1

THE POETRY OF WILLIAM HEATH
By
Karla Jarvis
BA, Simon Fraser University, 2011
Health and Fitness Certificate, Simon Fraser University, 1998

THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
MASTER OF ARTS
IN
ENGLISH

UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN BRITISH COLUMBIA
April 2019
© Karla Jarvis, 2019

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Abstract
The literature of the Victorian fin de siècle continues to engage scholars; one focus of
contemporary research is the genre of working-class writers. This thesis presents a documentary
edition of poetry constructed from a 116-year-old autographic manuscript by unknown author
William Heath, including the manuscript’s provenance, authorial biography, textual criticism,
and a broad literary criticism. This thesis illustrates that much remains to be discovered within
the voice of the unpublished ‘everyman’. Heath’s introspective language on faith and morality
provide a singular glimpse into his interpretation of Victorian Leeds. By repositioning the
manuscript from decaying textual artefact, through its preservation, transmission, and
construction into this documentary edition, Heath’s poetry is entered into the genre of
nineteenth-century working-class poetry. Further, this edition forms a foundational text for
further study which may explore Heath’s tropes, language, and style which will extend our
understanding of working-class poetry during the close of the Victorian era.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Abstract

2

2. Table of Contents

3

3. Acknowledgement

5

4. Preface

6

5. Introduction

9

6. Provenance of the Manuscript

14

7.

Biography of the Author, William Heath

16

8.

Textual Criticism and Editorial Apparatus

25

9.

Literary Criticism

68

10. Conclusion

94

11. The Poetry of William Heath with Index

98

12.

Appendices
A. 1851 United Kingdom Census Record

246

B. West Yorkshire Non-Conformist Record

247

C: 1891 England Census

248

D: Marriage Record for William and Hannah Heath

249

E: 1901 England Census, William Heath at 17 Florence

250

F: 1911 England Census, William and Hannah Heath

251

G: Canada Passenger List, Arrival Record for Heaths

252

H: Canada Census Records, Prairie Provinces

253

I: Photograph of William and Hannah Heath

254

J: Handwritten Note from A. Platelayer

255

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K: Handwritten Note, Birthday Greetings

256

L: Handwritten Note, Mrs. Farewell

257

M: Leeds Newspaper

258

N: Untitled typed loose poem “Silence”

263

13. Photographic Documentation of Manuscript and its Contents

264

14. Works Cited

419

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Acknowledgements
I would like to express my gratitude to my thesis supervisor Dr. Kristen Guest, of the
University of Northern British Columbia, for her guidance, encouragement, kindness, and
support. I would also like to thank my thesis committee members Dr. Kevin Hutchings and Dr.
Ben Bryce, also of the University of Northern British Columbia, for their support and guidance.
My research into the life of William Heath and knowledge about his manuscript is
indebted to Alun Pugh, Lesley Newnham, Joyce Helweg, Leah Tourond, and my dear Uncle,
Garry Ollinger.
A special thanks to my mother, Gerry Mclean, for trusting me with Heath’s manuscript
and her unwavering support.
To my husband and family, my deepest thanks for your constant support, encouragement,
and love.
For Grandpa

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1. Preface
This graduate thesis is the result of the transmission of a text from my grandfather to me,
a text that first held only personal value but one that I soon recognized holds considerable
literary and scholarly worth, and as such it has afforded me this singular academic opportunity.
What follows this preface is my graduate thesis consisting of a documentary edition based on an
autographic manuscript of poetry by a William Heath which is dated between 1898 and 1903.
Heath’s manuscript was given to me by my family on behalf of my now deceased grandfather
Ferdinand Rudolph Ollinger. When I accepted the manuscript from my family, it was understood
that such acceptance was also my agreement to see the manuscript published as a volume of
poetry, as my Grandfather had intended to do himself. My grandfather did not know the
manuscript’s author, nor did I, and it was through chance that he came to own it, a gift made to
him by Heath’s grandson Martin Harrison Grainger. I have no knowledge as to why Grainger
gave his grandfather’s manuscript to my grandfather.
I have situated this battered and time worn manuscript as a family heirloom for many
decades, and as such it holds a particular place in my heart, as it did for my grandfather as well. I
adore the nostalgia inherent in relics such as this manuscript, so it has occupied a place of
privilege since I came to own it. While I hold no relation to the manuscript’s author William
Heath, the manuscript is bound to my memories of my grandfather and so it holds significant
personal worth. Despite his flaws, my grandfather serves as an inspiration for me and many
others because of his boundless optimism and service to his community.
I have fond memories from my childhood of my Grandfather bringing the frayed and
aging manuscript from its place in his hall closet so that he may share it with me. The manuscript
has sepia toned pages with worn and brittle edges, and a nondescript cover, but by the solicitous

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way my grandfather held it I knew immediately that this book was of great meaning to him. This
closet stored photographs, trophies, letters, and prize ribbons: memories of my grandfather and
our family as it grew in Prince George, British Columbia. A vintage suitcase overflowed with
black and white photos of parades, stock car races, skating on the pond, baseball tournaments,
hunting, weddings, and homesteading. Treasured memories crowded the shelves. Grandfather
shared these riches with me, and I pored over the photographs and other nostalgia, fascinated by
the history of my family and how it blends with that of Prince George. I marvelled at
photographs which captured how muscled my grandfather's arms were as he held my infant
mother aloft, how the family farm that I loved took shape from a vast forest to rolling fields, the
log barn, and my Grandmother’s beloved gardens.
It is memories such as these that have instilled in me an appreciation for preserving and
contemplating such artifacts which form the physical embodiments of our personal history, and
thus the aging manuscript is a personal impetus in my graduate work. The manuscript’s place in
this trove of treasured memories illustrates that this text was one of my Grandfather’s most
valued items, indeed, the only text held in his collection. As this was the only text ever shared
with me by my grandfather, I recognized it held significance for him, in that it reflected his own
convictions. While my Grandfather was not an overtly religious man like William Heath, he did
believe in his God, and he valued his personal integrity. What my Grandfather seemed to value
most about Heath’s poetry was the author’s devotion, his reliance on his faith, and his constant
striving to be a better man. My grandfather never realized his promise to Heath’s grandson
Martin Harrison Grainger to see the manuscript published and after he died the book was passed
to me by his eldest daughter, who is my mother, Geraldine (Gerry) Loretta McLean, along with
this unfulfilled promise of publication. As my grandfather rarely failed to accomplish any task, I

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took on this promise in recognition of our meaningful relationship with the manuscript then
retaining its identity as a family heirloom. It is this relationship, one founded on his teachings of
meeting challenges with purpose and commitment and on dedication to one’s personal growth,
that has driven my desire to realize the publication of the manuscript.
In my earliest consideration of publishing the manuscript, I weighed its literary and
academic value, and how I could best realize its publication. I committed myself to maintaining
the tender honesty of the manuscript and to present Heath’s manuscript in an accessible format.
A manuscript such as Heath’s provides further evidence regarding the breadth of late nineteenth
century literature and the religious culture and socio-economic circumstances in which it was
written. My recognition of the manuscript’s literary value became the catalyst for this thesis. I
now transmit the manuscript’s identity from family heirloom to its current identity as a worthy
subject of textual and literary criticism. This separation is the result of a thoughtful consideration
of my own subjectivity in that I must subjugate my emotional link to the manuscript in order to
fulfill my role as its objective editor and thus produce a scholarly edition in accordance with
accepted contemporary norms of scholarly editing. In realizing a documentary edition based
solely on Heath’s manuscript and its contents, I relieve my principal concern regarding the
manuscript as a textual artifact; its deteriorated condition demands immediate scholarly attention
before it, and its knowledge, are lost to time.
Therefore, in its role as a literary text the decaying manuscript presents itself as a singular
scholarly opportunity to preserve, in a documentary edition and thus through extensive textual
criticism, biography, and literary criticism, the writing of this newly discovered Victorian fin de
siècle working-class poet. As such, the holographic manuscript of William Heath is a notable
literary discovery, and one that holds abundant scholarly opportunities because it contributes to

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our expanding understanding of the literature of the late Victorian period, in particular that of the
working-class poetic genre. Heath’s writing reflects the influence of momentous late nineteenth
century historical events and religious transformation. Of particular note is William Heath’s
anonymity in the widely known literature of the Victorian era’s fin de siècle, and his social
position as a working-class writer in which he depicts his expression of faith while living in late
nineteenth century Leeds. Heath’s poetic language is largely rooted in calls to God, and his
poetry draws on a range of tropes, poetic forms, and rhyme schemes. The novelty of William
Heath’s manuscript and his singular poetic voice suggests that the canon of working-class poetry
may allow for the submission of this, a documentary edition, realized from his extensive
manuscript of poetry.

2. Introduction
The foundation of my thesis is a textual artifact dated from 1898 to 1903 which has been
in my possession for the past several decades. This holographic manuscript of poetry by a
William Heath is in a state of profound decay, and this thesis is, in part, the result of the text
calling to me and demanding my scholarly attention before it fades into memory. The text
consists of poetry defined as belonging to the working-class genre of the Victorian era’s fin de
siècle. Heath wrote at a historically intriguing time as late nineteenth century England saw a new
wave of industrialization, evangelical revivalism, and continued advances in literacy as well as
the literary dominance of the novel. A close reading of Heath’s poetry, in particular his tropes of
faith and morality, reveal his expressions of faith including his deeply personal relationship with
God. Evident too is Heath’s poetic responses to grief, battle, the innocence of childhood, and the
fragility of life for which he urges compassion and solicitude.

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As an example of working-class poetry, the manuscript holds relevant literary
significance as this genre is the focus of current academic study, evidenced in the contemporary
work of scholars Kirstie Blair and Charles LaPorte. Further, the poetry’s themes and language
reveal that while it can be considered working-class, it presents variations from the literature
currently held within that genre. As a part of the literary richness which forms the Victorian era,
the manuscript is rife with opportunities for academic research, such as exploring the influences
of increasing literacy, Heath’s expressions of grief, and how this poet endorses adhering to one’s
faith during religious upheaval, all of which can be found in Heath’s often didactic lines.
However, given the manuscript’s state of continuous deterioration which will inevitably render it
unintelligible, the most urgent scholarly attention required is a fulsome transcription guided by
solid textual criticism and editorial apparatus. My editorial work forms the foundation of this
documentary edition which will then serve as a critical foundational text for the future
exploration of William Heath’s poetry. It is the construction of this documentary edition which is
central to this thesis.
My thesis consists of a documentary edition entirely focused on the autographic
manuscript of poetry, and its textual contents, by the yet unknown fin de siècle Victorian writer
named William Heath. A documentary edition is defined as being “a scholarly edition that
presents the text of one source document and an apparatus recording editorial principles, variant
readings, and the document’s history” (Suarez 675). The manuscript’s known provenance, a
biographical context of the writer along side a transcription of the autographic manuscript and a
comparative and descriptive analysis of select poems is included in this edition. In keeping with
contemporary editorial practice, included too is a photographic facsimile of the manuscript and
the numerous textual documents found in its pages. My thesis is theoretically informed by the

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principles of textual criticism which seeks to recreate the manuscript through editing, and which
also contributes to the critical conversation of working-class Victorian poetry. I also present my
editorial apparatus, as defined by Chris Baldick, as being “textual notes, glossary, lists of variant
readings, appendices, introductory explanations and other aids to the study of a *TEXT, provided
in scholarly editions of literary works or historical documents” (18). These fundamental
definitions of ‘documentary edition’ and ‘editorial apparatus’ provided by Suarez and Baldick
respectfully serve as an introductory guide to my interpretation of my role and principal
responsibilities as editor, my objectives in transcribing the manuscript, and the subsequent
construction of this documentary edition.
Consequently, this documentary edition is supported and defined by my inclusion of the
text’s provenance, a biography of its author, and an editorial apparatus including a secondary
transcription where a thorough vetting of the initial transcription’s accuracy was conducted.
A photographic facsimile of the manuscript and its textual contents, and a broad literary
criticism which captures the poetic essence of the work while stimulating the need for further
study is also provided in this edition. As such, this documentary edition is well positioned as a
foundational text for the further study of William Heath’s poetry.
Each poem in the manuscript presents a rare opportunity for exploration, in that Heath is
a yet undiscovered poet and his poetry provides further insight into the late Victorian era. Many
of Heath’s poems are intriguing because of their historical references: death in battle, the Second
Boer War, Burmantoft’s Cemetery, evolving religious dogmas, or the artlessness of marketplace
transactions in Victorian Leeds. Other poems are noteworthy because of their literary references
and the way Heath echoes writers such as Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Still other poems capture
seemingly humble acts of everyday life such as caring for children, illness, and learning to skate.

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Heath’s poetry offers a glimpse of working-class life in Leeds just at the turn of the century; the
lines represent the feelings and thoughts experienced by William Heath. William Heath’s
manuscript contains over seventy poems that speak of faith and spirituality, personal strength,
grief, war, and commonplace life.
The inscribed dates in the manuscript range from 1898 to 1903. Poetic forms include
light verse (Abrams 102) as seen in “Cats,” occasional poems such as “Round the Bivouac Fire,”
and elegy as seen in “Mother’s Songs,” while still other poems illustrate a spiritual and didactic
theme. Indeed, the wide-ranging styles found in Heath’s manuscript fit well in the literary
richness of the Victorian era, particularly its fin de siècle: “I have spoken of Victorian poetry as
if it were a coherent entity. To some degree it is, and even the most divergent poems maintain
some family resemblance to each other; but its richness and variety should be emphasized”
(Richards 4). The family resemblance which binds the poetry in this autographic manuscript
together is the consistent theme of self-improvement and adherence to a relationship with God as
well as the identifying language and poetic apparatuses which unify the poems. Just as the inside
of the front cover denotes the work as Heath’s by his signature and home address, so too does the
last line of poetry: “To give my prayer in faith” (“What I’d like to hear,” line 27). These words
provide an apt summation of the poet’s literary premise, at least that which is contained in this
known manuscript.
The manuscript’s poetic work by William Heath is transcribed and presented here in its
entirety, with editorial notes which speak to emendations and literary points of interest. As the
manuscript required significant editorial effort due the challenges in deciphering Heath’s script,
attention is given to the editorial decisions made in my reading. Following Heath’s transcribed
poetry, extensive appendices present the loose documents found in the manuscript; these

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documents support the biographical and historical context of the edition which in turn supports
its known provenance. A photographic facsimile of the entire manuscript follows, as well as
photographs of all loose documents found in the manuscript when I received it from my family.
Attribution of the manuscript to this particular William Heath is based on both the internal
evidence contained within the manuscript, and externally as determined by my comprehensive
research. Suarez asserts that determining and describing such evidence is required by the editor
(491). It is beyond the scope of this thesis to complete an exhaustive poetic analysis of Heath’s
work; a close reading of the entirety of Heath’s poetry is a worthy endeavour recommended for
future scholarship. I do include a broad literary criticism of Heath’s poetry, which serves as an
introduction to his poetic style, including his tropes and language.
With the completion of this scholarly edition I fulfill the promise I made to my family to
see William Heath’s poetry published. While such an obligation is personally significant, I also
submit this documentary edition of Victorian working-class poetry as an intriguing and worthy
contribution to the study of Victorian literature, particularly that of the fin de siècle workingclass genre. It is my sincere hope that further literary works by William Heath come to light
because of this edition, and along with that further scholarship on a literary period which
continues to offer revelations worthy of sustained study. Written during the Victorian era’s fin de
siècle, Heath’s autographic manuscript provides a singular perspective into how this workingclass man viewed his changing world and his place in it. The author’s poetry and his story offer a
unique scholarly opportunity to explore a rich manuscript of poetry, and one that also has a
Canadian story because of Heath’s immigration to Canada, and the discovery of his manuscript
in the central interior of British Columbia decades after his death in Chilliwack, British
Columbia and so many miles from his birthplace of Leeds, England.

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3. Provenance of the Manuscript
Determining the provenance of the manuscript is based on the details of the manuscript’s
age, how my Grandfather had come to own this manuscript from William Heath’s grandson
Martin Harrison Grainger, and how it had come to me from my family. Therefore, my
knowledge of the manuscript’s provenance is limited to an attribution of ownership to that of
William Heath (1857-1941), Heath’s grandson Martin Harrison Grainger (1919- 1997), my
grandfather Ferdinand Rudolph Ollinger (1912-2006), and myself (1966-). My grandfather, who
resided in Prince George, British Columbia for most of his adult life, had told me that he was
given the book at a remote fishing lodge near Fort Saint James, British Columbia. This lodge is
remembered as the Middle River Lodge, or Grainger’s Lodge, near Takla Lake in the central
interior of British Columbia. The only known living participant at the gifting of the manuscript to
my Grandfather is my Uncle, Garry Ollinger. Ollinger recalls that he was a young man, and that
he had recently left the Canadian Navy when he went on the fishing trip with his father, Fernie
Ollinger. The year was between 1963 and 1966. The name Grainger’s Lodge proved to be a vital
connection to the manuscript because of determinations made while compiling William Heath’s
biography. My Uncle can recall few details of the trip. However, he does clearly recall that
Martin Harrison Grainger gave Heath’s manuscript to my grandfather, with the understanding
that my grandfather would see that it was published. This exchange likely occurred during a
robust game of cards and a few Wood’s Navy rum and cokes; a social custom enjoyed by my
grandfather.
I find it curious that a book of poetry with a Leeds, England address has found its way to
the growing city of Prince George, also in the central interior of British Columbia, and several
hundred kilometres from the Middle River Lodge. While I can affirm that William Heath’s

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grandson resided near Fort Saint James, it remains unknown if the poet also resided in this
region. The journey of the manuscript across the Atlantic Ocean, and then across Canada, is
intriguing and telling as much of that story as I can is as important to me as seeing the poetry
published. My biographical research culminated in determining the familial link between
William Heath and Martin Harrison Grainger, as well as attributing authorship of the manuscript
to a specific William Heath.
The inside of the manuscript’s hard-back cover displays the name “William Heath” and
the address of “17 Florence Grove, Ashley Road, Leeds,” both written in ink which has faded
considerably with time, and which provides proof of authorship. The foundation of my research
into William Heath’s story and that of the manuscript’s provenance is laid by the inscription of
this name and address. I also knew that my grandfather had come to own the manuscript in the
mid-1960s at the fishing lodge known both as Grainger’s Lodge and Middle River Lodge. These
details, along with the dates between 1898 and 1903 included at the close of some of the poems,
provided the only evidence with which I could begin detailing the manuscript’s provenance, a
portion of Heath’s life journey, and with that some of the historical and literary significance of
the manuscript.
As of 2019, the manuscript has been in Prince George for over fifty years and is now in
my ownership. Prior to this, the manuscript spent decades with my Grandfather, and an unknown
amount of time in the Fort Saint James area. Not documenting more of my grandfather’s
knowledge of the manuscript is lamentable; this omission has left me with only cursory details at
hand as to the manuscript’s provenance, and its origin, purpose, and personal meaning.

