nichepoetryandprose

A few posts ago, I introduced you to my new poetry project: ‘Bookmarks and Dog Ears.‘ One of the subjects I want to include (briefly) in my manuscript is the ‘gloss.’ According to Merriam-Webster, a ‘gloss’ is a brief explanation (as in the margin or between the lines of a text) of a difficult or obscure word or expression.

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A gloss marks a book using pencil or pen marks in the margins and counts in the scope of my writing about ‘bookmarks.’ Some think writing in a book is not a good idea and defaces the book. However, I have found during this project that glosses reveal a lot about the history of a book.

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I will use one of my prized possessions to illustrate the power of glosses. This item is a book, a first edition, signed copy of Bliss Carman’s Later Poems, published in Toronto by McLelland & Stewart, 1921. Bliss Carman was a famous poet, born in Fredericton. The book Later Poems includes many poems I love, including ‘Vestigia’ which begins … ‘I searched for God and found him not…’ and goes on to say the poet finds God in many aspects of nature. I bought the book on-line for $80 some years ago. It is a ‘presentation copy’ and includes an inscription by Carman to friend, publisher and author, Irving Way.

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Even better, my copy of Later Poems is glossed with pencil and points out some differences in this 1921 Edition from the 1922 American Edition (Small, Maynard and Company, Boston) and the 1926 Canadian Edition (McLelland & Stewart, Toronto). For example, my 1921 Edition is missing four lines from the end of the poem ‘Easter Eve.’ The lines are present in both 1922 and 1926 Editions. In another example, the glosses point out a duplication of two stanzas in the book: identical stanzas occur in ‘A Christmas Eve Choral’ and ‘The Sending of the Magi.’ The stanzas are entirely missing in the 1922 Edition and are included only in the poem ‘The Sending of the Magi’ in the 1926 Edition.

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At first, I thought perhaps the book was a sort of ‘proof’ copy, and the glosses were Bliss Carman’s. But recently, I found a date in pencil in the same handwriting – 24 July 1932. The glosses were added by another person, not Bliss Carman who died in 1929, or Irving Way who died in 1931. The glosses were also added after the 1926 edition and so could not have been the impetus for changes in either of the other Editions.

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So, who was the person who wrote in pencil in the book? An heir of Irving Way? An editor considering yet another Edition? Or simply a lover of poetry who did some research between Editions.

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This is a first draft of part of my poem about the glosses in this book – this part of the poem explains why I love Bliss Carman’s work. One of the reasons – the writing group I meet each month (Wolf Tree Writers) has a member who is a distant cousin of Bliss Carman: Virginia Bliss Bjerkelund, author of Meadowlands- A Chronicle of the Scovil Family (Chapel Street Editions, 2020) and A Nurse for All Seasons (Chapel Street Editions, 2023); for a review of the book Meadowlands, click here.

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My poem includes quotes from Bliss Carman’s Later Poems.

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First Edition Glosses

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1. 

as she walked the forest edge

my mother quoted poets

William Cullen Bryant

‘Whither, ‘midst falling dew’

Bliss Carman

‘I took a day to search for God …’

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at her funeral, knowing

she still ‘dwelt within my heart’

I read ‘Vestigia,’ by Carman

my poet of choice

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I hear his voice

when purple lilacs ‘stir’

when I hear the wind

‘conversing with the leaves’

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when I wander

in the meadow

chasing ‘stealthy shadows 

of the summer clouds’

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distant cousin brings his 

charm and talent 

to our writing group

when it meets each month

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The poem goes on to talk about the other Editions, the glosses and how many hands have held the book before mine.

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I am loving this Bookmark project. I am learning so many new things and I find the writing of ‘fact-filled’ poetry a bit of a challenge.

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Enjoy your own reading and discoveries!

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All my best,

Jane