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Drawing Hope from Poetry and Penmanship
As with document 1, John Burns's performance, copied from John Huddlestone Wynne's Choice Emblems, matches a lovely drawing with an exercise in penmanship and poetry. The poem focuses on the need for hope—a subject that would have likely resonated with many of the students in the school, who faced the formidable obstacles of poverty, racial prejudice, and the threat of kidnapping.
Student: John Burns
Collection: Copies of Literary Work
Page: 5
Transcript
Of Necessary Confidence, Hope is the First great blessing
Here below:
The only balm to heal corroding wo[e],
It is the staff of age, the sick man’s health;
The prisoner’s freedom, and the poor man’s Wealth
The sailor’s safety: tasting as our breath,
It still holds nor quits us e’en in death
Moral:
Encourage hope, which heals all human care; the last mad folly is a sad despair.
If you are wise, that dreadful evil shun, nor fall unpitied, by yourself undone.