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4. Biography of the Manuscript’s Author, William Heath
I began my research on William Heath by writing a letter which explained my thesis to
his former address at 17 Ashley Road, Florence Grove, Leeds in the fall of 2016. An online
search (google.maps) reveals this address to be current. Regrettably, I did not receive any reply
to that letter. I only held a small amount of hope in receiving a reply, but the enquiry formed an
element of due diligence in my research. I eliminated the possibility of any potential Heath
descendants at the address or a reply with some knowledge of his descendants, and thus the only
known address of William Heath as a potential source of much needed biographical information
was rejected. Determining the biography of William Heath serves two purposes which support
the requirements of a documentary edition. First, ascertaining Heath’s biography supports my
account of the manuscript’s provenance, an element required in documentary editions,
specifically that requirement of the inclusion of the text’s “history” (Suarez 675). Secondly,
Heath’s biography supports the determination of the manuscript’s authorship as being that of this
particular William Heath; historical data of the author will serve as foundational information to
support future attributions of authorship by the same individual.
Considerations in correctly identifying William Heath as the putative author of the
manuscript was the absence of any middle names and the dates inscribed in the manuscript,
along with the Leeds address. By researching census records, I found a William Heath in a
1901 United Kingdom census record (Appendix E) which legally documents him as living at
the Leeds address written in the manuscript. This census record confirmed that I was tracing
the biography of the correct William Heath and that I could move forward with my
biographical research based on this confirmation. By using this census information, I then
traced William Heath’s genealogy back to his parents and then forward to his descendants

17
using census documents and the Ancestry.ca website, which records historical and genealogical
records. Further confirmation of the genealogy of William Heath is detailed and cross
referenced in Ancestry.ca on three separately established family trees: Tourond, Jones, and
Heath/Hall. I contacted available family members via the Ancestry.ca communication channel
from these genealogical trees for further information: some individuals denied being
descendants of William Heath, some did not reply to my messages, and some confirmed the
genealogical details and were willing to engage but could not provide any further relevant
information regarding William Heath. This supports further due diligence in my research into
potential sources of biographical information and the possibility of further literature by William
Heath; this research did not result in further factual revelations regarding Heath nor the
existence of other literary works.
The biographical information about William Heath is supported by genealogical
research and census records which determines authorship of the manuscript and will serve as
foundational information should further literary work purported to be by William Heath come
to light. Online research of the records held in the Historical Manuscripts Commission, also
known as the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, and which holds archival records
of general historical interest, did not reveal a relevant William Heath (nationalarchives.uk).
Rene Leidl of the Fort Saint James National Historic Site confirms that Martin Harrison
Grainger did reside and die in the Fort Saint James area; Leidl does not possess any further
information relevant to the literary work of William Heath in connection with Grainger, or in
her organization’s archives.
William Heath’s parents were Abel and Matilda (nee Haslam) Heath, born in 1823 and
1824 respectively. At the time of the 1851 England census (Appendix A), the Heath family

18
lived at 3 Lower Hanover Street in Leeds and father Abel worked as a Coach Inspector. The
Heath children included a son John (born 1843), a daughter Harriot (born 1847), and another
daughter Matilda (born 1850). Ten years later, the 1861 England census reveals that Abel and
Matilda were now both employed, the father as a Carriage Cleaner, and the mother as a Ragged
School Matron, thus working in an institution which provided free instruction on literacy,
religion, and industrial training to the disadvantaged children of Leeds (Lee par 1). Their son
John still lived with the family at age eighteen and was employed as an engine cleaner. Sisters
Harriet and Matilda were fourteen and eleven respectively. Another son, Abel, had joined the
family in 1854 and age seven at the time of this census. William Heath also makes his first
appearance on this census and was now age five. The family’s employment centres on the
rapidly growing railroad system for many decades, establishing William Heath’s working-class
social position.
William Heath was born on June 2 in either 1857 or 1858 (these years vary in United
Kingdom census records), in Leeds, Yorkshire. The 1871 England census reveals a much
different family composition with only William’s parents and a now twenty-one-year-old
Matilda residing in the home at 87 Richmond Street in Leeds. Abel Heath was now a Railway
Porter and daughter Matilda worked as a Domestic Servant. Another 10 years would see a
further dramatic family shift. The 1881 England Census reveals that William’s parents, now
aged fifty-seven, would share their home with two of their adult children. Abel still worked as a
Railway Porter, and son William, now twenty-four and living at home, was also working on the
railway as a Signalman. Abel and Matilda’s daughter also shared the home with her small son
Roland H. Campbell, age four. The family now lived at 13 Argyle View in Leeds. As a literate
and educated member of the Leeds working class, Heath was evidence of significant social

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change which became apparent at the end of the nineteenth century: “[I]t was a stimulating
period. Sunday schools and day schools and adult education again turned the balance, so that
there was a vigorous stratum of the working class, mostly self-educated, avid for books,
information, and knowledge” (Gregg 255). The level of literacy evident in Heath’s poetry is
likely the result of this cultural shift as suggested above by Gregg.
William would marry his wife, Hannah Wilby, when they were both twenty-five on
September 14, 1881, in Leeds, Yorkshire. A West Yorkshire, England, Marriages and Banns
record (Appendix B) for William and Hannah confirms that their marriage was registered in
September 1881. William and Hannah had a son named Rowland Dyson Heath, born in June
1884, a daughter named Elsie Matilda born in June 1887, a daughter named Gladys born in
1890, and another daughter named Eleanor born in February 1896. The 1901 United Kingdom
census record (Appendix E) reveals that Heath, working as a Railway Relief man, lived at 17
Florence Grove. This is the address that William Heath wrote on the inside cover of his
manuscript. Heath was a member of the working class and thus likely earned between “twenty
and thirty shillings a week, barely enough for rent and diet,” (Picard par. 2). In the evenings,
Heath may have attended the Mechanic’s Institution or a Working Men’s College in an effort
for self betterment (Picard par. 4). Heath’s home on Ashley Road was a short walk to Beckett
Street Cemetery (also known as Burmantoft Cemetery) which he writes of in “Thoughts on
Burmantofts Cemetery”; other poems in the manuscript also depict the Leeds community
environs including the Leeds Market.
In 1911, William Heath was working as a Railway Lightman in Leeds, Yorkshire (1911
England Census, Appendix F). He and wife Hannah lived at 10 Manson Terrace, Cross Gates.
Their fifteen-year-old daughter “Ella”, or Eleanor, lived with them; this daughter was the

20
family member who would provide me with the important connection between the manuscript
and the fishing lodge my grandfather visited in the 1960s. Heath’s mother Matilda Haslam
Heath died July 19th, 1903 at the age of 79. This major life event suggests significant
implications regarding the manuscript. The last date recorded in the manuscript is January 18,
1903; did Heath abandon his writing to care for his ailing mother? Further, Heath’s manuscript
contains two poems which illustrate the mother/son bond, and an abiding respect for the
maternal figure. “Mother’s Songs” (103) suggests that at the time he wrote this poem, his
mother had already passed away: “That voice is hushed, Her song still lives / She’s gone. But
yet is here.” (37-38). Another poem, “Grand Lad” (110), suggests that William may have been
present at his mother’s death: “Who held her hand until the last And gazed into her Eyes / Until
the words were said, she’s past, And gone to Paradise” (46-47). Of course, this assertion
assumes these poems to be at least somewhat autobiographical. Because the next dated poem in
the manuscript which follows these odes to his mother is dated 1900, and I know that his
mother died in 1903, it is possible that William Heath wrote the poems at various times, and
then made a compilation of his work in this bound manuscript. Given the passion and skill with
which William wrote the poems in this manuscript, and his middle age at writing them, it is
entirely possible that there is other poetry that William Heath wrote. Evidence to support this
assertion includes the loose sheet undated poems which were inserted in the bound manuscript.
Having thus established the identity of the poet, I was then able to trace his, and the
manuscript’s, journey from Leeds, England to British Columbia, Canada.
William Heath crossed the Atlantic to Canada in 1912 at age fifty-five, and it may be
that he valued his manuscript enough to bring it with him on the long journey, or perhaps it was
his wife or daughter who packed away the text on his behalf. This aspect of Heath’s biography,

21
like so many other facets of his life, remain unclear. I can only speculate that there may be
other unpublished poems either left behind in England, or somewhere in Canada. Heath’s
departure from Liverpool, England aboard the Virginian and his subsequent arrival in Halifax,
Nova Scotia, on April 6, 1912, is supported by Passenger lists (Appendix G). Passenger lists
served at that time as the official record of immigration for those arriving in Canada. While I
have discovered how the manuscript and its author were transported from England to Canada, I
do not know why they came, and this is immensely frustrating for me. On his arrival, Heath
recorded that his profession in Canada would be farming, rather than a continuance of his
known trade of railway work. At age 55, Heath must have been robust to undertake not only
immigration but such laborious work as farming. I have discovered little else about William
Heath’s life in Canada despite extensive research, and that is profoundly disappointing. I do
know that William Heath had a long marriage, and I surmise that this was his only marriage. I
do not know if it was a happy or loving union; Heath’s manuscript contains just one poem in
which the speaker laments his wife and “Troubles of a Married Man” (199) was written with
great humour. I am left to wonder whether there are other poems, poems that speak of his work
on the railway in England, his decision to come to Canada and the voyage across the Atlantic
Ocean, or his new career as a farmer. I wonder too if there are poems that speak of his arrival in
a new country, his time on the prairies evidenced in Canadian census records, and his decision
to settle in the Fraser Valley of British Columbia. The expression of feelings in his poetry
suggests that he was deeply devoted to his relationship with God, and that he saw great wonder
in the natural world and in music. I do not know if he ever intended to share his manuscript of
poetry with others, and I hope that I have not betrayed him in doing so by producing this
scholarly edition.

22
The Canadian Encyclopedia does not reveal a William Heath, eliminating the
possibility of any further Canadian biographical information about William Heath, at least from
this resource (Canadian Encyclopedia). On the arrival sheet which he completed when he
landed in Canada, William Heath listed his religious denomination as Wesleyan, another detail
which confirms that I was tracing the biography of the correct William Heath given the
previously determined biographical information. Canadian census records reveal that William
Heath lived in Merton, Battle River, Alberta around 1916 (Appendix H). William’s son
Rowland Dyson Heath had three sons with his wife Helen Bevin Granger. These three sons
include a Lloyd Heath, born in 1917 in Ontario; Lloyd Heath does not have any known
children according to Ancestry.ca. A second son, Victor Heath, was born around 1919 in
Saskatchewan, and died in North Vancouver at the age of ninety-two with no known children,
also according to Ancestry.ca. The third son, Norman Heath was born in Alberta in 1915; he
died in 2003 in Lloydminster, Saskatchewan. Initially, I surmised that Rowland’s wife Helen
Bevin Granger was the “Granger” connection to Grainger’s Lodge, but this would prove to be
incorrect.
William and Hannah’s daughter, Eleanor (Ella) Heath, was born in February 1895 in
Riding, Northumberland, and she travelled with her parents to Canada. Eleanor married a
James Grayer Grainger around 1917 in Alberta. They had four children, and Eleanor died on
August 25, 1957, in Burns Lake, British Columbia, at the age of 61. This small community is
geographically close to where the manuscript was given to my Grandfather. One of Eleanor’s
four children was Martin Harrison Grainger, born on May 21, 1919. Martin Grainger died on
November 21, 1997, in Fort Saint James, British Columbia at age seventy-eight. This was the
Martin Harrison Grainger who hosted my Grandfather and my Uncle at his fishing lodge in the

23
mid-1960s. This was the Martin Harrison Grainger who had given my Grandfather his own
grandfather William Heath’s manuscript, with the promise that it would be published. This
Martin Harrison Grainger was William Heath’s grandson, the link between the author’s family
and my own, as well as between Leeds, England, and Prince George, British Columbia. This
lineage, this familiar story of immigration from Europe to Canada and the subsequent far-flung
descendants, explains how an autographic manuscript from Leeds, England, came to be in the
fishing lodge on the Middle River, British Columbia.
Online research of the records held in the Historical Manuscripts Commission, also
known as the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, and which holds archival records
of general historical interest, did not reveal a relevant William Heath (nationalarchives.uk).
Rene Leidl of the Fort Saint James National Historic Site confirms that Martin Harrison
Grainger did reside and die in the Fort Saint James area; Leidl does not possess any further
information relevant to the literary work of William Heath in connection with Grainger, or in
her organization’s archives.
Because Heath’s manuscript contains a poem entitled “Burmantoft’s Cemetry”,
which is geographically close to the address on Florence Grove in Leeds, England, I then
extended my research to a historical society attached to this cemetery in the hopes of discovering
relevant biographical and/or historical information. This research connected me to a local
historian in Leeds, England; Alun Pugh leads the Friends of Burmantoft Cemetery preservation
group. Pugh provided my contact information to the group, following his newsletters and talks in
which he highlighted the connection between the cemetery and my research. Alun Pugh also
reached out to another amateur historian named Leah Tourond who would provide me with
further information regarding William Heath’s time in Leeds; my research was of particular

24
interest to Tourond as she claims to be the wife of the late James Tourond, a great grandson of
William Heath. Tourond states that her late husband is the son of Napoleon Pierre (Pete) and
Barbara Lucille Grainger, and that Barbara was the daughter of James Grainger and Eleanor
Heath. Tourond also provided contact information for another distant relative named John
Dorsey, who is the descendant of Abel Heath via his son John Heath. Dorsey’s understanding of
the Heath lineage concurs with my own. John Dorsey has not replied to any further requests for
contact by me, or to Leah Tourond. Tourond’s knowledge of William Heath’s family history
concurs with my own research and further supports my assertions of provenance and authorship
in that Eleanor was born in 1896 in Leeds. Tourond also indicates that Grainger lived for many
years on the Middle River at the end of Takla Lake, and that to her knowledge he had some old
books from England and that perhaps the manuscript was among these texts.
On August 17, 2017, I conducted a phone interview with a Fort Saint James resident
named Joyce Helweg, a local historian who officiated Harrison’s funeral services. Helweg was
unable to provide any information regarding William Heath, his manuscript, or if Martin
Grainger possessed any other literary works which belonged to his grandfather William Heath. In
addition, as a local historian, Helweg advised me that the local residents who knew Grainger
have all passed away, which quashed my hopes of conducting interviews with residents who may
have known Grainger.
William’s wife Hannah died on April 12, 1938, in Chilliwack, British Columbia, at the
age of eighty-one. William and Hannah had been married fifty-six years. William died on
November 10, 1941 at the age of eighty-five; he also died in Chilliwack, British Columbia. I
have not found online obituaries for either William or Hannah Heath.

25
The biographical information about the manuscript’s author is supported by genealogical
research and census records which determines authorship of the manuscript and will serve as
foundational information should further literary work by Heath come to light. Despite my
research efforts, much remains undiscovered about the life of William Heath, and, more
importantly, it remains unknown if there are other literary works or if the manuscript presented
in this edition represents his sole literary endeavour. While I have been unable to determine a
detailed biography of William Heath, I have established the manuscript’s author and provenance
to support this work as a documentary edition. It is my hope that this edition of William Heath’s
poetry will lead to the discovery of more material regarding the poet and his literary work and
thus continued scholarship which will broaden our understanding of the poetry and life of
William Heath, and that of Victorian England.

5. Textual Criticism and Editorial Apparatus
Principles
My role as editor is challenging in that while I have the privilege and autonomy of
being the first and sole editor to engage with Heath’s text in the discipline of textual criticism, I
lack the insight of a practiced editor, and my editorial work does not have the benefit of
previously edited versions of Heath’s text. The overarching principle behind my editorial
apparatus is informed by my intended goal of completing a scholarly and documentary edition of
poetry based on the holographic (a document wholly written in the handwriting of the individual
whose signature it bears) (merriam.webster.com) manuscript by William Heath in my
possession. While his editorial and bibliographic studies focused almost exclusively on biblical
texts, in his discussion on editorial practice David Noel Freedman (1922-2008) provides

26
guidance which I have applied to my own work: “So far as possible, it is necessary to discover,
recover, and reconstruct the world in which that work was composed, and transfer all of that into
the realm of the new reader, or vice versa, transport the contemporary reader into the world and
culture in which the work has its proper place” (Freedman 229). Freedman’s notion of
transportation and engagement between the text and the reader through such discovery, recovery,
and reconstruction informs this documentary edition; textual criticism is further informed by the
manuscript’s inherent historical data and biographical information. Notions of such textual
transportation from author to reader parallel the physical transportation of the manuscript from
England to Canada. Further guidance of my editorial principles is based in G. Thomas Tanselle’s
definition of how the editorial apparatus must act as a device which results in a “formal
presentation of a work’s textual history, with an emphasis on a list of variants … [A]
comprehensive apparatus allows a reader to reconstruct a work’s entire textual tradition” (Suarez
472). Therefore, my editorial apparatus is scaffolded by the understanding and transcription of
the manuscript, its complex physical and textual history characteristics, and the inclusion of such
details in the reconstruction of the text.
This scholarly edition of William Heath’s poetry is further and more ultimately defined
and catalogued as a documentary edition, one “that presents the text of one source document and
an apparatus recording editorial principles, variant readings, and the document’s history” (Suarez
675). In order to be qualified as a documentary edition, my work must include the text’s history,
provenance, and a biography of its author. Further, my transcription of Heath’s manuscript must
be considered diplomatic, an editorial designation which further delineates the scope of my
editorial decisions in that I have represented “as closely as possible, the actual layout and forms
of the document, including such features as abbreviations, punctuation, and capitalization”

27
(Suarez 1215). While scholarly editing is “the oldest scholarly activity in most cultures”
(Greetham, Scholarly Editing 3), this endeavour marks my first foray into the discipline. I am
aware of my status as a neophyte editor, particularly as I am the sole editor undertaking the
significant task of creating a documentary edition of a holographic manuscript as my first
editorial endeavour and so I proceed with prudence.
And so, my participation in Heath’s text as editor in the historical preparation,
interpretation, and presentation of Heath’s manuscript (Eggert 190) is an effort to bring this
heretofore unknown poet to academic light as well as to general readership interested in late
Victorian poetry. Such participation is most humbling. In editing such a text, I am required to be
“situated in a historical relation to the text’s transmissions” (McGann 18). The biography of
William Heath, along with the textual and literary criticism of his poetry, provides this vital
positioning and supports the construction of what I hope is a fulsome edition. Further, as I am
creating a documentary edition, I am obliged to “preserve [the] document’s evidentiary value”
and to “be cautious in my emendations” which has therefore limited my emendations to those
incidents in the text where there is incoherence (Suarez 675). Any such incidents of textual
incoherence are rare and related to Heath’s often puzzling style of script. These incidents are
explained in the accidental and substantive section of this discussion on my editorial apparatus,
or alternatively and based on exceptional occurrences of incoherence, in the editorial note
following the relevant poem. Further preservation of the document’s evidentiary value, as
suggested by Suarez, is found in the photographic facsimile as well as in the following
description of the manuscript’s physical characteristics.
Heath’s manuscript offers extensive opportunities for literary criticism, and this is
largely due to the diversity in poetic themes and the extensive historical and literary references.

