{"id":911,"date":"2012-05-18T16:57:21","date_gmt":"2012-05-18T21:57:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nonsolusblog.wordpress.com\/?p=911"},"modified":"2012-05-18T16:57:21","modified_gmt":"2012-05-18T21:57:21","slug":"poem-in-sir-john-franklins-narrative-identified","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/2012\/05\/18\/poem-in-sir-john-franklins-narrative-identified\/","title":{"rendered":"Poem in Sir John Franklin’s Narrative Identified"},"content":{"rendered":"

Martyn Beardsley, author of Deadly Winter: The Life of Sir John Franklin<\/em>, has brought to my attention that the poem written in the University of Illinois\u2019s copy of Franklin\u2019s Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea<\/em> is in fact by Franklin\u2019s first wife, Eleanor Porden.\u00a0 In his research, Beardsley examined unpublished letters from Porden and Franklin in the Derbyshire Public Record Office.\u00a0 This poem, originally appearing in a December 1822 letter to Franklin, was written by Porden in response to Franklin\u2019s letters to her about the difficulty of writing his Narrative<\/em> (Beardsley 101).\u00a0 Beardsley includes this poem and several others by Eleanor Porden in an appendix to his Franklin biography.<\/p>\n

Eleanor Porden (1795-1825) was a published poet.\u00a0 Her collection of poetry, The Veil; or the Triumph of Constancy,<\/em> was published to some praise in 1815.\u00a0 Coeur de Lion, or, The Third Crusade<\/em> followed in 1822.\u00a0 She and Franklin were married on 6 August 1823.\u00a0 Eleanor tragically died of tuberculosis in 1825 while Franklin was away on his second overland expedition to the Canadian Arctic.<\/p>\n

Franklin\u2019s second wife, Lady Jane Franklin (1792-1875), is well known for her exhaustive efforts in the search for Sir John Franklin\u2019s expedition and is certainly the most famous wife of an Arctic explorer.\u00a0 Because of Eleanor\u2019s early death and Lady Jane Franklin\u2019s fame, Eleanor Porden is relatively forgotten today.\u00a0 A single biography by a family member, Edith Mary Gell, was published in 1930.\u00a0 Eleanor was an interesting and complex woman whose life and achievements deserve to be explored in greater depth today.<\/p>\n

As mentioned in the previous post, the University of Illinois copy is inscribed by John Franklin to John Richardson\u2019s first wife, Mary Stiven\u00a0(1795-1831).\u00a0 This may provide some clue as to why Eleanor\u2019s poem is written in the book.\u00a0 Perhaps Eleanor Porden\u00a0had some hand in\u00a0John Franklin’s\u00a0presentation of the book to Mary Richardson.\u00a0 A presentation copy\u00a0involving the wives of two of the most renowned nineteenth-century Arctic explorers is certainly something of interest to Arctic historians.\u00a0 Although the poem does not provide direct autobiographical insight into John Franklin\u2019s character, it certainly does tell us more about his mindset upon his return to England, his attitude toward writing, and his relationship with his first wife.<\/p>\n

Thanks again to Martyn Beardsley for his help in identifying this poem. AD<\/strong><\/p>\n

Further Reading on Eleanor Porden and Sir John Franklin:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Beardsley, Martin. Deadly Winter: The Life of Sir John Franklin<\/em>. London: Chatham Publishing, 2002.<\/p>\n

Gell, E.M. John Franklin\u2019s Wife, Eleanor Anne Porden<\/em>. London: John Murray, 1930.<\/p>\n

Sutherland, Kathryn. \u2018Porden , Eleanor Anne (1795\u20131825)\u2019, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography<\/em>, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http:\/\/www.oxforddnb.com\/view\/article\/10088, accessed 18 May 2012]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Martyn Beardsley, author of Deadly Winter: The Life of Sir John Franklin, has brought to my attention that the poem written in the University of Illinois\u2019s copy of Franklin\u2019s Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea is in fact by Franklin\u2019s first wife, Eleanor Porden.\u00a0 In his research, Beardsley examined unpublished […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":115,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[116,173,243,244],"class_list":["post-911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ad","category-arctic-exploration","tag-eleanor-porden","tag-lady-jane-franklin","tag-sir-john-franklin","tag-sir-john-richardson"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/115"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}