#broadside
An engraving of Walt Whitman by Gaylord Schanilec from the Spring 2005 issue of VQR; printed beside Gregory Orr’s poem, “Concerning the Book That Is the Body of the Beloved”
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✨ Happy 4th of July! ✨
Here we have the second edition printing of the Declaration of Independence; the most accurate and beautiful early printing of the founding document of the United States.
The copper plate for this printing was commissioned in 1820 by William Stone under the sponsorship of the Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, who was keen to create a facsimile of the original engrossed document, which was already beginning to show signs of deterioration. This was a sagacious course of action, as the engrossed copy continued to suffer through wear, exposure to sunlight and poor restoration, so much so that it is now barely legible.
Stone’s copper plate was completed in 1823 and 200 copies were printed on vellum. This exact facsimile is the source for most subsequent reproductions of the Declaration.
In 1833 Peter Force received authorisation from Congress to reuse the plate to produce this printing of the Declaration as part of his “American Archives” which published, often for the first time, texts from the founding of the nation.
The multi-talented Force, was an archivist, editor, historian and politician. He also served in the War of 1812. He is best known for “American Archives”, which he operated for twenty years, until it was cancelled in 1853 by then Secretary of State William Marcy. Force’s collection was subsequently sold to the Library of Congress.
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The scarce decorative advertising broadside from the 1860s is currently on loan from the George Glazer Gallery to a temporary exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York. New York on Ice — currently on view until April 15th — is an entertaining look at the history of ice skating in the city (lower right in the installation photo). The print is featured in a section on the skating craze in the mid 19th century, when the Central Park Lake drew huge crowds of New Yorkers of all ages and social classes. The broadside advertises skating equipment sold by a Lower Manhattan sporting goods store in a playful composition that is over three feet wide. Also available after the exhibition closes at a special sale price –
email us at [email protected] if you’re interested! More info about the exhibition is at http://bit.ly/mcnyice
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In the work of Mark Strand (1934–2015), desolation and isolation come to have their own cadence — one of timelessness, acceptance, and even sly comfort extended to the reader. (This classic, known by heart to Strand’s fans, seemed to call out for a broadside.)
A Piece of the Storm
From the shadow of domes in the city of domes,A snowflake, a blizzard of one, weightless, entered your room
And made its way to the arm of the chair where you, looking up
From your book, saw it the moment it landed. That’s all
There was to it. No more than a solemn waking
To brevity, to the lifting and falling away of attention, swiftly,
A time between times, a flowerless funeral. No more than that
Except for the feeling that this piece of the storm,
Which turned into nothing before your eyes, would come back,
That someone years hence, sitting as you are now, might say:
“It’s time. The air is ready. The sky has an opening.”
More on this book and author:
- Learn more about Collected Poems by Mark Strand.
- Browse other books by Mark Strand.
- Visit our Tumblr to peruse poems, audio recordings, and broadsides in the Knopf poem-a-day series.
- To share the poem-a-day experience with friends, pass along this link.
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An afternoon with Kevin Young’s “Aunties” sounds awfully good right now. The poem, from his collection Dear Darkness, appears most recently in Blue Laws, a selected and uncollected gathering that is an essential tour of Young’s work.
Aunties
There’s a way a womanwill not
relinquish
her pocketbook
even pulled
onstage, or called up
to the pulpit—
there’s a way only
your Auntie can make it
taste right—
rice & gravy
is a meal
if my late Great Aunt
Toota makes it—
Aunts cook like
there’s no tomorrow
& they’re right.
Too hot
is how my Aunt Tuddie
peppers everything,
her name given
by my father, four, seeing
her smiling in her crib.
There’s a barrel
full of rainwater
beside the house
that my infant father will fall
into, trying to see
himself—the bottom—
& there’s his sister
Margie yanking him out
by his hair grown long
as superstition. Never mind
the flyswatter they chase you
round the house
& into the yard with
ready to whup the daylights
out of you—
that’s only a threat—
Aunties will fix you
potato salad
& save
you some. Godmothers,
godsends,
Aunts smoke like
it’s going out of style—
& it is—
make even gold
teeth look right, shining,
saying I’ll be
John, with a sigh. Make way
out of no way—
keep the key
to the scale that weighed
the cotton, the cane
we raised more
than our share of—
If not them, then who
will win heaven?
holding tight
to their pocketbooks
at the pearly gates
just in case.
More on this book and author:
- Learn more about Blue Laws by Kevin Young.
- Browse other books by Kevin Young, including Stones, forthcoming in September 2021.
- Hear Kevin Young read poems from the first pandemic year, along with other contributors to the anthology Together in a Sudden Strangeness, via Left Bank Books on April 19.
- Share this poem and peruse other poems, audio recordings, and broadsides in the Knopf poem-a-day series.
- To share the poem-a-day experience with friends, pass along this link.
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2018 Concerts
Broadside & Tonight Alive — The Get Free Tour
- February 17, 2018 — Richmond, VA [pictures 1|pictures 2|video]
Harry Styles: Live on Tour
The Adventures of Macklemore & Kesha
- July 28, 2018 — Bristow, VA [pictures 1|pictures 2|video]
Anti-Flag, AFI, & Rise Against — Mourning in Amerika Tour
Alkaline Trio Tour
Niall Horan & Maren Morris — Flicker World Tour
Set It Off — Killer in the Mirror Tour
Neck Deep — The Peace and the Panic USA Tour 2
- September 20, 2018 — Richmond, VA [pictures 1|pictures 2|video]
Good Charlotte and Sleeping With Sirens — Generation RX 2018 North American Tour
Follow @fangirlication on Instagram to see what 2019 brings for our Fangirl Adventures!
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