28
However, there is an absolute absence of authorial explanatory notes in Heath’s manuscript. In
his discussion on editorial practice, Freedman illustrates that because of the absence of Heath’s
explanatory information, it is necessary for my apparatus to address potential gaps in a reader’s
conceivable comprehension:
While original authors occasionally provide explanatory information about the subject of
their discourse, more often they assume that their readers share with them the cultural
milieu, and they take for granted that the readers know a lot of things that, however, later
and different readers are usually ignorant of. So along with translation there must be
extensive explanation and elucidations. That means notes and comments. (29)
While much is known about fin de siècle Victorian literature, the study of working-class poetry is
currently expanding. And so, in the absence of Heath’s own knowledge and contribution on his
discourse, annotations in the section that presents Heath’s poetry provide relevant information on
forms, themes, personas, and unfamiliar language. Further, as an unpublished author it remains
unclear as to whether Heath had intended readers, and so it cannot be known what reader
knowledge Heath may have considered relevant or present when he wrote his poetry.
My editorial decisions are based on the desire to present the autographic manuscript in a
format that most closely resembles the original work where possible while bearing the
constraints of converting ink script to computerized text in mind and with the consideration that
no gain results from modernizing, and much is lost that is characteristic of the author.
One may safely say that nothing in the spelling, punctuation, capitalization, worddivision, or paragraphing of nineteenth-century books is likely to cause a presentday [sic]
reader any difficulty, whereas an attempt at modernization is certain to destroy a number
of the values of the original. (Bowers 223)

29
While Bower’s discussion on scholarly editions above is focused on nineteenth century
American authors, his rationale aligns with my editorial aspiration to maintain, as much as
possible, the characteristics of Heath’s manuscript. Further, Bowers is correct in his argument
that such textual characteristics do not exceedingly limit my ability to engage with Heath’s text.
One such example of variation in Heath’s spelling which did not diminish my ability to engage
with his text is found in his poem “Wandering. But not alone” (207) in which Heath writes
“From There thou.ll gaze in wraptured awe.” (emphasis mine line 21). Moreover, considerable
effort spent in transcription was needed to avoid the loss of the manuscript’s inimitable
characteristics through any modernization; such characteristics serve to connect text to author
and to position text in a specific historical context. Such painstaking transcription, an intense
visual and cerebral concentration on the script, allowed for my complete immersion into the text,
which in turn improved my access as the text’s editor.
In his essay on producing reliable electronic texts, Peter L. Shillingsburg underscores the
enormity of tasks required in the scholarly editing of a manuscript such as Heath’s which further
informs this documentary edition:
The study of genre, the author’s other works, biography, cultural history, the history of
ideas, all these are understood to extend our awareness of the contexts within which texts
create and convey meaning. Even the physical embodiments of texts, the books
themselves as paper, ink, and bindings, influence interpretations. (28)
Indeed, as a thing time worn which speaks to my love of such treasures, it is the physical
embodiment of the manuscript which was the seed of this thesis. The critical elements itemized
by Shillingsburg above have all been considered in my editorial apparatus, and as critical
elements to be included in this documentary edition. Regrettably, I have not found any other

30
literary works by Heath and so I am unable to include the study of the author’s other works, if
they even exist.
Further, in making my editorial decisions I follow the widely accepted principles and
conventions of the editing field as delineated by the “Modern Language Association’s Guidelines
for Editors of Scholarly Editions” (MLA.org) so that I may produce a reliable and appropriate
text, and one that accurately represents Heath’s manuscript. Because of the loss of Heath’s script
and the physical characteristics embedded in the manuscript during its transmission to my
electronic transcription, my staging of Heath’s text as a documentary edition is a “production
performance of the work, rather than a reproduction” (Shillingsburg 33). While I lament the loss
of these distinctive characteristics, it is not realistic to expect the retention of such elements.
However, Shillingsburg’s notion of performance is agreeable to my intent in the construction of
this edition, in that I desire the transmission of Heath’s poetry to an accessible format, and one
that can be experienced by both general and academic readers. It is because of the manuscript’s
reproduction here that its further performances are made possible, and this documentary edition
is perhaps one performance of the manuscript following many others. Ralph G. Williams
proposes that a literary work cannot have a fixed and stable existence, as “…every enunciation or
inscription, and every experience of a work is a performance, and is always by the very nature of
time and attention partial and evanescent” (51). And so, this particular performance is specific to
this time, and subject to my presentation of the text, and thus possesses its own characteristics
which will be transformed with future performances and further understandings of working-class
poets of the late nineteenth century, and that of William Heath’s poetry.
Despite a foundational editorial apparatus, I present the transcription of Heath’s poetry
being mindful of my own potential for hubris as Marcus Walsh reminds us that “Transcription

31
always involves change and error, as well as a conscious process of editing” (156). To minimize
such erroneous transcription and editorial decisions, further guidance on such decisions is
informed by the scholarly literature on editorial principles as indicated throughout this
description of my editorial apparatus. At its first conception, my intention for this editorial
undertaking was to provide an elegantly simple and thus broadly accessible transcription of
William Heath’s manuscript, with the audacious assumption that Heath may have desired to see
his literary work in print. It is my awareness of the absence of Heath as author and as contributor
to the publication process that predominately guides my editorial decisions towards both
conservation of the manuscript and reproduction of its text in an accessible and relevant format
while retaining as much of the manuscript’s textual characteristics as is possible.
In his essay on the evolution of editorial practice and its key contributors to the
discipline, Walsh points out that for two of textual criticism’s most authoritative academics W.
W. Greg and R. B. McKerrow “the editor seeks the author’s intended text, and is thus obliged to
‘exercise his judgement’ rather than fall back on ‘some arbitrary canon’” (160). Judgement in the
creation of this edition leans heavily toward the manuscript’s preservation, rather than arbitrary
editorial decisions which would alter the text. As I first considered the glaring absence of Heath,
a lack of knowledge of the purpose of his manuscript and its personal meaning, and how Heath’s
influence may have altered this documentary edition, my position was focused on any
discernable authorial intention evident in the manuscript. From this vantage point, I must further
deliberate on how an editorial approach which considers authorial intention remains contentious:
the editing of texts that are meant to represent or reconstruct an authorially intended
version has been criticized for idealism, and for working against the endemic nature of
textual instability. Such criticism, perceiving the creation of texts as fundamentally a

32
social action by collaborative forces in production--book designers, compositors and
printers, binders (and, according to some scholars, readers) --views the pursuit of
authorial intention as an ultimate impossibility, or just one factor among many. The most
extensive response to this general critique has been provided by Tanselle, who finds its
premises exaggerated, arguing that the pursuit of an author’s intention aims to discover
not a perfect and ahistorical ideal text, but rather a contingent contribution towards
understanding a work at one historical moment. (Suarez 494)
In consideration and acceptance of Tanselle’s critique, I allow myself the academic autonomy to
present here not the elusive ‘ideal text’ based on Heath’s manuscript, but rather a carefully
considered documentary edition, from this, the historical moment in which I have created this
edition in the absence of its author. Gary Taylor stresses that the “absence of the author-- a
discovery so revolutionary for postmodernist literary theory-- is, and has always been, the
foundation of editing” (125). This concept is clear in that any ‘present’ author would likely
desire to be involved in any production or representation of their work. I thus position Heath’s
absence as a natural progression in a text’s evolution, one which allows for continued textual
interpretation, presentation, and performance.
Authorial involvement is not possible here, which results in the text being represented in
my own understanding as editor. Ralph G. Williams argues that even if authorial intention cannot
be defined in a meaningful way, its pursuit still holds relevant literary value:
the fact that we cannot surely demonstrate that we can retrieve an author’s intent need not
drive us to the conclusion that it is uninteresting, illegitimate, and passé to interpret with
that criterion in view. We have protocols of considerable subtly for evaluating intent, and

33
that game seems not only a persistent cultural practice, but well worth the candle, where
we do not grow fierce and dogmatic about it. (60)
Therefore, my editorial apparatus must consider Heath’s absence, my possession of the
manuscript, and my scant knowledge of the author; but notably, my foundation is also built on
my consciousness of Heath’s elegantly modest manuscript, its literary value, and my desire to
replicate Heath’s poetry in a documentary edition. Indeed, as suggested by Williams above, I
consider this to be an editorial effort well worth the candle.
I keenly feel Heath’s absence and his inability to participate fully in the publication of his
work, particularly because I lack his textual insight and inspiration, as well as his permission to
participate in his text in this way. It is not my intention to circumvent Heath’s social influence in
any way, but in some ways, I must set the author aside in order to complete this documentary
edition in an effort to establish his poetry in the broad spectrum of Victorian fin de siècle
literature. In order to accomplish this goal, I adhere to an approach suggested by George
Bornstein in his discussion on editorial theory which supports my involvement in Heath’s text
and thus my editorial authority. Seeking and establishing editorial authority was crucial as Heath
is the unknown author of literature worth academic attention. Bornstein illustrates that the editor
should respect the original txt while allowing for my editorial prudence:
At the simplest level, an approach emphasising social construction seeks to displace the
absolute authority of the author over the text in favour of an authority more dispersed
among those who actually bring the text to its published form-- the author, certainly, but
also any collaborators, scribes, editors, designers, printers, or others involved in the
process of primary production and dissemination. (Bornstein 4)

34
So, as Bornstein suggests, my authority as editor does bring the text to its published form as part
of this documentary edition’s social and literary presence. Hans Walter Gabler suggests that in
order to be critical in my editorial practice, it is desirable that I consider and attempt to define
Heath’s intent: “Authorial intentions may be self-evident, or recognizable, or obscure, or
indeterminable. To observe and respect them always plays a significant role in the business of
critical editing” (211). I do not however intentionally displace the authority of Heath as author,
but rather I assert that the production of his manuscript as a documentary edition of poetry is an
evolution of its textual presence, from personal chronicle to publication; and thus, the edition
represents not only a performance of Heath’s literary effort, but also a continuation of its textual
existence through its performance. The resulting edition is thus a literary collaboration between
me, William Heath, and current and future readers.
As editor I provide a “diplomatic edition (i.e. a text faithfully transcribed from its
appearance in a particular document)” (Walsh 157) which allows for the manuscript’s
presentation, particularly with the inclusion of the photographic facsimile of the manuscript and
the correspondence found in it. Walsh’s suggestion that transcription be done with faith is apt;
my own transcription was a process of deliberation, consideration, and perseverance. Again, it is
my intention that Heath’s poetry be presented modestly, and with the same humble
characteristics imbued in the guileless manuscript, rather than with an imposition of capricious
decisions based on what might be limiting editorial conventions.
In my consideration of Heath’s conceivable authorial intentions, I have attempted to
establish “a collaboration between dead author and live editor. Editors literally inscribed
themselves into the reading text” (Eggert 202). I insert myself into Heath’s work deferentially
but with intention, aware of my lack of Heath’s permission to do so, but also in a literary

35
structure which offers extensive precedents that approve of my role as editor. Further, I do so in
the contentious debate regarding authorial intention endemic in academia:
A major predicate of the work of McKerrow, Greg, Bowers, and Tanselle is that the goal
of literary editorial enquiry is the text intended finally by the author. In an age where the
concept of authorial intention, or rather its knowability and reconstructability [sic], has
itself come under serious attack, this predicate has required sophisticated justification.
(Walsh 161)
My own such justification regarding authorial intention is centered on those editorial principles
which I have previously described and which aim to reproduce Heath’s text with few efforts
toward modernization, and few emendations or alterations, recognizing that the manuscript is a
document which is representative of the late Victorian era’s fascination with literature and
writing, and therefore, a historical document worthy of preservation.
My editorial apparatus also considers how my historical position is removed from that of
Heath’s own. Donald H. Reiman offers a critical comment on an appropriate editorial approach
and which delineates this temporal divide:
There are two basic ways for an editor to mediate between an author and readers from
another time and place: first, to modernize the text through emendations and, second, to
print the original text, either reproduced precisely (“diplomatically”) from a single
authoritative document or established critically from a variety of early authorities
(“witnesses”), and then to explain forms and usages that are unfamiliar to the readers
addressed. (309)
As previously discussed, I have made limited emendations in order to minimize modernization of
the text or make unnecessary alterations to its presentation in the manuscript. It is the second

36
approach recommended above by Reiman which I have employed, specifically that I have
endeavoured to print the original text diplomatically via photographic facsimile and a typescript
reproduction of the original text with precision. While my editing is predominately “diplomatic”
as defined above, efforts at such modernization are limited to the transcription of the manuscript
to an electronic version, then printed and published format with as few emendations as possible.
By reproducing Heath’s crossed out words, misspellings, and grammatical errors in the
documentary edition, I am retaining the manuscript’s identifying characteristics, and allowing for
the reading and interpretation of Heath’s text by future readers, thus involving them in the
societal, persistent, and vital role of the editorial process and a continuation of the manuscript’s
textual performance.
The material source (manuscript) of this edition is reproduced in facsimile format
(photographic record) as an integral part of this edition. The inclusion of the photographic
facsimile serves as an essential evidentiary artifact should further literary works or manuscripts
purportedly authored by William Heath be discovered in the future. Specifically, comparisons of
script, accidentals, and signature variants allow for authorial attribution. Shillingsburg suggests
that a photographic facsimile is a prudent and contemporary inclusion in this edition:
In fact, it is the integrity of rare and fragile materials that prompts many efforts to create
microfilms of texts. Video preservation gives at least a visual sense of originals, and
digital imaging can produce very high quality [sic] reproductions that are not susceptible
to textual error since the record is one of the physical appearance of texts… (37)
Further scholarly work on William Heath will be dependent on such visual and thus tangible
textual evidence; while I have attempted to accurately describe Heath’s script and accidentals, a
visual comparison of Heath’s manuscript, script, accidentals, and signature variants against

37
newly discovered literary work potentially by Heath would be essential to any assertion that the
authors are one and the same. Such an inclusion of photographic facsimile is relatively new in its
acceptance as an editorial standard: “in academia, there are frequent calls for a reliance upon
photographic facsimiles or electronic hypertexts instead of critical editions, and an even more
widespread disregard, even derision, of textual studies” (Taylor 122). While I fully support the
prudence of the photographic facsimile and have included it here in order to provide a thorough
document, I also endorse significant efforts toward textual criticism, including those which are
also included in this edition.

Accidentals and Substantives
Accidentals and substantives are “terms first used by Greg in his “Rationale of CopyText” to distinguish between two categories of textual expression” (Suarez 446). Accidentals,
those elements comprising Heath’s punctuation, spelling, word division, paragraphing, emphasis,
and poetic format have been retained in the documentary edition as they appear in the
manuscript. Greg provides a guiding definition of these two terms: “substantives (those…that
affect the author’s meaning, or the essence of his expression usually interpreted as the actual
words used) and accidentals (spelling, punctuation, word-division, and the like, affecting mainly
its formal presentation)” (Suarez 446). My assertion that any aspect of Heath’s text is relevant as
an accidental or substantive is dependant on both my reading of the text and the particulars of the
script. To this end, an accurate textual transcription was required first which would then allow
for the establishment of a particular word or phrase as possessing an accidental or substantive
element. Greetham provides guidance on the act of editorial reading: “a reading is viewed as
possible and/or plausible by invoking the rules of linguistic grammaticality derivable from the

38
intratextual [sic] evidence of the actual utterances, and [sic] replaced if this context renders the
reading inadmissible as a linear speech act” (292). I will address this notion of speech as a linear
act in my technique employed while reading for transcription later, as it warrants particular
attention but must follow the discussion of my editorial apparatus with regard to accidentals and
substantives.
Where an accidental is determined based on editorial interpretation and through
transcription, the decision is fully described in the annotation adjacent to that particular poem. In
his discussion of Greg’s copy-text theory, Tanselle posits a question particularly germane to my
own editorial approach to accidentals: “Is not the more reasonable approach, then, to presume,
until contrary evidence is adduced, that a manuscript reflects the author's intentions in
accidentals, rather than to begin with the presumption that it does not?” (Greg’s Theory of CopyText 226). Because there are occasions in the manuscript where Heath has drawn a line through
unwanted letters or words, it is Tanselle’s sensible basis that must inform my editorial decisions
in that my presumption is that the manuscript, including such accidentals, reflects the author’s
intention. In the absence of further authorial contribution or response, variant texts, proofs, or
any other version of the manuscript, I position the manuscript as Heath’s final intention, at least
until further evidence to the contrary should come to light. As Tanselle suggests, I have no
reason to presume otherwise.
There are several accidentals which, while they are not always present in every poem,
they are used often enough in Heath’s poetry to bear attention here. There are a few exceptional
accidentals which will not be included here; rather they are noted in the Editor’s Notes following
the pertinent poem as they warrant special attention best served in the context of the poem itself.
Generally, I have retained all accidentals as these textual events capture Heath’s inimitable style,

39
inform the historical context of the poetry, support the attribution of Heath’s authorship, and help
to define the literary significance of the manuscript. Further, the retention of all accidentals
provides for authorial association and textual comparisons should further literary works by
William Heath be discovered.
The manuscript presents a challenge regarding the replication of the spacing between
words, lines, and stanzas; I have attempted to replicate this spacing in my transcription as closely
as possible but such spacing does remain an approximation due to constraints in word processing
and the many variants in spacing in the manuscript. It is possible, at least in some instances, that
the spacing employed by Heath is intended as a caesura. For example, in “Thoughts on Seeing a
picture in Commional street” Heath may employ a caesura to emphasize the depth of feeling he
has for mothers: “A Mother’s Love

divine.” (line 48). Other spacing may simply indicate

occasions where the author replenished his ink, or where the author did not intend any particular
meaning with his spacing.
One punctuation mark variant warrants individual attention as its use is significant as it
affects poetic rhythm and because its use is prolific throughout Heath’s poetry; while the ends of
most lines of poetry are marked with an ink stroke, it is unclear whether the mark represents a
comma or a period. These ink marks made by Heath more closely resemble a period as there is
no descending tail dropping below the script line. There are occasions where a comma is
evidenced by its standard design, distinguished by the descending ink arc from the round ink
mark which then continues below the printed line. Given these distinctions, I have transcribed
relevant punctuation as being either a comma (as an ink mark indicated in the manuscript
possesses a descending tail) or as a period (as an ink mark indicated in the manuscript not
possessing a descending tail). This distinction is maintained despite grammatical forms which

40
may support either a comma or a period. As an accidental, this punctuation provides evidentiary
value in identifying Heath’s script. Further, the retention of such an accidental is in line with my
editorial position of avoiding arbitrary emendations. The size and shape of this punctuation mark
also varies; on rare occasions the comma’s descending arc line is larger than what is typically
used to form a comma.
Another common accidental is Heath’s grammatically erroneous and thus
interchangeable use of homophones. Such accidentals are evidenced in words such as ‘to’ and
‘too’. Heath often uses ‘too’ instead of the word ‘to’. Similarly, Heath uses the words ‘a’ and
‘an’ incorrectly according to accepted rules of grammar. Another such accidental is Heath’s use
of “has” when the word “as” would be grammatically appropriate, and yet another, is the
apparent misuse of the words ‘past’ and ‘passed’. If one approaches these accidentals from a
phonetics perspective, allowing for the potential regional accent that Heath may have had as a
result of having spent most of his life in Leeds, England, there may have been no spoken
difference between these words. In any case, these accidentals do little to diminish or
significantly alter the substantive nature of the poems, but they do support textual evidence
which confirms the text as Heath’s own work based on such accidentals, as well as his style of
script.
In my initial visual appraisal of the manuscript, I compared Heath’s script to the most
commonly used Copperplate cursive style used during the Victorian period; I found that the two
scripts bore little similarity:

41

Sample of Copperplate Script (A Modern Day Scribe)

