Who doesn’t love a rousing, good ditty, or a clever, snappy poem with a wicked twist of words? And what better than an ode about your favorite topic – printing – written by and for printers?
We recently found a digital copy of a poetry book about printing from 1833. Turning the pages makes you feel like you are at a comfortable British pub house a couple of hundred years ago, raising a glass with inky nails, saying, “Have ye heard this one?”
The title of the book is Songs of the Press and Other Poems Relative to the Art of Printing, gathered by T. Kirk, Printer of Nottingham, 1833. It is available for download at www.openlibrary.org.
One of the gems we found included a curse or censure by a printer who called down mayhem on his colleague.
(illustration courtesy of Briarpress.org)
The Poet’s Anathema by R.S. Coffin
On a printer who had displeased him.
May all your columns fall in pie,
Each chase be gnawed by rust;
Weak, weak as water be your lye,
Your cases filled with dust.
May all your sticks untrue be made,
Your frames too high or low;
No page upon the stone be laid
Where it should rightly go.
(illustration courtesy of Briarpress.org)
How about a song on the Origin of Printing by Dodd, in particular, one that praises good printing and the demise of hand-copying.
Aided by thee, the printed page
Conveys instruction to each age;
When in one hour more sheets appear,
Than Scribes could copy in a year.
An anonymous poet captured that moment when a printer gets what he is looking for…
Print on my lip another kiss.
The picture of thy glowing passion;
Nay, this won’t do— nor this — nor this —
But now — Ay, that’s a proof impression!
One more thought to give some perspective on what it meant when you held a book in the 1800’s and the nice thought that countless of our fellow fine press printers still handle many of these tasks themselves.
The following twenty-two occupations are engaged to produce a single book (circa 1873):-The author, the designer, the rag merchant, the paper maker, the stationer, the type founder, the press maker, the ink maker, the roller maker, the chase maker, the reader, the compositor, the pressman, the gatherer, the folder, the stitcher, the leather seller, the binder, the coppersmith, the engraver, the copper-plate printer, and the bookseller.
Are you inspired to pen your own sonnet or lyric to printing? Send us your verse in the comments section below!