"All your better deeds shall be in water writ"

September 11, 2008 10:24 PM

In August of 1820 one of the most beloved poets of his age came to the defense of another poet who was fast slipping into obscurity after a string of flops and a barrage of devastating reviews. That poet receding into oblivion? John Keats. That mightily loved poet? Barry Cornwall. Barry who?! Barry Cornwall was the nom de plume of solicitor Bryan Waller Procter, who won the admiration of a great many, including no lesser a reader than Pushkin. You can acquaint yourselves with this now almost wholly forgotten literary figure by reading volume 1 of his 1822 Poetical Works or other texts by and about him on Google Books. As for Keats, well... Keats is everywhere.
posted by Kattullus (11 comments total)

I can't help but mention how incredibly cornball the pseudonym "Barry Cornwall" is. Oh, and here's his Marriage of Peleus and Thetis, which is mentioned often in the linked essay (I swear I'm not linking to this poem because of the Catullus connection).
posted by Kattullus at 10:27 PM on September 11, 2008

Huh. I'd thought the "writ in water" epitaph was an allusion to Catullus 70.
posted by kid ichorous at 10:56 PM on September 11, 2008

So did I, kid ichorous, until I came across the quote in a post by mds35.
posted by Kattullus at 10:59 PM on September 11, 2008

"Writ in water?" I just assumed that was Keats. Otherwise: really!?
posted by sourwookie at 1:21 AM on September 12, 2008

Very interesting in an "is it April 1 already?" kind of way. Alas, I can't get those Google Books links to work for me at the moment for some reason, but there's a selection of Cornwall verses here. I rather enjoyed those - no tiresome struggling to work out what the poet is on about here.

I also like to hear that people who were celebrated in their day can be utterly forgotten afterwards. I have a few contemporary candidates for posthumous oblivion.
posted by Phanx at 1:43 AM on September 12, 2008 [1 favorite]

I've been reading Ovid lately, and that Peleus and Thetis thing has my head kind of reeling. They were really into classicism back then, huh?
posted by mr_roboto at 3:33 AM on September 12, 2008

We still are, mr_roboto. We just repackage those old myths into modern conveyances.
posted by Malor at 5:12 AM on September 12, 2008 [1 favorite]

I also like to hear that people who were celebrated in their day can be utterly forgotten afterwards. I have a few contemporary candidates for posthumous oblivion.

Previously: "Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair."
posted by Herodios at 8:12 AM on September 12, 2008

We still are, mr_roboto. We just repackage those old myths into modern conveyances.

Well, yeah, except 'repackaging myth' isn't classicism. From the OED:

"The principles of classic literature or art; adherence to, or adoption of, classical style."
posted by nonmerci at 9:14 AM on September 12, 2008

Fascinating stuff—thanks, Kattullus! I wish I could like his verse better, but it's pretty insipid stuff; I read "The Two Dreams" (the first piece in the linked Poetical Works) and had a wry chuckle at how silly the end was. On the other hand, on page 5 he seems to have invented the smiley:

You will laugh ;)

posted by languagehat at 1:34 PM on September 12, 2008

The Marriage of Peleus and Thetis is somewhat palatable, if somewhat uninspiring. But really, the essay Richard Marggraf Turley is the most interesting part. I wish I had remembered to credit the author in my post.

And, oh man, I wish I'd caught that smiley. The temptation to go credit Cornwall on the Wikipedia emoticon page with inventing the winkey is very hard to resist.
posted by Kattullus at 1:52 PM on September 12, 2008 [1 favorite]