42

Sample of William Heath’s Script
The decision of assigning a particular letter as being such in Heath’s text required the use of
careful logic and a critical and practiced eye after numerous readings of the script. My editorial
decisions regarding Heath’s script establish the poem’s meaning in a lasting way: “In practice,
however, editors frequently have to suspend judgement about what a particular ink squiggle in a
holograph manuscript ‘says’ if at first they cannot read it. Once they decipher it, its material
status as ink squiggle is immediately resigned for one of text” (Eggert 75). Therefore, I
exercised caution in transcription because of the permanence of such editorial interpretations.
Variations in the shape and style of a letter as well as variations in his use of ligatures between
letters required the judicious transcription process which is described as part of my editorial

43
apparatus. It must also be noted that not all letters posed such a challenge and were thus easily
transcribed; these letters contributed to the accurate reading of the written word as a unit.
Heath’s script of a lower case ‘t’ was determined based on the logical conclusion of its
use in commonly used words such as ‘at’, ‘the’, ‘to’ and ‘pilot’. The lower case ‘t’ is seen as a
characteristic straight up and down line with a small angle brush stroke up and forward to the
next letter, with a variation of the cross being formed in the standard level fashion. Further
determination of this letter as a lower case ‘t’ is based on its context in a line of poetry. The
poet’s script of a lower case ‘s’ is similarly deviant in that it is unlike the standard cursive ‘s’.
Heath’s lower case ‘s’ is seen as a slightly angled and upwardly turned stroke with a sharp
vertical downstroke. Heath’s lower case ‘s’ varies in the style of its uppermost portion in that it is
sometimes quite rounded, and at other times it is drawn with a sharp point. The poet’s lower case
‘s’ and lower case ‘r’ are often similarly scribed and are thus differentiated utilizing the same
approach as the lower case ‘t’ as outlined above, in addition to contextualization of the reading in
order to determine which letter is appropriate. Heath’s lower case ‘d’ presents in the incorrect
mirrored direction, thus appearing as a lower case ‘b’. Accidentals such as these were often
deciphered and subsequently determined based on phrases in Heath’s poetry such as “day and
night” which could not logically be transcribed as “bay and night”. This variety of accidental
determination through textual contextualization often informed transcription decisions.
The use of the apostrophe presents a further prevalent accidental; Heath often uses the
possessive “s” when the plural “s” without an apostrophe would be grammatically correct
according to convention. The apostrophe is sometimes written high on the printed manuscript
line, and at other times it is written at or below the line. In many abbreviations Heath employs a
large textual space between the word and a comma similarly placed on, above, or below the

44
printed line, perhaps employed in place of a grammatically required apostrophe mark. This mark
appears on the lower script line and appears to be more like a period than a comma due to the
lack of a descending ink arc. While many of Heath’s accidentals relate to grammatical rules and
are widespread throughout the manuscript, Heath’s accidentals also extend to spelling variants
and are limited in their occurrence.
Heath often uses the word “past” when the correctly spelled word would be “passed”, as
well as the word “belive” when “believe” would be the appropriate spelling. Similarly, Heath
spells the word “wrapped” as “wraped”, the word “secure” as “sequere”, and the word “tongue”
as “tounge”. Variations in spelling may be consistent with acceptable nineteenth century
variants, the result of the author’s own understanding through education or habit of how these
words were to be spelled, or simply spellings errors made in the intensity of composition. As
noted previously, words have been transcribed as they appear in the manuscript as part of my
editorial intent.
While it is not always the case, Heath sometimes spells “Angels” as “Angles”. The
Oxford English Dictionary does include the variation of the author’s often used spelling of angel
as angle. This variation’s etymology is traced to both Old French angele and angle, both with a
soft g (OED). Based on this information, my reading of the poem aloud took on an intensified
meaning; this alternate softer pronunciation of the word provides a deeper lyricism and
spirituality to the poetry. All variations in spelling have been retained in the transcription. I have
thus employed the original-spelling apparatus of textual criticism with the intention of
reproducing the source document accurately, in that I have avoided “silent alteration of spelling,
capitalization, italicization, and punctuations” (Suarez 987). Such alterations are in conflict with
my editorial intent to preserve the manuscript’s inherent characteristics as much as possible.

45
The autographic signatures of William Heath provided at the end of many of his poems
vary in form and content. In one such signature variation, Heath’s signature is distinguished as a
capitalized ‘W’ with a brisk, tight ligature to “Heath” resulting in the appearance which clearly
reads as ‘WHeath’. Unlike many signatures, each of the letters in William Heath’s various
signatures is easily transcribed which establishes each signed poem as his own work. Heath’s
signature often includes a bold, abbreviated brushstroke which forms an underline, but with more
space between the signature and the line that can be reproduced as an underline electronically in
a word document. Therefore, I refer readers to observe the signature in the photograph facsimile
contained herein as a more definitive approach of inspecting his signature. William Heath’s
signature often appears in a larger font than that of the poetry, and at an almost perpendicular
angle to the poem and the page’s outer edge. Only one of poems in the manuscript, entitled
“Round the Bivouac Fire,” is noted as “Copied” and this poem does not include a signature.
Another signature variant is seen as a capital ‘W’ linked to a lower-case m, or superscript, which
is written at the upper right-hand corner of the ‘W’, then followed by Heath. Yet another
signature variant is a ‘W’ followed by a small space and then a capitalized ‘Heath’, seen
following six more poems. This signature is presented horizontally on the lined page and is also
underlined. Yet another signature variant is found well into the manuscript following the poem
titled “Thoughts while looking at the sky July 12th, 1900” and is the sole variant of its kind;
placed horizontally on the page the signature has the addition of “composed by”, followed by the
traditional ‘W’ and ‘Heath’ which are ligatured. Heath’s poem “A letter to George Lawson” is
signed in full loose script as “William Heath”; eight other poems also include the author’s full
name in this style. Still another signature variant is found at the conclusion of “Thoughts after
Lead Kindly Light” which notes that this poem was “Written by Wm Heath after reading Lead

46
Kindly light October 27th, 1900” and which references the popular hymn of the same name.
There is then inconsistency regarding how William Heath asserts his authorship via variations in
his signature, as well as with the presence or absence of the date the poem may have been written
or the date when it may have been transcribed by the author into the manuscript. As most of the
poems do include a variant of a signature which is that of a William Heath or a W Heath, it is my
position that the manuscript contains the work of one author, and that the manuscript is an
autographic manuscript of one William Heath. My work is exclusively centered on this one
manuscript; it is yet unknown if there are other literary works by William Heath, either published
or in a manuscript form.
In bringing a yet unknown poet to academic light, I am particularly keen on the
substantives in Heath’s poetry, as the elements affecting Heath’s meaning are rife with literary
possibilities, and like his script, further serve to attribute the manuscript to him as its author. One
significant substantive is Heath’s use of hymnal lines in his poetry. Such inclusion should not be
considered plagiarism; Heath’s lifelong immersion in religious themes and practice largely
imbedded this hymnal vernacular in his psyche and thus into his expression of feeling in poetry.
Further, it can be argued that the use of hymns is intended to enable a fulsome reflection by
Heath, rather than a deceitful exploitation of the literary work of another. One such example is
evidenced in Heath’s poem “Mother’s Songs” where line 47 reads “Lead kindly light amid the
Encircling gloom” which is identical, expect for the punctuation, to the opening line of John
Henry Newman’s hymn “Lead Kindly Light” which reads “Lead, Kindly Light, amid the
encircling gloom” (hymnary.org). As this line is singular and set apart from the previous and the
following stanza, it is arguable that such positioning may amount to Heath’s version of a citation
and thus his acknowledgement of the source of his poetic muse. Heath’s use of hymnal verse

47
lines is minimal and limited to a very few poems, and as such, can be defined as a substantive
which lends meaning in that it draws the connection between Heath and the religious influences
he experienced in Victorian England.
A description of unique substantives is included in the editor’s notes adjacent to the poem
in which they occur as they are best understood within the wider context of the relevant poem. I
have explored some of the substantive meanings held in some of Heath’s poems; as discussed
previously, a close reading and exhaustive analysis of the entire manuscript is beyond the scope
of this edition. Heath’s manuscript does contain several apparent amendments made by the
author which are evidenced as letters and/or words that have a line drawn through them with an
alternative word then provided in the same script either above or below the discarded word; this
indicates that Heath may have reviewed his writing making changes based on wording or his
belief that the word was incorrectly spelled or applied in an erroneous context. For example, in
line fifteen of “Grand Lad” Heath crosses out “wh” and then writes “went”; given the context of
the line, the word “went” is grammatically and narratively logical which suggests that Heath
recognizes that he began to spell the word ‘went’ incorrectly and made a subsequent correction.
Consequently, it can be argued that when words are misspelled according to contemporary
spelling rules, or when words are employed grammatically incorrectly, and they are not crossed
out by the author, that either Heath did not observe the error, or that he did not believe that he
had made an error in spelling or grammar.
As my editorial perspective is intended to represent and impart the author’s work
accurately and is traditionalist, I have kept my intrusion into the text as minimal as possible to
present the text’s particular meanings. As this manuscript is the only known version of the
poetry, its status as William Heath’s extant manuscript is established, and so has “paramount

48
authority” (Bowers 226). Further, I offer editorial notes adjacent to literary or historically
significant poems in addition to the photographic facsimile, and in so doing combine the editorial
approaches as outlined by Tanselle: “The first approach results in a photographic or other
facsimile or in literal diplomatic transcriptions, the second in what are generally called “critical”
editions (because their texts are the products of the critical judgment of editors)” (17). I thus
offer what I am confident is a fulsome representation of the manuscript of poetry by William
Heath, a judiciously considered and accurate transcription of his poetry. Such an approach is
germane: “Ideological factors…. have in the past three decades strongly pushed editors of
nineteenth-century prose toward reproducing the original text and annotating it” (Reiman 308).
This approach is in line with my editorial aspiration to avoid significant alterations in my
transmission of the original text and to produce my reproduction and performance of the text as
meticulously as possible.

Sources and Orientations
As the manuscript in my possession is the only currently known version of Heath’s
text and thus the solely accessible document containing Heath’s poetry, it serves as the
authoritative text upon which this documentary edition is constructed. Therefore, the source
material for this documentary edition of poetry by the long-deceased William Heath is textually
limited to the rapidly decaying autographic manuscript which is dated between 1898 and 1903,
along with the unattached paper documents found in the manuscript. As such, Heath’s
manuscript presents a textual artifact which exists in a precarious and mutable state. My creation
of this documentary edition is a transmission of his text. In his essay “I Shall Be Spoken: Textual

49
Boundaries, Authors, and Intent” Ralph G. Williams suggests the value in textual transmission
due to the instability inherent in a text such as Heath’s:
The surface of a work is not stable: it changes, “ages” in complex ways in accordance
with its materials and the conditions in which it finds itself. This fact has profound
implications for how one responds to a work; the patina or smudge, and the damages that
come with the years remind us of our distance from the artist and culture that created it,
even without considering the matter of historical styles. (Williams 53)
Indeed, it is in the manuscript’s deterioration and graphic characteristics that, as editor, I seek to
establish its identity, particularly its “patina”. Further, my editorial response to the work is in
part due to what Williams describes above as the distance between myself and Heath, as well as
the Victorian era. As a handwritten manuscript likely composed at the Victorian era’s
conclusion, it may be representative of “the lucubration’s of many humbler authors who sought
no audience beyond immediate friends and family, or whose themes were unacceptable to the
press” (Love 115). It may be that my reading of the text, and my subsequent transcription, is the
first time a reader has immersed themselves in the text in such an extended and meaningful
manner. In other words, this is Heath’s text most recent performance, but certainly not its last as
it now reaches out to a wider audience via this documentary edition.
A painstaking transcription of the entire manuscript over the course of many days was
followed by a second equally systematic transcription over a year removed from the date of the
primary effort. My intention with this temporal gap was to minimize remembered influences or
decisions made during the first transcription having an impact on the second transcription. The
transcription is the result of an effort to complete an accurate reading of the author’s challenging
script, including the poet’s inconsistent use of ligatures, spelling, and grammar. Research was

50
required when a word was unknown to me; often these words were linked either to participants
in the Boer War, religious figures, or musical terms. It was a significant challenge to transcribe
Heath’s handwriting; the faded script was foreign to me and deterioration of the manuscript
made the task arduous. Following this first laborious transcription, I conducted a second
transcription, this time reviewing the entire manuscript and then comparing against the
preliminary transcribed version to ensure accuracy as well as to solidify editorial choices made in
transcription. During this second transcription effort, I made further explanatory annotations
which supported my editorial decisions. Again, the primary aim in transcription is to retain the
authenticity and originality of the manuscript, with consideration of the author’s time and place.
Because this documentary edition is constructed from the one source document, the work
is rare in that most scholarly editing “depends usually upon different versions of published texts,
often including author’s manuscripts of works that were eventually published; almost never do
they center on manuscripts of works not published in any form” (Bornstein 171). While this
explanation suggests that my work is somewhat unique, this approach is based on the reasonable
assumption that this manuscript has not in fact been published or that it exists in any other form,
and as such, is the only source document. Other poetry by William Heath has not been found in
common literary databases or periodical archives. Further, there is no indication in the
manuscript that the work was published, or that it was prepared for publication. Based on the
lack of evidence indicating any previously published literary work by William Heath, I further
orientate my editorial perspective as one that would explore an autographic manuscript by an
unknown author in the absence of other texts.
As previously discussed, I captured a photographic facsimile record of the manuscript as
well as its textual contents which are included in this documentary editions. The transcription

51
process of Heath’s text was labour intensive with many subsequent readings, repeated attempts at
transcription and research forays to solidify my textual interpretation which were often due to
incoherence embedded in the unusual script. In this digital age, it is a rare occasion to read
handwritten script; I found that I was woefully unpracticed in the skill. To this end, reading the
text was conducted with prodigious attention. I have edited guardedly to maintain the
manuscript’s authenticity: “The most conservative editorial approach to the problem of
manuscript punctuation and word-division is, of course, to reproduce all the characteristics of the
copy-text, no matter how inconsistent they may be” (Greetham 224). The conservative editorial
approach I have employed here results in what I assert is an authentic presentation of the
reproduced text.
One such characteristic of the text is the unique script style; deciphering and then
transcribing many of Heath’s written words required disassembling the words into individual
letters, determining the identity of these individual letters, and then reassembling these letters
into words. Many words are exceedingly difficult to transcribe due Heath’s particular script, and
so transcription required numerous readings, finding clarity from the poem’s narrative and
through the process of comparing difficult letters to those in known words. Heath employed a
four-line script, with minuscules often possessing both ascenders and descenders (Greetham
171). Some of the letters can be easily deduced according to their shape which resemble both our
modern script, the Copperplate script commonly used in Heath’s time, and/or by the logical order
of letters in common and often used words such as “the” and “God”. However, there are many
words which require painstaking analysis to ascertain what the author intended. This proved to
be exceptionally difficult at times until I happened upon a most fruitful method of transcription,
admittedly by chance.

52
By reading the poems aloud repeatedly, I came to have a more natural understanding of
what was written without having to struggle or hazard guesses to determine the exact
interpretation of a section of script because of the poet’s rhythm and rhyme when heard aloud.
Words that were at first unclear came to make perfect sense, so much so that I questioned how I
could not have made out the word at my first reading. This initial happenstance success resulted
in the establishment of a uniform editorial practice; my method of transcription was to read a
stanza or four-line section aloud several times. This followed a broad reading of the entire poem
during which I ascertained an overarching theme or sentiment which would often suggest, by
logic, what a word may be, and during which I noted problematic areas of transcription. For
example, if the poem spoke of seafaring, I could logically conclude a word such as “pilot” or
“wave”. I then used this method for all poems to ensure accuracy and which emphasized that this
method was valid whenever the author’s penmanship was such that I could not decipher a word
or group of words. Rather than stop or pause at a troublesome section which could not easily be
transcribed, I simply flowed past it in my reading, continuing to the next word that I could read
easily, and then performed subsequent readings until an accurate transcription could be achieved.
After reading a stanza or section aloud several times, and establishing a rhythm and flow of
words, the indecipherable word would suddenly appear in perfect clarity, and could then be
transcribed. For example, in Heath’s poem “The Harbour is found” (114), I initially could not
decipher line 61. On my initial readings and based on the text as it first appeared to my eye and
thus my mind, I transcribed the line as “Ah man, ah now, ah might I’m thine” which seemed
somewhat nonsensical in the narrative. After several readings utilizing the transcription
technique described previously, and by examining the section in the larger context of the poem, I
then correctly transcribed as “At morn, at noon, at night I’m thine”. Using this process of reading

53
aloud for clarity was invaluable to the transcription process as I was then able to hear and “see”
as well as lucidly read and thus transcribe what Heath had written.
While some poetic personas, antiquated words, or historically or religiously themed
words in the poems were unknown to me, and Heath’s spelling, punctuation, and script were
often atypical, these issues were not so difficult that the destruction of the text through
modernization and excessive emendation was warranted. In other words, modernization of the
text as seen in the manuscript might significantly alter the character, meaning or reading of the
poetry rather than improve the reader’s ability to access the text. Therefore, such modernization
seemed unwarranted and superfluous. Further, my editorial decision to avoid such modernization
is in alignment with Greetham’s assertion that “all facets of a book’s history and presentation and
reception are ultimately connected” (294) and thus facets are worthy of preservation and
exploration.
Just as an autographic manuscript with variant spellings and scripts establishes it as part
of literary history, the manuscript’s journey from Leeds, England, to British Columbia, Canada,
and its physical presentation further cement its link as a physical object and a part of Canadian
immigration history. To this end, I have endeavoured to capture the manuscript’s specific and
intrinsic details and their nuances. Further, by establishing a biography of the author, I have
connected the manuscript’s history and provenance to its textual presentation and positioned its
current literary reception in the twenty-first century.
In this documentary edition, the poems are presented in the order in which they appear in
Heath’s manuscript in an effort to replicate the manuscript and depict and preserve the intention
of the author. Eggert submits that “Poets typically concern themselves with the ordering of
poems in their published collections. They try to anticipate and guide the experience of their

54
readers, often ensuring thematic clusters” (198). While this edition is based on an autographic
manuscript rather than a published collection, the poetry’s order remains relevant as it was
determined by its author, William Heath. As such authorial concern about page order and visual
presentation indicates authorial intent, I have maintained the page order as presented in Heath’s
manuscript as recognition and acceptance of such intent.
The poems do not seem to be ordered to establish any thematic groups or to establish a
wider narrative. Rather, the poem’s order takes the reader through a variety of poetic genres,
themes, and moods. This array allows the reader an emotional reprieve at times, as light verse is
often placed between intense poems of mourning or remembrance. Given that the manuscript
holds few authorial corrections, and no marginalia or authorial notes, it may be that Heath’s
manuscript represents his finished literary product, perhaps ready for consumption or perhaps
even publication. Heath offers an albeit nebulous indication that his poems may one day be read
in his poem titled “Thoughts of the Past” (169) in which he writes: “If som young man should
read my words / That I now sit and write” (lines 45-48). However, it cannot be known if Heath’s
manuscript was intended for print, publication, sharing amongst family, or for Heath’s own
personal enjoyment. Regardless of these unknowns, it is appropriate to retain the poem’s order in
my transcription as this replicates the manuscript most accurately. Further, I have endeavoured to
convey in my transcription the poet’s placement on the page of each word and stanza, textual
spacing, as well as signatures and dates when these have been included by the author. These
efforts speak to my editorial commitment to seeking and incorporating elements of authorial
intent when possible.
The numerous documents found in the manuscript not bound by its frayed page bindings
are included in the appendix of this edition as an integral component of the edition’s source and

