Pepys Diary erasure project – Page 425

Category: Pepys Diary erasure project

Starting January 1, 2013, this is a daily exercise in erasure poetry based on the 17th-century Diary of Samuel Pepys. Why this work? Its language is admirably concrete, with recurring words and turns of phrase shaped by the exigencies of Pepys’ original shorthand. In thought and content it stands at the beginning of the modern era: the first truly confessional piece of literature by a man equally fascinated by religion and science, and whose curiosity encompassed everything from music-making and theater to mathematics, accounting, politics, fashion, and carnal pleasures. And last but not least, the 1899 Wheatley edition is available online in a website that is really a model for how to present literature on the web. It was my desire to read it day by day that led to this project, which I view not as erasure but as discovery—a kind of deep (mis)reading. Pepys was a sexual predator and an architect of British colonialism who personally profited off the slave trade, so any less than an engaged, critical reading of the diary, in this day and age, would be irresponsible. From a secret diary, these are the secret poems hidden even from the author himself.

I began compiling the erasures into free ebooks in 2017. Here are 1664, 1665, 1666, 1667, 1668 and 1669, and from my second attempt, here are 1660 and 1661.

January 28, 2013January 29, 2013 by Dave Bonta

Going to heaven

[I left my business, sent for my best fur cap,
went to Heaven and dined on a breast of mutton.
Happiness carried me in his coach.]

Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Saturday 28 January 1659/60.

January 27, 2013January 29, 2013 by Dave Bonta

Retreat

[I took to a high
place and stayed
till I was forced by
a hole in my coat
to come home.
I almost wrote.]

Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Friday 27 January 1659/60.

January 26, 2013January 29, 2013 by Dave Bonta

Larks

[I paid to free from a dinner dish
two dozen larks, a great company,
and all were merry.
They drank a bottle of wine, fell down,
and ate from my hand.]

Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Thursday 26 January 1659/60.

January 25, 2013January 29, 2013 by Dave Bonta

Getaway

[I went by water to my father’s country,
crew buttery as lard, paper ship
to transport me and my tired work.]

Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Wednesday 25 January 1659/60.

January 25, 2013January 29, 2013 by Dave Bonta

Cut Up

[Where will I go
when we call one another mad,
pulling off bride’s and bridegroom’s ribbons,
fooling like mad five o’clock scissors
with my papers?]

Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Tuesday 24 January 1659/60.

January 23, 2013January 29, 2013 by Dave Bonta

Game

[Down came the axe and found my head,
which made very pretty beef.
I stayed and played a dark stone,
being round and great.]

Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Monday 23 January 1659/60.

January 22, 2013January 29, 2013 by Dave Bonta

Buckles to my shoes

[I sat with duty and guilt and shame,
a brother to the poor.
This day I began to put on buckles to my shoes.]

Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Sunday 22 January 1659/60.

January 21, 2013January 29, 2013 by Dave Bonta

Domestic arrangements

[Took leave of all the keys
and the old told clock
there in the city of money

where I drank an hour,
where a black chair resolved
to satisfy the bed.]

Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Saturday 21 January 1659/60.

January 20, 2013January 29, 2013 by Dave Bonta

Jole of Ling

[In the morning I drank at the Sun,
at the Swan in Fish Street,
at our Goal Feast,
at our Jole of Ling,
and after a good cup of ale I shot a scholar.
I drank at the burial of a young bookseller,
drank to his going.]

Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Friday 20 January 1659/60.

January 19, 2013January 29, 2013 by Dave Bonta