream". In context, "ere" ("before") is what Southey intended - before the ripples of the raindrops have "circled out", the sun has already broken through. The book''s word, "e'er" changes the meaning, and the result doesn't make sense - (ever the ripples have disappeared, the sun has come out?)
> >
> > >> L 47 - "Reflect in flames of living gold,". I kept the comma as end-line punctuation as per the revision. The 1822 book had a period, which made no sense since that would make L48 ("The concentrated rays.") a sentence, which it obviously isn't.
> >
> > >> As Karen Tellefsen used to say, Fix it and that should be the end of it. Sadly, I'm sure it won't be; with concern trolling, the point is not concern but trolling, and I expect that to continue long after any reasons for concern have dissipated.
> >

> > > In[tere]sting read G.D.
> > Agreed.

Good day to you G.D.