55
orientation, in the form of photographic facsimile. Those documents which are poems have also
been transcribed following the same process as the poems in the manuscript. These documents
contribute to the attribution of Heath as the manuscript’s author and contribute to the
biographical and historical information regarding the manuscript, including its provenance. The
poems follow similar poetic conventions, themes, and genres as evidenced in the bound
manuscript. All words, markings, and signatures found in these loosely held documents have
been replicated where possible in the electronic transcription.
The manuscript contains several dates which Heath included at the end of several of the
poems. In accordance with Greetham’s guidelines on textual criticism I have included these as
they are presented as a documentary edition should include, wherever possible, “the probable
date and place of writing, followed by the general style of script, with specific indicators
(characteristic letter-forms especially). Any idiosyncrasies or changes in the hand are to be
noted” (154). While not all poems include a date, pages which are dated and held fixed in place
by the manuscript’s binding typically appear in chronological order. While most of the poems are
dated May through October of 1900, there are several notable exceptions to this chronology.
First, toward the end of the manuscript a poem titled “Oh it is cold” (221) is dated December
1898, over two years prior to the first dated poem in the manuscript. Secondly, a few of the final
poems of the manuscript are dated March 18, 1901 and finally January 18, 1903. It is curious that
Heath did not begin recording a date, in this case May 21, 1900, until the nineteenth poem found
in the manuscript which is titled “Sacramental Service”. The penultimate poem “What Christ sat
on” (231) is dated January 18th, 1903.
I cannot be certain that the dates are indicative of the first conceptualization of each poem
as well as its appearance in the manuscript, or if the dates mark the inclusion of previously

56
written poetry in this manuscript. There are some scenarios which come to mind regarding the
lack of a date for many of the poems, specifically the first thirteen. First, that the author penned
the poems over an unknown period, perhaps during much of his adult life, and then in 1900 saw
some value in transcribing these poems into this single hard back paper workbook. As he filled
the pages, he may have written new poems to which he added the date on which they were
written. Conversely, it is also possible that the poet wrote all the poems on various dates and did
not transcribe them into the workbook until after the last poem was written in 1903. Some of the
poems are dated in a very short time frame, with several poems written one day after another.
Given this condensed time frame for such a significant volume of work, and the observable fact
that most of the poems do not have any corrections, it may be that the manuscript was intended
to be a final edition and represents Heath’s own transcription of his collected poems into this one
volume. Because there are few corrections and an absence of authorial marginalia, this
assumption may be the most likely. However, these scenarios are my own invention and remain
as a hypothesis which remains to be proven or disproven.
The final poem contained in the bound manuscript does not include a date, and there is
physical evidence which suggests that several pages of the manuscript may have been either torn
away, or due to the manuscript’s deterioration came away from the binding and have since been
lost. Further, an explicit or “closing remarks at the end of a manuscript” (Greetham 50) is not
present, but this may also have been either torn away or lost to the ravages of time. Just as the
manuscript opens rather unceremoniously and without preamble or introduction, so too does it
draw to a close without an explicit. Such simplicity must be assigned as a significant
characteristic of the author William Heath.

57
The several loose documents which were included in the manuscript and are here
presented in the appendices as photograph facsimiles, are not dated save for the four pages of
“The Leeds Mercury” newspaper which is a special supplement printed on March 9th, 1901. This
supplement is the newspaper’s own reprint from Saturday March 7th, 1801 (Appendix M).
Neither the significance of the original printing date nor the reprint date can be determined based
on the paper’s content. It remains unclear as to how the newspaper may relate to William Heath
or his poetry despite a thorough inspection of the paper’s articles and advertisements. Another
loose document is a handwritten note (Appendix J) which praises the virtues of William Heath,
and bids him good fortune as he “sails for Canada’s shore”. This note does not appear to be in the
hand of William Heath as it does not bear any of the characteristic script styles found in the
bound manuscript. As the note is signed by one “A. Platelayer”, I initially assumed this to be an
individual’s name which my research might reveal as someone biographically or historically
significant. However, research reveals that “Platelayer” more likely refers to a term “used in
Britain for the men who laid and maintained the ‘plateways’ that were primarily used for coal
haulage in the early 19th century” (my emphasis, Platelayers.org par 1). Given Heath’s own
occupation in the railroad industry, it is likely there that this personal connection was made, and
which stimulated the play on words found in the note. While undoubtedly written by a caring
friend based on the note’s sentiments, the signature is arguably a manufactured aptronym.
Yet another handwritten note (Appendix L), also not in Heath’s hand, indicates that the
manuscript was shared with others on at least one occasion, in this instance as an offering of
comfort, and which also offers the literary critique of “the lines are good”. While this note
includes the names “Mrs. Farewell” and “Lura”, it is unsigned and undated. The name Farewell
may also be an aptronym, based on Heath’s immigration to Canada and thus a play on ‘farewell’.

58
A blank sheet of lined paper (Appendix O) is also found in the manuscript, but it is not the same
paper as the manuscript as it contains the watermark of a crown topping the words Imperial
Strong 1111. The corner fragment (Appendix P) of the final pages of the manuscript is also
found in its covers, allowing for further transcription of the final stanza of the poem “What I’d
like to hear” (233). Five poems on unlined blank paper, assessed by me as being in the same
hand as those in the manuscript as they present with similar script characteristics and accidentals,
are presented in Appendices Q through to U. Three of these poems are signed by a W. Heath, one
is signed by W. H. and the poem “Do-Ray-Me” does not contain a signature. Both the absence of
the signature and the variations in signature style mirror these variations seen in the manuscript.
These documents are not dated.
Of the poems which are on loose paper, “Hymn 457 Tennyson’s Sunset,” “Musing,” and
“I’m an ignorant man” follow similar thematic veins, such as moral spirituality and introspection,
to the poems found in the bound manuscript. Conversely, the poem “Mount Cheam” was likely
written when Heath lived in Canada, and more specifically, during the time he resided in
Chilliwack, British Columbia, which was toward the end of his life. Mount Cheam is found in
the eastern portion of the Fraser Valley in the North Cascade mountain range and offers
spectacular views from its heights (Vancouver Trails) and is thus in geographic proximity to
Chilliwack. Despite this unique link to Heath’s life in Canada unseen in his other works, this
poem also follows the same sentiments of much of his work, as it speaks of God’s artistry in
nature and His profound mystery. There is also a typed untitled poem (Appendix N) on yet
another style of blank paper signed “Yours respectfully, SILENCE”. This poem follows similar
thematic elements such as pilots and flowers as seen in the bound manuscript. The final loose
document (Appendix K) is another hand-written note celebrating an unknown individual’s

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birthday. The script appears laboured in that the letters are poorly formed with numerous points
where the script can be described as tremulous, and therefore its transcription is difficult. It too is
unsigned and undated, and it does not appear to be in Heath’s hand.
I assert that the manuscript is in the hand of a sole author, William Heath, and can be
considered his autographic manuscript. It is unlikely that the individual claiming to be William
Heath would sign his name to another person’s work; such a deceitful act would be out of step
with the content of the poems and the notes and letters regarding William Heath which are found
in the manuscript which establish him as an ethical, moral and respectful man.

Physical Form and Appearance of the Manuscript
My examination of the manuscript falls in codicology, the “study of manuscripts as
artifacts, as material objects carrying a text” (Greetham, Textual Scholarship 6). To that end, I
handled the manuscript as such an artifact: minimally and with delicacy while still meeting the
expected and required acute and detailed inspection. When handling the manuscript, I wore
cotton gloves to avoid further damaging the pages and laid it flat on an even surface to avoid
torque and tension on the already failing binding and pages. As an artifact, the manuscript
establishes its physical literary presence, specifically in that “as an object made of paper used for
writing, a manuscript bears witness to a hidden part of the genetic accomplishment: it shows the
hard work required, in its material heaviness” (Bustarret 16-17). Thus, Heath’s manuscript is
much more than the physical aspect of a textual product as it also forms a social, historical, and
literary identity, and one which has now been transmitted from autographic manuscript to
documentary edition.

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As a material literary object, the manuscript also exists as a representation of both the
writer’s considerable personal effort as well as the text’s historical and social evolutions in that it
represents a working-class Victorian experience which is now positioned in current academic
study. Further, my initial and continued fascination with the manuscript as an artifact is also
supported by current editorial approaches as outlined by Tanselle as he references the
scholarship of D. F. McKenzie: “the sociology of the text [which] emphasizes typography,
format, and other physical characteristics of the presentation of texts, which he sees not only as
part of the social context of a work but also often as part of what the author intended” (27).
While the manuscript is clearly much more than the tangible identity and sum of its pages, a
complete editorial approach necessitates a discussion on its physicality, form, and appearance.
The collation of the manuscript, including the “statement of format, the statement of
gatherings, the statement of signings, foliation, and pagination” (Greetham, Textual Scholarship
161) also includes the physical form of the manuscript and that of the assorted documents found
in the manuscript. The manuscript itself, in the absence of Heath’s poetry inscribed in ink, is a
blank book consisting of a firm front and back cover with the manufactured print limited to fine
light blue lines on its bound pages. There are no page number markings made, either at time of
construction nor added by William Heath.
At over 117 years old, the manuscript is currently in extremely poor physical condition.
The front and back “boards” (Suarez 539) or covers are made from a pressed paper material, akin
to a firm cardboard. There is no evidence of the manuscript being a palimpsest, described as
“documents containing two texts, one superscribed (sic) over erased earlier text” (Greetham 53).
Each page presents as only containing the single poem which is clearly evidenced by each
poem’s ink markings and the absence on any of the pages of any visible traces of earlier works.

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By carefully holding a random selection of pages to a bright light, I confirmed the absence of any
previously inscribed text beyond what is visible as Heath’s text. However, the script has faded
dramatically even over the decade it has been in my possession.
Water stains and some blistering of the ‘boards’ forming the text’s covers are clear on the
inside front cover. If the exterior portion of the cover included manufacturer or decorative
markings at one time, they are no longer visible to the naked eye. At construction, the
manuscript’s exterior cover was likely a dark green in colour, but it is now faded with both beige
and green colours mottled together. There is a black outer fabric-like binding situated on the left
of the manuscript, approximately one quarter inch in width and wrapping from the front to back
cover in a solid vertical line which still holds the manuscript together but just; the interior of the
manuscript reveals that most of the pages are separating from its failing binder. Four bands of
beige tape were added at some point in an effort to bolster the manuscript’s binding. This tape is
deteriorating into long, loose, strings which are light beige in colour and which have a straw-like
and waxy feel to them.
The dimensions of the manuscript are as follows: width: 7.5 inches, height 12.75 inches,
and a thickness of 0.75 inches. The manuscript contains an inscription on the interior of the front
board, consisting of William Heath’s name and a residential address. The incipit or “first words
of text” (Greetham 154) will be considered as “Sunday Schools” as there is no apparent
introduction or forward to the manuscript. The seventy-two pages of the manuscript are a light
beige in colour, with horizontal fine blue lines marking each quarter inch of page, upon which
Heath has written his poetry. The page edges are brittle, and in many places portions of the page
edges have broken away. In many places, there appears to be some type of staining which gives
the page a translucent unctuous appearance.

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There is a near complete separation of the front and back boards from the rest of the
manuscript; the black ribbon outer binding and several of its strings are all that attach the two
boards to the rest of the manuscript. Further, if the front cover is held horizontally and parallel to
the manuscript pages below, such that the fabric black binding is taut, a gap appears indicating
that a significant number of pages may be missing. Given this gap, it is entirely possible that
there are pages missing, and therefore the existence of additional poetry, from the front of the
manuscript. The manuscript does not include an index or a table of contents of any kind, and it
must be considered that its “present state may possibly reflect a selective disposition adopted by
the author in consideration of the posterity of his or her work” (Bustarret 18). There appears to
be several pages missing from the end of the manuscript; this assertion is made not only because
of the separation of the binding from the back cover, but also because of the torn final page and
poem fragment. These missing pages may be due to the deterioration of the manuscript, or
because they were physically removed from the binding.
The manuscript has spent approximately the previous fifty years in dark and dry storage,
but without any supportive or protective enclosure, and without any efforts to control humidity.
To my knowledge, the manuscript has never been afforded any appropriate preservation
techniques. It is unclear at what point, or by whom, the tape was added to support the binding,
but it does not appear to be part of the original manuscript. The iron gall ink has, in many places,
taken on a pencil lead like colour. I refer to the writing in the manuscript as being in Heath’s
“hand” and his hand alone, and that his “script” is distinctive (Greetham 172). Heath uses what
might be his own interpretation of copperplate, “a style of calligraphic script of rounded, cursive
letters” (Suarez 639). However, there are inconsistencies in Heath’s script, suggesting that as a
cursive script it lacks some of the “primary concern for clarity and regularity of shape of

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individual letterforms” (Suarez 652). Heath is inconsistent in his height of capital line, defined as
that “imaginary line defining the height of the capitals in a fount” (Suarez 586). To Heath’s
credit, he used a steady and evenly weighted hand; the transcription of the text was challenging
due to the overall and generalized fading of the script, but it does not appear that there were areas
where complete letters or words were absent due to failing ink. While I care for the manuscript
as best I can in my home, I fear it that it will one day be illegible. I consider myself a conservator
of this now decaying and fragile document, and so I present for publication a work without
significant or intentional alterations which aims to preserve through reproduction the original
manuscript with all the meaningful characteristics attributable to its author, William Heath.

Construction and Representation of the Documentary Edition of the Manuscript
I am ever mindful that it is my privilege not my right to share the literary work of
William Heath. The retention of the unique characteristics of the manuscript is important; it is
not my poetry and so it is not mine to alter in any arbitrary way. However, I am mindful of the
fact that “each technology thus carries with it the possibility of determined or accidental
variation…. every act of copying introduces new errors” (Greetham 289). While I have made
carefully considered editorial decisions, every decision was made with an eye toward
preservation and authenticity; determined variations have been avoided and I hope that
accidental variations are few.
The inclusion of the photographic facsimile is intended to accurately represent the
author’s penmanship, his signature variations, as well as characteristics unique to his hand. This
effort will ensure that if further autographic manuscripts are unearthed, and may be attributed to
this William Heath, that a means of verification via penmanship and signature may be afforded.

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Further, this facsimile anticipates the eventual decay of the original manuscript while bearing in
mind that “There can be no substitutes for the originals, of course, because every physical detail
of the original documents is potentially relevant for interpreting the texts they contain.”
(Greetham, Scholarly Editing 18). Gabler provides further justification on the inclusion of a
photographic record of the manuscript in the documentary edition: “Wherever the text, under the
double control of the conventions of writing and of language, is unambiguous, the copy is wholly
adequate as a control document to verify it” (214). Therefore, the facsimile record also serves as
an additional point of access to Heath’s text, critical for any future scholarship regarding William
Heath’s poetry. The manuscript now remains in dry, dark storage in an effort to decelerate its
decay.
Heath’s script is distinctive in that it does not conform to the Copperplate style which
was popular, but such deviation is not unexpected as the script of nineteenth-century writers was
often “scrawled in a highly idiosyncratic hand without any pretensions to calligraphic style”
(Greetham 213). The absence of heavily adorned script and the lack of illustration, introduction,
or explicit in the manuscript all support this lack of pretension in Heath’s poetry. Greetham
provides a description for script like Heath’s, in that his often-illegible script is that of a “free
script” as opposed to a “set” or careful calligraphic style (171). The script provides insight into
how Heath may or may not have intended to share his manuscript:
If a text has been written for private, commercial, or other quotidian activities, the scripts
usually encourage a faster, more economical style, with much joining of letters, so that
the pen did not have to be lifted from the writing material more often than would be
necessary to refill it with ink. (Greetham 171)

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Many of the pages in the manuscript are fully utilized, while others have large blank sections.
Heath’s script is decidedly economical, which suggests that the manuscript may have been
intended to be a private journal of his own literary works rather than a document to be shared
widely or for publication.
While I have photographed the entire manuscript and all its contents, the purpose of this
endeavour was not only to create a reproduction from which to conduct my work so that further
damage from handling the manuscript could be avoided. Rather, my intention was primarily to
capture a visual record of the work for preservation. Greetham describes the value of such a
visual record:
the most important type of non-critical edition is one which seeks to present a faithful
version of a single document, with only minimal textual involvement by the editor. The
most faithful of all (at least theoretically) is the photographic reprint, which presents a
technically exact-- and, one trusts, unaltered and unretouched--facsimile of the original.
This type of edition is for obvious reasons most commonly associated with manuscripts,
where the scribal idiosyncrasies of, for example, abbreviation marks, letter- and wordspacing, letter-formation and relative letter-size could perhaps not be accurately
displayed in a type-setting. (349)
Further, this photographic record serves to preserve the manuscript for authentication and
reference, specifically the various signatures of the author as well as the intricacies and unique
characteristics of Heath’s penmanship and script style. While my transcription serves as a
reproduction of the text, the photographic record provides an additional layer of evidence:
“Modern photographic and photo reprint reproduction retains the textual record not as a
transliteration, but as an image of the original inscription” (Gabler 214). I cautiously conducted

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my work from the original manuscript to ensure that the photographic process did not alter,
diminish, or invent any interfering marks. Further, as Greetham rightly argues,
it should go without saying that, especially in manuscript facsimiles, the photocopy
should not be accepted as if it were the original. The facsimile fulfils a valid purpose
(esthetic, historical, even scholarly), but it is no substitute for the examination of the
manuscript itself, especially where this manuscript is to be the chosen copy-text for a
scholarly edition. (350)
Greetham’s emphasis on the value of my own study of the manuscript despite its fragility has
been considered and employed in my editorial practice. As this documentary edition serves as a
foundational text for future study of Heath’s literature, such scrutiny of the manuscript was vital.
Study and use of the original manuscript occurred over several months, for three distinct
purposes: to create a photographic record of the manuscript, to transcribe the manuscript into a
word document, and to repeat the transcription process to ensure accuracy in the first
transcription.

Verbal Composition of the Text
My efforts are to preserve the author’s accidentals as well as substantives and to avoid
any changes, intentional or accidental. As much as possible, the accidentals present in the
autographic manuscript have been replicated in the typed version, along with a description of
them, in order to fully capture their intricacies. As part of the transcription process, I have not
changed the spelling or punctuation of any part of the text; rather than altering the spelling or
publication in an effort to bring these into conformity with modern current standards of
orthography, the existing spelling and punctuation have been preserved as being distinct to the

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standards at the time, and of the author’s own intention. This is to retain the authenticity of the
author’s work, and to preserve any spelling and punctuation practices that may have formed
Heath’s formal or informal education.
Heath’s use of capitalization is prolific, and it is difficult to ascertain his criteria for
marking a word with a capital as it goes beyond the standard and contemporary rules of
capitalization. Further, while it is often traditional in poetry to capitalize the first word of each
line, Heath does not follow such a convention. Heath often capitalizes where appropriate
according to standard capitalization rules, such as days of the week, proper names, titles of
hymns, and place names. He is consistent in his capitalization of Heaven, and religious figures
such as God and Jesus. Going beyond these commonly accepted rules, Heath uses capitals when
writing of the notable or thematic elements of each poem. However, Heath’s inconsistent
capitalization is not unusual when one considers that “punctuation remains arbitrary and
idiosyncratic until the eighteenth, or even the nineteenth century, and there are still local or
national variants, with British to American usage” (Greetham 223). As with accidentals, I have
consistently retained Heath’s use of capitalization throughout my transcription of the manuscript.
And so, I complete what Greetham refers to as “the ‘real’ business of textual scholarship: the
reconstruction of an author’s intended text and/or the production of a critical edition displaying
this intention or some other version of the text” (8). More specifically, this documentary edition
is intended to be a faithful representation of William Heath’s poetry as it appears in his
manuscript.

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Literary Criticism
Given the considerable volume of poetry contained herein, it is beyond the scope of this
edition to offer a close analytical reading of all poems. Rather, only a select and significant few
poems will be discussed here in order to establish a literary sense of the poet in the context of the
Victorian fin de siècle. I must admit to romanticizing the creation of the manuscript: imagining
William Heath bent over the book’s then pristine pages following his hard day’s labour on the
railway, perhaps under an incandescent light inside his brick terrace home, brow furrowed as he
sought his soul for the right word, the right phrase which would capture his devotion and his
sentiment. Heath’s poetry instills such nostalgia for this bygone era where such a homely
practice may have been commonplace. Heath had several poetic contemporaries and we see in
his work notable literary influences from both the Romantic and Victorian period such as John
Henry Newman and Alfred, Lord Tennyson, as well as influence from Christian religion largely
in the form of Methodist Hymns. My scholarly engagement with Heath’s manuscript as a
documentary edition is timely: “Victorian working-class poetry has rapidly become an important
subject for late twentieth and twenty-first century criticism, [with poems] beginning to encroach
on the established ‘canon’ of Victorian poetry” (Blair 525). While the scope of this thesis cannot
extend to a literary comparison of other working-class poets of the age, it does present the
possibility of its legitimacy and appropriateness as an additional submission into the genre and
study of working-class poetry, and as an expansion of that relatively new genre. Charles LaPorte
points out that during the cultural changes of the Victorian period, writers explored the “‘poetic’
as a means of reimagining biblical inspiration and religious tradition” (par 1, “Victorian Poetry
and the Shock of the Belated”). Heath certainly draws on Christian themes without framing his

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spiritual poems within religious dogma. Rather, Heath frames his faith and relationship with God
in traditional poetic formats and set in nature.
So, where does the poetry of William Heath fit in relation to what is one of the richest
and most diverse literary periods in history? Heath leaves a humble manuscript to be sure, but as
a newly unearthed example of working-class poetry likely written during the end of the Victorian
era, it holds significant literary value as part of our expanding understanding of that genre. While
it is certainly of academic worth that Heath’s poetry be subjected to a critical analysis, it must
also be considered that he may not have intended anyone to read, let alone examine and publish,
his manuscript. Further, unlike many of his literary contemporaries including published workingclass poets, there is no evidence to support that Heath published his work or that he benefited
from the insights of the numerous literary critics of his day. However, it is likely that Heath, like
many of his contemporaries, was aware of literature’s broad appeal: “Men and women of all
social ranks were readers, writers, and publishers, but a passion for the acquisition of literacy
was particularly conspicuous in the working class” (Howsam 180). The construction and
diversity of Heath’s poetry suggests that he too was passionate about literature.
As noted, Heath’s poetry is expressive, with many lines focused on introspection and
self-analysis. Peter Gurney describes Victorian--era working-class writers: “Most were
motivated by a pressing need to communicate their experience and expected little or no monetary
reward for their labors” (52). Heath’s biography reveals consistent employment with the railroad;
even if he had published his poetry, his continued employment as a railway labourer indicates
that it is unlikely that he would have supported his family by his pen, nor is it likely that he
enjoyed a literary patronage. Heath offers such a diversity of poetic themes and literary

70
references that it can reasonably be assumed that he was well read, and that he had access to a
range of literature in addition to the Bible and hymnals.
During the Victorian period, literature was an intrinsic part of everyday life: “By the
1860s publishing had become a major enterprise: books and periodicals were taken for granted as
a cultural necessity” (Howsam 186). This suggests that Heath’s family likely enjoyed literature
as a socially endorsed habit, particularly the reading of the Bible as Heath’s father was a member
of the Temperance Movement and the family a part of the Wesleyan church. Richard D. Altick’s
research suggests for railway labourers such as Heath, his position may have allowed him
unfettered access to at least a small range of literary texts: “During the first years of their
existence, English railways had leased their bookstall concessions to injured employees or their
widows [and a] stock of newspapers, magazines [and] novels were added to the wares for sale”
(301). Heath’s exposure to literature during his working career was likely unfettered due to the
railway’s book industry, which included stalls selling a variety of texts, as well as the railway
libraries, which were “lending libraries on railway premises established primarily for railway
employees” (Suarez 1078). As a working-class member of Victorian society, and as a Wesleyan,
it is probable that Heath read extensively: “The largest single group of lower-class readers was
the Wesleyans… Wesleyans were expected to read as much as their leisure allowed” (Altick 35).
Further evidence which suggests that Heath was likely to have read widely is found in Altick’s
assertion that during the Victorian period the act of reading reached a highpoint:
In the middle class, the reading circle was the most familiar and beloved of domestic
institutions; and as cheap printed matter became more accessible, hardly a family in
Britain was without its little shelf of books and its sheaf of current periodicals, whether
church papers or the latest hair-raising episodes concocted by Holywell Street hacks. (5)

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Heath’s knowledge is subsequently reflected in the literary influences present in his poetry.
Perhaps encouraged by the wide range of genres available and the culturally sanctioned
popularity of reading and writing, Heath, like so many of his contemporaries, applied his own
hand to verse as an appropriate way to express his feelings by drawing on literature, life, and
spirituality as his inspiration.
In his single stanza poem “All the worlds a stage, we are actors,” (189) inspired by one
of Shakespeare’s best-known speeches (Wells) Heath’s poetic subject actively reflects on the
words of Shakespeare’s Jaques. However, Heath’s poetic personas are rarely as melancholic as
Jaques. Rather, Heath’s speakers, as in this poem, tend to reach an agreeable resolution of peace
and comfort through a reliance upon and trust in God. Interestingly, Heath removes the gendered
references and replaces them with the more socially inclusive “we”, perhaps a nod toward the
social change occurring in Victorian England.
Heath was but a child shortly after the literary group known as the Spasmodics enjoyed
the zenith of their literary influence, which was an intriguing but brief literary diversion from the
broader canon of the era. In his discussion of Mathew Arnold, LaPorte notes that
“Presumably…the Spasmodics stick in Arnold’s mind as the exemplar of poetic apologetics in
the mid-century, devouted to the specifically religious power of poetry” (LaPorte 526). Further,
the Oxford Reference Online describes the Spasmodic school of poets as one characterized by
intense interior psychological drama, violence and verbosity, and by poets who leaned toward
obscurity, pathetic fallacy, extravagant imagery, and lonely disallowed heroes (par 1). While
Heath’s poetry nods toward the Spasmodic’s introspection, imagery, the power of faith, as well
as some elements of pathetic fallacy, it is not extravagant, violence nor verbose. Heath’s lines do

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depict deeply felt spiritual convictions. Heath’s poetry is far more spiritual than religious in
nature, and further, there is nothing obscure about his relationship with God.
While only a few of Heath’s poems are secular, the manuscript does not suggest that he
was a political radical, nor does the manuscript contain inflammatory or accusatory social
critiques or satire. Many Victorian working-class poets turned to the broadsheet as an outlet for
their social outrage or more measured sentiments: “Protest against pauperism, industrial
conditions and factory labour are common in broadside songs” (Armstrong 158). Nothing in
Heath’s manuscript suggests that he wrote on social ills, but there is evidence which suggests
that he would have been a compassionate voice for the less fortunate. In “Whistling and Singing”
(108) the poem’s speaker enters an unknown ailing man’s home and sings with him, thus
offering him great spiritual comfort. Further, in a farewell note addressed to William Heath
(Appendix J), the writer describes Heath as a “gentle man whose character is as clear as the light
of day” (Platelayer). However, this documentary edition is solely focused on the manuscript at
hand; it is entirely possible that Heath did write for the broadsheets, speaking out on the low
wages he himself may have earned as a labourer, but no record of such publication has been
found at this time.
In this manuscript, Heath avoids topics which would have noticeably identified him as
working-class or as a railway labourer. His poetry offers no form of grievance or ill will towards
governance, working conditions, or socio-economic challenges. As his writing avoids these
contentious issues, he separates himself from other working-class writers: “But although it would
be true to say that there was always a divide between working-class and middle-class poetry, the
resilience and expressiveness of urban poetry and the industrial ballad in particular is often

73
remarkable” (Armstrong 161). This suggests that despite this divide, Heath’s poetry does have
something profound to say, and that his literary contribution possesses worth:
Although some working people wrote to understand themselves, with the characteristic
splitting of the subjective self from the objective world that gave rise to the intense
introspectivity [sic] of literary artists, most wrote unselfconsciously without the
introspective or aesthetic ends that characterised the literary artists of Woolf’s
generations. (Gagnier, Subjectivities 39)
There is an abundance of literary evidence in Heath’s manuscript that suggests Heath wrote to
better understand himself in such an unselfconscious manner as described by Gagnier above,
particularly through the lens of Heath’s poetic personae’s relationship with God. Heath writes of
God in association with the natural world, particularly the sea and sky. Absent from the
manuscript are tropes of romantic or sexual love, religious doubt, or malcontent with society or
government. As Gagnier suggests above about the working class, Heath also appears to split his
poetic persona from the exterior world of industrialized Leeds, but he does so without pretention
and with an earnest simplicity in which he often emphasizes an uncompromising personal ethos:
Well may I close my sinful eye
And hide my blushing face
When sin in me is always nigh
And sin I always trace

(“Sacramental Service”142, 37-40)

Heath’s literary efforts, at least in this known manuscript, are largely focused on spiritual
reflection as evidenced above; while sin and vice are often referenced, Heath does not elaborate
as to what form these sinful acts might consist of, but rather, Heath suggests that there is an
inherent and broad sinfulness in all men. Rather, Heath maintains his focus on the nature of God,

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and God’s enduring presence in life and nature. Heath utilizes various metaphors to explore
spirituality and morality, from mirrors as seen in “Sacramental Service” to ships braving
tumultuous oceans as seen in “The Harbour is Found” (114). Nature, spirituality, and selfanalysis form the foundation of Heath’s poetic inspiration.
Heath’s literary work is defined by me as being a part of the working-class genre given
his known profession as a railway labourer, and yet his writing differs from the “working-class
poetry of broadside ballads and street songs for the barely literate which often took the
workhouse and the factory as their theme” (Armstrong 30). Heath’s poetry does not suggest
political or social activism, or engage in discussions on labour rights, but rather it presents
personae which are often intent on emotion and in seeking spiritual understanding. While
Heath’s poetry makes no reference to the socio-economic challenges facing his industrialized
Victorian world, he is concerned with shifting social values, in particular vice and morality, and
he employs poetry as a vehicle for expressing his concerns in a language which, at least in his
understanding of literature, might garner attention and some amount of respect:
Also heard faintly by the middle-class writer and interpreted rashly (both then and now)
as conservative forces, were the self-taught poets who worked in another tradition of
literary language and often pastoral verse which used the dominant language and diction
of educated poetry – though it often tended to be the language of eighteenth-century
poetry – for their own purposes. (Armstrong 170)
Heath’s writing is conservative, and while not identifiable as a member of the middle-class,
Heath may have harboured the middle-classes’ literary, if not their social, ambitions. Heath
expresses this ambition in his often-pastoral verse, as evidenced in his poem “Thoughts while
looking at the sky July 12th 1900” in which he reflects on God’s creationary power:

75
Its Natures Hand that Colours found
Composed of Natures Blue
And white and Brown by Nature Bound
To this Blue that is true (151, 9-12)
While Heath delves into the pastoral, his diction most often remains informal, suggesting he did
not necessarily lack formal education, but rather that he was a poet who values simplicity in
language as an act of humility in the face of his God.
In language and theme Heath diverges from the widely held understanding of workingclass poetry as a genre which often laments classism and unjust working conditions. Heath’s
biography establishes his long employment in England’s railway industry, but his poetry is
devoid of any mention of the railway. Unlike the railway and thus working-class poets Anderson
and Aiken, Heath does not depict illustrations of horrific railway tragedies (Blair 35) in his
poetry. Despite, or perhaps because of, the numerous and macabre railway horrors which
occurred during the Victorian era, Heath does not draw on what might have been his first-hand
experience in such traumatizing matters (Blair 36). Blair suggests that the “relatively neglected
working-class poets offer us a sophisticated account of how rhythm might simultaneously
collude with and celebrate the inhuman forces of industry, while also opposing them” (Blair 36).
Heath’s poetry does not depict any such commentary on social change. Perhaps Heath’s silence
on industrialization speaks more than if he chose to be a voice against the bleakness and pitfalls
of a heavily mechanized Leeds; this silence differentiates Heath’s poetry, and thus broadens our
understanding of working-class poetry. Instead, Heath draws on the intense feelings as
occasioned by faith and grief as topics for much of his poetry. Heath’s poetry is thus an attempt
to return to a more idyllic and pastoral existence, even if such a return was only in his mind and

76
in his poetry. If Heath’s omission of railway themes and social protest was conscious, then his
poetry further broadens the scope of the genre, and thus our knowledge of working-class poets
during the Victorian fin-de-siècle, and perhaps the Victorian reader’s literary interests.
Although there is no evidence to support that Heath’s poetry was published, if he did
intend to seek publication, perhaps in a local periodical, he may have considered the preferences
of the reading Victorian public: “the well-constructed poem which combined thought and
feeling; this was seen to be superior to the poetry in which thought and feeling were separated”
(Watson xii). Many of Heath’s poems are representative of this sentiment; Heath often utilizes a
first-person perspective which is ideal for such expression of thought and feeling, and his poetic
personae explore complex feelings with candour. Many of Heath’s poems are steeped in selfreflection driven by the awesomeness of nature. Thoughtful reflections on scenes and events
depict a persona attempting to make sense of grief and faith and often sets his poems in view of
water and sky. Heath’s manuscript is often didactic in that it can be read as a temperate moral
guide which promotes the value of introspection and spiritual connection allowing for a
successful navigation of life’s moral pitfalls. And yet, the manuscript remains thematically
diverse as Heath intersperses poems with historical accounts and light verse.
Given the diversity of the themes in his poetry, Heath’s work fits very well into the
literary expectations of the poets of his time:
…there are many kinds of Victorian poet. There is the poet who is continually
preoccupied by the ultimate questions of man’s purpose and belief, such as Tennyson,
Arnold, or Hardy; there is the poet whose inspiration is found in nature and the seasons;
there are the whimsical and satirical poets, the tender and gentle ones, poets of the
Middle Ages, poets of Arthurian legend, poets of place, of battle, heroism, love, and loss.

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The last of these is important, because Victorian poets are often concerned with loss, the
loss of loved ones, of loved places, of youth, of a belief in God. (Watson xiv)
Heath’s manuscript provides for many of these poetic examples which demonstrate his diversity
as a Victorian poet, as well as his broad interests and depth of feeling regarding faith and
personal loss. Apart from poetry focusing on the Middle Ages, legend, and sexual or romantic
love, Heath’s manuscript embodies a single poet who deals with virtually all of the themes
suggested by Watson, and as he suggests, poems concerned with loss are prevalent. However, the
preponderance of Heath’s poetry focuses on faith and an adherence to a relationship with God,
often depicted in the natural world.
Heath’s poetry often contains a persona who is engaged in self- reflection, one who is
intent on seeking moral clarity through spiritual inspiration or guidance, and revelations in
nature. The subjects of these poems, usually framed in a first-person perspective, often encounter
an opportunity to reaffirm their faith in God, set in either a natural setting such as a storm or at
sea, or during a period of reflection while grieving a personal loss. In the poem “Thoughts while
looking at the sky July 12 1900” Heath unites God and nature, conceiving of God’s hand holding
a paint brush, creating a spiritually inspired scene which serves to reaffirm the speaker’s belief
that God is masterful:
But this is nature. not a dream.
I view Its Hallowed sight.
My mind is wraped in what I.ve seen
That fills me with delight.
In thy presence my head I bow
I cannot understand

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This natures picture ere below
drawn by natures Hand.
So full of mystery. Yet there thou art
In natures grand array (151, 33-42)
The speaker’s tone is reverential as he bows his head in God’s presence; Heath’s repetitive trope
of admittance to the knowledge of God through nature fits well in Victorian culture. The
subjects in Heath’s poetry have spiritual encounters which occur during quiet contemplation on
the wonders of nature, and as the result of personal reflection on music or personal grief. What is
absent from Heath’s manuscript is any reference to scripture or spiritual encounters in a religious
setting such as a church. Rather, Heath asserts man’s ability to cultivate a personal relationship
with God through dialogue, the acceptance of God as a personal compass through personal
action and morality, and this dialogue is set in nature or home.
More than simply a means of self- expression, Heath’s poems often possess a didactic
nature, albeit in the form of Heath’s gentle persuasion to shun vice and embrace morality.
Heath’s poetry possesses a consistent theme of self- improvement, thoughtful consideration of
God’s influence, and morality, expressing an understanding that “each man would answer for his
actions, good or bad, gaining praise or blame” (Reader 9). Heath’s poetry resides in a common
societal framework which dominated much of Victorian culture; a large part of this ethos
centered on how “Moral standards, as the expressed will of God, could not be flouted without
grave impiety, a point of view which emphasizes the element of authoritarianism in the Victorian
outlook” (Reader 7). God’s moral authority and man’s need to abide with Him is evident in
many of Heath’s poems. For example, in “The Harbour is found”, an intimate conversation
ensures the speaker’s salvation through a relationship with God: “What is thy name my Friend / I

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answered sinner. And asked my way / He said. Thy steps I will attend” (114, 34-36). Often
presented in a first-person narrative as in these lines, Heath’s poetic personae often strive to
reinforce the relationship between man and God through contemplation, the avoidance of vice,
and the need to fulfill moral obligations not just to God, but to all mankind for His sake.
In the poem “Principle” the desired trait of man’s purity as a means of gaining God’s
grace is evident:
Thou art a meaning deep and strong
Thou dwells in heart and mind.
Sometimes thou says to vice begone
I will some virtues find.
I know that man is frail and weak
But with me He is strong.
And with my strength He guides his feet
Away from what is wrong.

(155, 1-8)

While the inspiration for these sentiments is likely drawn from scripture or from hymnals,
Heath’s language and tone is sincere, and artless in its simplicity and its lack of puritanical
qualities. The absence of any language which suggests damnation, God’s great wrath, or lines of
scripture emphasizes a deeply intimate relationship between man and God, and one devoid of
artifice. Heath offers little commentary on the growing diversity of religious cultures, including
an increase in the number of Victorians of the Jewish faith “as a result of migrants escaping
persecution in Russia and eastern Europe” (English-heritiage.org), unrest in the Church of
England, or any poetic reaction to the leaps in scientific knowledge. Heath’s poetry often
remains cloistered as he seeks simplicity; in the absence of the dates at the conclusion of some of

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the poems or his numerous references to the Boer War, one might think the lines were written a
century earlier. While I cannot definitively assert that Heath was an ascetic, his poetry certainly
suggests a simple life in which personal pleasure is drawn from the endowment of God’s grace.
Based on the intimacy of Heath’s poetic expression, a supposition could be made that the
poetry is predominately autobiographical rather than based on fictitious literary personas.
However, in his examination of the Victorian mind, Ekbert Faas argues that, at least
ontologically, poetic personae such as Heath’s cannot be truly identified as the subject despite
the intensity of his feelings (88) but rather, Heath’s poetic personae can be considered as
“standing in for mankind in general” (Faas 93). Much of Heath’s work reads as the “poet
express[ing] himself spontaneously and sincerely” (Faas 84). Heath’s poetic response to one of
John Henry Newman’s most well-known poems, written in 1833, bears exploration in order to
better understand this sincere expression.
Heath’s poem “Thoughts after Lead Kindly Light Sky” provides a candid articulation of
feeling: “Now, I can see as I ne.er did before / A light I hold” (214, 1- 2). As Heath was born in
1856, he was likely very familiar with Newman’s “The Pillar of the Cloud”, also known as
“Lead Kindly Light”. Owen Cummings points out the popularity of Newman’s poem: “So many
others in Victorian England found real solace in this poem, including Queen Victoria herself to
whom it was read as she lay dying” (22). Bernadette Waterman Ward suggests that Newman’s
poetry possessed an intrinsic comfort in its rhythm which contributes to its appeal:
Rhythmic speech stirs an unconscious sense of trust and familiarity, partly, no doubt
because we learned the rhythms of speech by trusting and trusting in things we did not
yet understand. In fact, the relationship that must be the foundation of rhythm is that

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which Newman identified as the origin of our ability to accept mystery. The deepest
mystery is the mystery of God’s relationship to us. (95)
Heath’s poetry also relies on a similar cadence which may have given him spiritual ease in its
writing. For Heath, it may be that accessing his relationship to God was enhanced by means of
the pathway created by the rhythm of his own poetry. Perhaps influenced by Newman, Heath’s
poetry references light and the presence of God extensively; Heath mentions light over one
hundred times in his manuscript.
Like Newman, Heath may have sought light and thus solace in poetry due to his rapidly
changing world: “Gloom, as Newman saw it, abounded socially, politically and religiously.
Liberalism affected religion and the church” (O. Cummings 20). Heath’s call to the light as
God’s favour continues in his response to Newman’s poem, a declaration of clarity through
God’s grace: “I see thy face that brings me to a smile / Who’s Beams I feel that Keeps my Soul
from Guile” (11- 12). In Ward’s reading, Newman’s “The Pillar of the Cloud” is in possession of
a
thing wanting, of a lack of completeness, is carried out not only by the meter, but by
the images and the implied argument. The poem’s imagery suggests a lost child, who
cannot even be responsible for more than a step at a time, yet the speaker is clearly one
who has a long and regretted past. (95)
Such imagery is evident: “o’er moor and fen, o’er crag and torrent, till/ the night is gone” (lines
16-17 Hymnary.org). Newman’s influence is evident in several of Heath’s poems, which also
contain images of being lost in darkness which is later dispelled by God’s light, available to
those who welcome God’s presence:
Yet. in the dark and silent night

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There is a ray of coming light
To those that only wait
We see the lights sweet gentle Beam
Sometimes awake. also in dream
We can its Beams partake.

(“A Letter to Mr George Lawson 161,13-18)

Heath rarely employs multi- syllabic words, or complex rhyme schemes, which imbues his lines
with innocence and grace, and which positions his poetry as accessible. Newman wrote “Lead
Kindly Light” while reflecting on his own life and mortality during a serious illness. It cannot be
known how old Heath was when he first read “Lead, Kindly light” but his response poem, along
with the many other poems in which Heath frames darkness as transforming to light through
sincere self- reflection, suggest that Newman’s writing may have had a lasting effect on his
spirituality and his means of expressing his faith. Further, such influence is evidenced as Heath
includes the title of Newman’s poem at the conclusion of his own.
This acknowledgement is one of a few occasions in the manuscript where Heath
designates the source of his inspiration. Ian Bradley explains that “Newman wrote this
outstanding piece of devotional poetry at a time when he was feeling physically exhausted and
intellectually bewildered by the first stirrings of those doubts and convictions that were to take
him fifteen years later into the Roman Catholic Church” (233). Heath’s response poem does not
suggest such a crisis of faith, but rather an affirmation of God as moral guide: “I.ll walk by Thee
and hold of thy Hand / Because my soul is now at thy command” (Thoughts after lead Kindly
light, 5- 6). Heath’s poetry does not echo Newman’s conflicted feelings about the state of the
Church of England, or the country’s religious unrest. Of note is Heath’s indication at the
conclusion of his poem that his response came “after reading Lead Kindly light” (my emphasis)

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as Newman’s poem was also set to music. Perhaps Heath had sung the hymn in church, and then
revisited the text for deeper understanding through reading.
However, one poem with its lengthy title “The Japanese Minister from Washington going
Home asked Professor Max Muller for a new Religion for Japan. But must not recommend
Christianity wanted a New Religion” (220) speaks of how openly individuals were questioning
faith, in particular Christianity, and that Heath rejects such modernity: “No. new Religion we
require. But of the old will share / From the new we must retire. And Clasp the old by prayer”
(21-22). It is likely that Heath is referencing the German scholar and Orientalist Friedrich Max
Muller, who studied the origins of belief systems. I could not determine who the subject of the
poem, this Japanese Minister, is in reference to.
Bradley notes of hymns that “they are perhaps the strongest expression of the folk
religions” (2). For Heath, hymns appear to be spiritually accessible, perhaps more so than
scripture; hymns and music are often reflected in his poetry and hymnal references are present
while biblical text, characters, and scripture are not. Heath adheres to spiritual tropes as his
poetic personae engage in thoughtful reflection, a weighing of their devout and moral state while
they reflect on grief or the splendour of nature. Evident in his poetry are notions of ethical
actions and purity of mind and intent as an inherent part of his personal ethos, but one should and
must rely on support from God. Such deeply felt spiritual fervour was not uncommon for those
living in Heath’s era:
No one will ever understand Victorian England who does not appreciate that among
highly civilized, in contradistinction to more primitive countries, it was one of the most
religious that the world has known. Moreover, its particular type of Christianity laid a
peculiarly direct emphasis upon conduct; for, though it recognized both grace and faith

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as essentials to salvation, it was in practice also very largely a doctrine of salvation by
works. (Ensor 137)
Given this moral authority prevalent in society, Heath’s literary focus on faith reflects his
engagement in his wider society, particularly his concern with morality and faithfulness. Further,
even though he was evidently an unpublished author, it is likely that Heath was well read and
drew poetic inspiration from various literary sources: “Religious literature formed the largest
single category of books published in Britain” (Altick 33). As Heath was raised by a father who
was entrenched in the Leeds Temperance Movement, and who was also a Methodist (Newnham),
religion likely dominated Heath’s childhood and formed the development of his personal
doctrine, embedded in his psyche and then reflected in his poetry.
In his exploration of Victorian poetry and the concurrent rise of psychiatry, Faas draws
on the work of two Victorian era physicians, Phillipe Pinel and Alexander Crichton who both
studied and wrote on psychiatry. Faas provides insight into the psychological aspects of
Victorian era consciousness, and thus provides some insight into why self- analysis is reflected
in and informs much of Heath’s poetry and why his poetic personae engage in the practice:
By the time Crichton and Pinel wrote their treatises of insanity, self-analysis, of course,
had long ceased to be limited to the thoughtful and sensitive few. Like nothing else,
perhaps, it was the all-consuming passion of the age. Poets, therefore, would not have had
to consult with psychologists nor psychologists with poets about what their obsession told
them so clearly. (58)
In the titles of Heath’s poetry, the word ‘Thought’ is found on eleven occasions. Heath
demonstrates such a consultation through self-analysis, and his speaker possesses the clarity
which Faas references:

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But when my private thoughts do pause
And view my inmost mind.
I always find some broken Laws.
That’s left a pain behind
I then review what I have done
And bring them all in view
The penetrating Searching sun
Just finds my virtues few.

(“Faults” 146, 5-12).

In these lines, as suggested by Faas, Heath’s speaker finds that the existence of impure thoughts
can be found easily in one’s mind. Heath’s poetry often suggests that he supports the notion that
Man is inherently evil, and only through faith and a sincere relationship with God can he find
salvation. In “Faults”, as in all of Heath’s poetry, the speaker does find salvation at the poem’s
conclusion: “And yet it came at my demands / For mercy took my part” (55-56). Like many late
Victorians facing significant religious and social change, Heath seems to adhere to the belief that
“a world without God was a world without author or plot” (Slinn 46). The trope of appraising
one’s morality and finding it lacking is common in Heath’s poetry; repetition serves to entrench
Heath’s feelings and unites his poetry in a trope which largely defines his manuscript. As a
conscious effort, Heath’s manuscript may have served as his own talisman against depravity; by
writing the words he seemed to believe these sentiments bolstered his belief system and became
entrenched in his reality.
The notion of moral insanity may have been a real fear of Heath; his literary focus is
often on self-improvement via self-reflection, as evidenced here in his poem “I Thought on my
ways and turned my feet unto thy Testimonies”:

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I looked into the vaults of Thought
And a look within.
There on the Ground was what I sought.
some ways coiled up with sin.

(218, 25-29)

Heath paints a stark and troubling image: a snake wound around the speaker’s impure thoughts,
establishing its unwanted residence in the recesses of his mind. However, as always in Heath’s
poetry is also the possibility of salvation through faith. Heath’s poems always conclude with
grace, such is the depth of his faith. For Heath, like many Victorians, the definition of insanity
may have been synonymous with personal depravity and thus his mind required near constant
surveillance: “To, J. Bower Harrison, writing in 1850, insanity is ‘far from showing itself merely
in hallucinations and illusions, as is commonly supposed. Often the first overt act of insanity is
one of moral delinquency or extravagance’” (Faas 45). Given that advances in mental science
and an increased understanding of mental illness were rapidly becoming entrenched in Victorian
society, and given Heath’s own Temperance and Wesleyan influences, it can be expected that his
poetry reflects such strong desires toward morality. Further, Slinn asserts that Victorian poetry is
a “literary discourse whereby the self and its primary human concerns (truth, perception,
morality, feeling) become produced through the conditions of textual process” (2). For Heath,
that textual process results in a manuscript of poetry which portrays the intimate self, and his
expressions of concern regarding the human spiritual condition.
Many of Heath’s poems are a call to God; Heath often positions God as a pilot who
guides one through the trials of life, and as a necessary but wholly amenable moral companion.
In his literary endeavour, Heath embodies the habit of many of his contemporaries:

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The mid-Victorians still called God into the reckonings whenever they needed him. It
was not only the family which was a “sacred institution”. Thousands of sermons of every
denomination proclaimed that the whole English social system rested not only on divine
sanction but on the particular operations of Providence. (Briggs 12)
Heath writes of this protection by God in nature often, perhaps most elegantly in his poem
entitled “The flowers Christ represents” (134), in which Heath writes of various flowers and their
association with Christ’s benevolent love and protection; roses are Christ’s tears, ivy His
friendship, heliotrope ensures devotion, and the lily reminds us of man’s innate sinfulness. Many
of Heath’s poems are overtly spiritual and Christian in nature, and while his poetry offers
diversity in language and subject matter, there remains throughout a subtle religious lens which
still reflects on humanity and its relationship to God. One such genre is that of the glories and
horrors of war and loss of life in battle and the subsequent grief it engenders.
There are several historical events and persons of note which Heath writes of in his
poetry. Most significantly, Heath writes of the Second Boer War and its associated battles at
Bloomfontein, Glencoe Hill, and Mafeking. Notable historical figures included in these poems
are Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger, Field Marshal Lord Frederick Roberts, and Boer General
Pieter A. Cronje. While his comment is in reference to the Crimean War, Armstrong’s assertion
rings true for Heath’s reflection on the Boer War: “It is not surprising that those in and close to
the working class should have felt so strongly, and written so directly, about the war, for it was
their war” (Armstrong 230). Heath references specific historical figures and places which
demonstrate the depth of his feeling regarding the Boer War, and its influence on his psyche as
he reflects on events which occurred far from home. In his poem “Round the Bivouac fire” (116)
Heath’s use of a noteworthy and repeated line at irregular intervals throughout the poem is both

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chilling and tragic: “Thou art great as God of Battles. Thou are best as God of Peace” (12, 40,
64, 72). This is a bleak appeal to God made by bloodied soldiers; absent is the gloss of war’s
glorious victories. Pointedly, this line ends the poem, and Heath has underlined the words to
further emphasize his feeling.
In close concert to his expression of feelings about war and its ravages, are those poems
which speak to loss through death, and the subsequent grief experienced by those left behind.
Heath portrays mourning such loss with a simple elegance, and while he expresses that comfort
can be found through faith, he does not frame such comfort in a contrite or glib fashion. Rather,
his poetic personae are realists who succumb to the grief as they seek salvation through solace
found in their relationship to God. In this manner, Heath offers an unvarnished truth about
sorrow, and while faith can be comforting, grief cannot be fully overcome. Heath writes of grief
often using modest and accessible language: “Most importantly, the defensive post-Romantic
poet who would indulge in elegiac grief knows how hard it is to frame an authentic truth; an
introspective age that prizes absolute emotional honesty understands how difficult the verbal
conveyance of that ideal can become” (Joseph 16). Indeed, Heath represents the challenge of
truly depicting grief through language as he depicts a mother’s unimaginable grief at losing a
child. In a “A Mother’s Grief” (136) he portrays a despairing mother, who has lost both husband
and son to battle, with a conciseness that belies the depth of emotion it embodies: “Just pray for a
Heart Broken Mother / Who silently mourns for her son” (43-44). Further evidence of Heath’
particularly poignant writing on grief is evidenced in his poem “Thoughts on Seeing a Picture in
Communional Street”:
But Ho. that of that poor Mother
As she looked at that child

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That look was deeper than a Lover’s
That look it had no guile.
That Mothers face I see just now
In all its pangs of grief
Also the care upon Her brow
That told of anguish deep.

(130, 29-36)

By urging the reader to consider the mother’s facial expression, Heath reinforces the need for
morality through community, through social connection and concern which bonds humanity. As
evidenced in these two poems, the principal feeling Heath wishes to convey by depicting grief is
one of inspiring compassion in others. If Heath’s poetry is considered as didactic in nature, his
words achieves a feeling of care and moral duty, while avoiding any air of condescension.
As discussed previously, Heath’s poetry is influenced by his own life and literary
experiences, and the inspiration of Alfred, Lord Tennyson as a “cultural phenomenon” (Tucker
1) is no exception. As a private rather than public poet such as Tennyson, Heath likely did not
have to endure the same critical scrutiny and social pressure to produce literature that Tennyson
bore. Rather, it is likely that Heath was able to explore his own craft without recrimination. Like
other staunch supporters of Tennyson, Heath may have written considering “the spheres of
private feeling and public mission” (Tucker 4). Blair suggests how a working-class poet such as
Heath, perhaps by being brought forward as in this documentary edition, can posthumously add
their literary presence to the now widening literary Victorian era literary canon: “The concept of
“hybridity” might be useful in exploring works that blend the voice of a working-class author
with more established voices, whether through allusion, quotation, parody, or a less definable
sense of linguistic and formal influence” (Blair 526). Heath’s literary inspiration was not solely

90
from Christianity, but the trope of spirituality largely governs his language, as does his practice
of setting his poems in nature.
In his poem “Hymn 457 Tennyson’s Sunset” (238), Heath blends a Christian hymn in his
contemplative response to Tennyson’s “Crossing the Bar” (Tennyson 1122). It is unclear if this
poem is the result of inspiration drawn from “Crossing the Bar” and a love of hymnals, or if
Heath is also referencing a hymn called Hymn 457, which can be found in the Wesleyan Hymnal
(Hymnary.org), in addition to Tennyson’s poem. William Heath’s undated poem is handwritten
on an unlined white sheet, loose from the manuscript and found in its covers. A watermark is not
apparent on the page, and it was at some point folded into six rectangles, perhaps to fit into a
jacket pocket. Given this information, the age at which Heath wrote this response to Tennyson
cannot be determined, or that it was written while still in England. It may be that he, like
Tennyson, wrote it at an advanced age while reflecting on his own life, perhaps even while in
Canada. Heath would have been in his early thirties when he first read “Crossing the Bar” as
Tennyson wrote the poem in 1889. Hymnary.org, a repository of over one million hymn texts,
reveals that Hymn 457, in addition to being included in the Wesleyan hymnal, is referenced 369
times. Given Heath’s religious background, it is likely that Heath is referencing the Wesleyan
variant of this hymn. As Heath’s “Hymn 457 Tennyson’s Sunset” pays homage to Tennyson
himself, the poem is worthy of further analysis in the form of a comparison to Tennyson’s
“Crossing the Bar” (Kermode 478). Such a comparison is suggestive of the academic value
which remains to be discovered via an extensive literary criticism of Heath’s poetry.
Both poems consist of quatrains with an alternate rhyme scheme; Heath provides six
quatrains while Tennyson’s poem comprises of four quatrains. Heath, in a deliberate fashion, sets
each stanza in alternating position on the page, in a zig-zag fashion. Tennyson’s speaker muses

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on his pending death, and thus his transition from the mortal plain to eternity, and as he is “put
out to sea” (4) he finds his peace. Conversely, Heath portrays Tennyson himself, an imagining of
the poet laureate’s death in the metaphor of a sunset over the sea. Heath positions Tennyson as
an old man pondering a “Harbour so placid and still”; he is a tranquil man as he considers
eternity and his acceptance at allowing God as his Pilot to take “command” (17). Heath
positions Tennyson as a man who is “moving home” (24). The two poems take on a distinctive
meaning if considered to be occurring concurrently: Heath observing Tennyson’s ultimate
reward as Tennyson readies himself for death. Moreover, Heath’s poem demonstrates the reach
of the poet laureate’s influence, and his literary reflection from the sphere of working-class
poetry. Heath’s poem may be seen as a logical and fitting literary response to the famed poet
who, like Heath, considered his relationship with God in much of his poetry. Poetry in which
faith is a primary focus was a natural choice for Heath, particularly with regard to Tennyson’s
literary influence:
In Tennyson’s time religious debate became general, with the spread of education, the
growth of scientific knowledge and publishing, and the inability of the Anglican Church
to cope with the rate of social and demographic change. Engagement with matters of
‘faith and doubt’ seemed a responsible move for a poet. (Sinfield 234)
Heath did not engage with topics of social injustice like many of his contemporary working-class
poets; he preferred to continue with topics of faith made popular earlier in the century, as
evidenced in the writing of Tennyson. Bradley notes that Tennyson positioned God as a guide to
his life’s course: “This last hymn, which Tennyson entitled ‘Crossing the Bar’, was written in the
poet’s eighty-first year. He later explained his reference in it to the Pilot as ‘that Divine and
Unseen who is always guarding us” (369). Perhaps influenced by Tennyson, Heath also refers to

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God as his Pilot in several poems, including “The Harbour is found” in which God “proved a
Pilot true” (114, 12), and “My Thoughts on A Christian Life, And End,” in which Heath
positions God as his ship’s Pilot in the absence of its Captain: “And if He leaves us for a time the
Pilot takes the bridge / And be the weather wet or fine, The sail Himself He rigs” (163, 9-10).
Heath also writes of the Pilot in “The Love of Christ”: “And prayer are words right from the
Heart. / That’s Piloted by thought” (179, 45-46). Heath also references the Bar in his poem “The
Radiant Face”: “When you and I stand at the Bar. / And Christ our only trust” (lines 67-68).
Even as Heath relies on the language of faith, sentiment, colour, and light, his tone remains
conversational and his speakers are accessible to the reader.
Donald Hair explains that poetic language was critical to Tennyson, and this value is also
evident in Heath’s poetry: “Voice, then, is central to Tennyson’s understanding of language. The
varied tones of the human voice are the expression of passions and emotions, which are natural
to us, and which link us with nature, which also has a voice. The task of the poet is to take the
power he shares with nature and articulate it” (Hair 74). The elements of nature, particularly the
sky, flowers, streams, and the ocean are endemic in Heath’s poetry, and comprise familiar
language throughout the manuscript. Just as spirituality unites the manuscript, so too does
Heath’s fascination with nature’s impossible beauty, the colours and sounds of the natural world.
In “Wandering but not Alone,” Heath establishes man’s spirituality in the natural world, a
profound connection between spirituality and God’s creation:
God. we say by name.
And nature answers to his call
For God hold’s nature’s frame.
If He withholds his might Hand

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Chaos and darkness reigns.
For God has nature at command
As He does nature train.

(207, 42-48)

Nature and God are intertwined, and Heath’s text rarely separates the two; when Heath speaks of
God, it is often in the language referencing the natural world. Like Tennyson, Heath uses the
voice of his poetic personae, combined with the awe-inspiring natural world, to establish intense
feeling with in his poetry. Reflections on God and spirituality while gazing at the sky, a flower,
and the ocean abound in Heath’s work, scenes far removed from his work on the railway, and his
home in industrialized Leeds. Heath imbues his speakers with a hypersensitivity; their senses are
alive and attuned to God’s work in nature: “Victorians in particular valorized the sense of sight
over the other senses as the privileged door of perception unto the noumenal, as the entrée in
Tennyson’s case to the realm of spirit” (Joseph 49). Again, there is a tangible influence from
Tennyson in Heath’s poetry as Heath draws his poetic language from nature’s elements:
…it is also clear that Tennyson apprehended nature aurally, and that he heard in nature a
voice. Not articulate speech, at least initially, but expressive sounds which seemed like
the raw material, or the basis, of language. The voices of wind, water, and birds turn up
in the poetry and in the Memoir more frequently than any others, and the voice of the sea
oftenest of all. The sea has an astonishing range of tones: it whispers, murmurs, moans,
thunders, and roars. (Hair 67)
In Heath’s poem “Faith. Hope. And Charity”, his speaker engages all senses as he “plucks the
growing weed” (225, 12) and can “view things out of Sight” (21) while light “penetrates the
gloom of night” (27) and storms “break upon lifes shore” (29) by Hair abound in Heath’s
manuscript and reinforce his communion with nature as a spiritual experience, reinforced by the

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absence of any mention of finding spirituality in closed doors, such as those of a church. As
noted, Heath’s poetry is written in subtle and accessible language, but much remains to be
gleaned from his lines. The textual criticism presented here has provided a broad understanding
of William Heath’s poetry, and these select poems illustrate central tropes and literary
influences. However, the manuscript is extensive and has complexities which remain unexplored.
Further performances of Heath’s work will reveal other influences and meanings held in his
words.

7. Conclusion
Given the manuscript’s current state of decay, and the cost prohibitive processes which
are incurred when preserving an aging paper manuscript such as Heath’s, I am painfully aware of
its potential obliteration as a physical object. Costs associated with the preservation of this
manuscript have been estimated by librarians to be in the range of several thousand dollars for
the preservation itself, and such efforts would also require secure shipping and potential travel
costs so that I, as editor, could oversee its preservation. For now, the manuscript will continue to
exist as a textual artifact, one that has now enjoyed a thorough and extensive scholarly
examination which has transmitted it to another textual form. Further, the knowledge of the
manuscript’s existence remains embedded in my own family history and now firmly and tangibly
as a scholarly effort. And so, its continued existence is, if not in its original state as an
autographic manuscript, now secure in this completed documentary edition which has
transcribed and contextualized its history and its words and preserved its visual presence in its
photographic facsimile.

95
The manuscript’s author has now been definitively identified, and while much is not
known about William Heath, the manuscript and its author are once again and forever united by
the construction of this documentary edition. This edition allows for the manuscript’s future
performance as its own entity, but with the manuscript firmly providing its foundation. Brian
Cummings suggests the manuscript’s future in that “regardless of the material survival of a
physical copy or artefact, a book is something immortal and imperishable” (63). There is
consolation in B. Cummings’ assertion that Heath’s text will not vanish, and in my insertion of
the manuscript into academia which assigns it a new physicality and permanence. Further, my
transmission of Heath’s manuscript to a published and digital form allows for his poetry to be
read, reflected on, and studied within the wider canon of Victorian literature by reaching a wider
audience that the manuscript could as a physical object. As Heath’s poem often speaks to faith,
those who read his lines may find comfort and calm. I have spoken of textual performance, and
by completing this documentary edition William Heath’s manuscript has certainly experienced a
prolonged and intense act. B. Cummings also asserts that “A book is a physical object, yet it also
signifies something abstract, the words and the meanings collected within it” (63). Indeed, as the
manuscript lay on my bookshelf for so many years, it had a physicality which weighed upon me
and demanded that I provide it a wider audience. Even then, the manuscript had a voice which
called to me seeking my engagement and providing it a space for its next performance. Yet it is
also possessing a collection of meanings, gained throughout its provenance and in its role as an
object of literary study. This collection of meanings includes the manuscript’s identity as family
heirloom, but also its contemporary relevance as a subject of literary discourse which will
provide insight into the nuanced period in which it was written. As Cummings suggests above, it

96
is these abstract qualities which permeate the manuscript with a great deal of intrigue and
nostalgia.
While there is some limitation to what this edition represents as it represents “a witness to
its source… not the work itself” (Shillingsburg 37), the edition is the most suitable vehicle in which
to transmit the manuscript into the present day. It is also for this reason that a thorough
photographic facsimile was included in this edition as even the most attentive transcription cannot
serve as a replacement for the visual performance of the text. The manuscript will always retain its
allure as a physical object; with all its frayed and fading characteristics it draws one to its fragility
and the textual promise it holds. The photographic facsimile of the manuscript allows for
engagement with these elements and which can allow for the continued visual performance of
Heath’s poetry in the absence of the manuscript itself.
In my first engagement with Heath’s manuscript, I existed as a witness to its potential as
a subject of literary worth, and as witness it was my responsibility to tell the manuscript’s truth, and
to facilitate its continued performance in an academic setting. As editor, I have captured and
preserved the work of William Heath in this edition, with my editorial focus being on creating a
relevant, accessible, and foundational text from which further study can be structured. Still, I am
cautioned by an assertion made by George Bornstein: “we cannot hope through textual scholarship to
recover an ideal text like a well-wrought urn, but only to increase the self-awareness and internal
consistency of the choices that we make in our own time” (2). While my decision to construct a
documentary edition based on William Heath’s manuscript remains what I assert to be the soundest
choice, I must, as Bornstein suggests, be cognizant of that text’s inherent limitations. While this
edition does not fully recover Heath’s manuscript in that its inherent charm as a textual artifact
cannot be transmitted, its elements serve to preserve the text and allow its transmission into this time.

97
It is my hope that the editorial choices I have made while creating this documentary
edition of the poetry of William Heath will shed further light on the Victorian fin de siècle’s genre of
working-class poetry. The creation of this documentary edition is a worthy study in and of itself, but
it also serves to provide a foundational text which is relevant to contemporary and expanding literary
studies of that period. I find great satisfaction knowing that Heath’s poetry can now reach an
audience beyond myself, and that I have fulfilled my promise to my family. More than this, following
its veiled identity as my family’s sentimental heirloom, I have repositioned the manuscript’s identity
as a literary artifact worthy of scholarly attention. I have transmitted the autographic manuscript by
William Heath into its rightful place within academia, specifically by introducing the text to the genre
of Victorian fin de siècle working-class poetry in the form of this documentary edition.

98
8. The Poetry of William Heath
Sunday Schools

102

Untitled

103

Mother’s Songs

105

A Lost Child

108

Whistling and Singing

110

Grand Lad

112

The Captain

116

The Harbour is Found

116

Round the Bivouac Fire

118

A Little Child

121

My Dream

122

What Man Eats

124

The British Lion

127

Untitled

130

Thoughts on Seeing a Picture in Communial Street

132

Cats

134

The flowers Christ Represents

136

A Mother’s Grief

138

Tears tell tales

140

Relief of Mafeking Friday May 19th City Square

142

Sacramental Service

144

Music

146

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Faults

148

Love, pure Love

150

Sabbath Day

152

Thoughts While looking at the sky July 12th 1900

153

Keep Smiling

155

Principle

157

A Letter to Mr. George Cooper

159

Thoughts while in Bed

161

A Letter to Mr. George Lawson

163

MY THOUGHTS ON A CHRISTIAN LIFE, AND END

165

My Thoughts on Sacred Song

167

My Thoughts after Singing 67 Hymn Wesleys

169

Thoughts of the Past

171

A Letter to Mr. George booker Love + Lust

173

My Thoughts on Heaven

175

Thoughts in Burmantofts Cemetry July 25th 1900

177

The Radiant Face

179

The Love of Christ

181

Satisfied

183

Early Impressions

185

On the Sands at Scarbro August 11 1900

187

Thoughts are never in Prison

189

All the worlds a stage, we are actors

191

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Harmony. Sweet Harmony

192

Sacred Spot

194

Cries heard in Leeds Market

195

Mother’s Remarks to a child

197

Kissing. What it means

199

Troubles of a Married Man

201

What is Art

203

Blows and Wounds

205

Man was made in the Image of God

207

Not Alone

208

Wandering. But not alone

209

Saturday night September 29th 1900

211

Learning to Skate

213

A Thought

215

Thoughts after lead Kindly light

216

Must submit to pain

217

Oh my saviour

219

I Thought on my ways and turned my feet…

220

The Japanese Minister from Washington…

222

Oh it is cold

223

Music’s Influences

225

Faith. Hope. And Charity

227

What I have seen

231

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What Christ sat on

233

What I’d Like to hear

234

Yet there’s Buds beneath the frost

237

Mount Cheam

239

Hymn 457 Tennyson’s Sunset

240

Musing

241

Im an Ignorant man

242

Do – Ray- Me

243

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Sunday Schools
Sunday schools are well played out
At least some people say.
They . ll have to close without a doubt
As they will never pay.
They say a child can not take in
Such queer and foolish notions
Say what you will there is no sin
And nothing called devotion.
But let us see if they are right.
I think that they are wrong
I have just now in my Sight
A Girl. that’s passed and gone.
She came one night to our School
To the service for the young
She said I placed Her on a stool
Until the prayer was done.
++
She to the school next Sunday came
I met Her at the door
And Mr. Bickers took her name
Then placed Her with some more.
++I took her Hand and stroked her Hair
Editor’s note: This poem appears to be either unfinished or incomplete; the last line is
single and thus at odds with the four-line stanza and ABAB rhyme scheme. Further, there are six
blank available lines following the final line on the manuscript’s page which is ample room to
complete the stanza. The double crosses prior to the penultimate stanza and preceding the last
line are curious and appear here as closely marked as possible in the manuscript. The author’s
intention regarding the cross marks is unclear. These markings are not found elsewhere in the
manuscript, nor on any of the loose documents held in the manuscript. Of note is the fact that all
words referring to the female character are capitalized. Heath speaks to the religious tumult of
the Victorian era with the poem’s opening lines.
Unsigned. Undated.

103
Untitled
Bloemfontein lay just like a bog
For Empty were the trench
When some one shouted here comes Bobs
When in walked bear old French.
The union jack was hoisted high
The Lion roared once more
That roar it went up to the sky
As it ne . er did before.
The Lions brought from little Wales
The scottish Lions too
Are vexed when they do wag their tails
We know their Bark is true.
The Irish Bark it is a Yell
We . ve heard it on the Boggs
The Irish Lion we know will
And so does little Bobs.
Kitchener. Mac. was at the front
Canadians came up well
Astrealia came up in the Hunt
And turned the Boers pell mell
dont tread tail upon the Lions tail
That tail will make you sob
Remember Brittions never fail.
With Buller. Mac or Bobs.
We . ll give Three cheers and a loud Hurrah.
And shake all by the Hand.
I mean the Powerful grand Jack Tar’s
That made so grand a stand.
Just put your patriots at one side.
And smile upon the men.
That fought and Bleed and even died
To capture Cronk’s den.

W. Heath

Editor’s note: This poem is untitled in the manuscript, and the addition of the poem’s
designation as being untitled is my own. The author’s signature is included; it is placed in the
lower most right-hand corner of the page on an upward seventy-degree angle reaching up in line
with the final four lines of the poem. This may be because the author used the full page and there
was not additional space at the bottom for his signature. The last word appears to begin with a
lower case “b” but it is logical that the word be transcribed as den as opposed to ben, given the
narrative of the poem. “Jack Tar” proved a difficult term to transcribe given the script; as Jack
Tar is a common term used by the British Empire in reference to seamen, it’s transcription also
fits the narrative of the poem. Australia has a curious spelling; Astrealia appears to be an
accidental of the author. Similarly, I cannot determine the author’s source of spelling Brittons as
Brittions. It may be just an unintended pen stroke or form of ligature between letters; in other

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words, such as “always” and “and” the formation of the letter A is typical of modern script,
while in the word “Brittons” it is closer to an “O”. The author’s spelling of Britain is thus a
significant accidental which positions it as a notable attribute of the author. The positioning of
the apostrophe in contracted words appears here as it does in the manuscript, placed at the top of
the descending line. “Bobs” is a reference Field Marshal Lord Frederick Sleigh Roberts of
Kandahar, and Cronje can be identified as Boer General Pieter A. Cronje (britishbattles.com).
Signed. Undated.

105
Mother’s Songs
The Influence of a good old song
To marvelous to behold
I will bring up days that’s passed and gone
And bring up tales untold
If some one sings that grand refrain
That Brittian rules the waves
Its sung. and sung and Sung again
With never can be slaves
But if some one should sing a Song
That we did hear at Home
our memory soon will travel on
And make our minds to roam
To days when Mother used to sing
When we sat on Her knee
When that dear voice did always bring
A Calmness sure and free
We like to sing those Hallowed Rhymes
They are to memory dear
They make our Eyes with tears to shine
And brings my Mother near
Although we stood around the Grave
Of Mother that did sing
Her songs we now so often crave
That peace and comfort brings
I now can see that Hallowed form
Just rocking in a Chair
sometimes at night. sometimes at morn
I fancy she . s still there
But no. those days are past and gone
And vacant is the Chair
But Yet I hear my Mother’s song
My Mother must be there
Ha. no. its only memorys wings
That . s floating in the past
And by its aid Her songs do bring
And clings so very fast.

106
That voice is hushed. Her song still lives
She’s gone. But yet is here
The chair is there But yet it gives
A Song we love so dear
She use to rock and sing this song
mid pleasures and palaces
That song it always starts a tear
And makes me see my Mother
I fancy now Her voice I hear
As she strikes up another
Lead kindly light amid the Encircling gloom
Ha. no. My thoughts have lead me wild
Its only fancies dream
I fancied I was then a child
When Mother could be seen
Mother I know in Heaven thou art
I fancied thee Just here
My fancy did a tear just start
I thought thy voice was near
Thou art not here. But Yet thy songs
They haunt me day and night
Sometimes they tell me I am wrong
And show me what is right
will
The songs thou sang. I now do sing
I will not sing. no other
The songs thou sang. they always bring
me. very near my Mother.
So let us sing those simple Rhymes
Though simple they may be
Sweet memories. Will. us then Entwine
And Mother’s face we.ll see.
End
W Heath

107
Editor’s Note: The penultimate stanza contains one of the few corrections made by the
author in the manuscript; the word “will” replaces “do” which has one small brush stroke
through it, with “will” added directly above it. As seen before with Heath’s signature, this
poem’s signature is also placed toward the bottom right corner of the page, on an upward sharp
angle, despite the author having sufficient room to sign the poem at a line below. The signature
is of much lighter grey hue, suggesting that the signature may have been written in another ink,
or perhaps with a lighter hand. Of note is the apostrophe included in the last line’s “Mother’”; it
has been transcribed here as per the manuscript but unlike most of Heath’s apostrophes, this is
marked in the standard position on the page line. The thirteenth stanza is comprised of just the
one line, and the penultimate word is transcribed as Encircling, although it clearly begins with an
upper-case E, the remainder of the word cannot be transcribed with surety. Arguably, this word
could be Evening, Encircling, or Exciting based on the indiscernible script. However, a strong
argument can be made for it being “Encircling” which follows the hymn of the same name and
its lyrics written in 1833 by John Henry Newman and published broadly in hymnals during the
Victorian era. At nearly three full manuscript pages, this is one of Heath’s longest poems
suggesting that his relationship with his mother was a significant one, in his life. Further, as
replicated here, Heath employs four-line, two line, and one-line stanzas as well as various
amounts of indention, demonstrating diverseness in his poetic form.
Signed. Undated.

108
A Lost Child
One day while walking to my Home
Across an open space
A Lady met me with a moan
And sadness on Her face
She said.

Have you seen a little Boy
I’ve lost mine. Oh dear me
I left him playing with his toys
Where ever can He be

He . s not down there. I saw no one
He . s perhaps gone down that lane
dont you fret, you .ll find your son
He . ll turn up right again
Then off she ran and shouted out
To a lady that stood bye
Our Willies lost there is no doubt
And there she gave a Sigh
I thought poor thing. Her heart is sad
That lost child must be dear
To that poor woman nearly Mad
It made me shed a tear
But oh the scene I saw just there
The child clasped by his Mother
She kissed the child again. again
More purer than any Lover
I turned away. and wiped my Eyes
A Lump came in my throat
The sight it made me give a sigh
That sight had struck a note
That told me how a Mother feels
When she has lost a child
And when its found. How it she shields
And clasps it all the while
A Father’s Love is good. But rough
A Mother’s love how fine
A Father’s way is rather bruff
A Mother’s way divine

109
Gentle. Kind. And always true
A Guide. A shield. A Balm
A Mother’s love is always true
We all have felt its charms
Oh may we honour in our day
The Mothers’ of our Land
Some day we . ll find she’s gone away
And miss Her guiding Hand
our turn to go will come at Last
A union there will be
For Mother’s Hand her child shall grasp
I hope that child is me
W Heath
Editor’s Note: In the first line of the third stanza, an ink blot is apparent, marking what
was likely the beginning of the third word “down”. There are six lines of unused page following
the fifth stanza; it is unclear why the author continued the poem on the following page. The
author’s signature is again found in the bottom corner and set at almost a perpendicular angle to
the poem, at the outermost edge of the page, and again appears in a lighter hue than that of the
poem. The final line of the poem is positioned at the very bottom of the page.
Signed. Undated.

110
Whistling and Singing
One Monday morn at one am,
A many years ago.
It was my custom often then.
To be out late you Know.
I use to whistle and to sing,
While walking through the street.
I use to make the streets fair sing
For singing is so sweet.
I then approached an open door.
The inmates were all up.
A woman came and stood before
Me, a question she did put.
Will you come into my Home.
My Husband wants to see,
The man that whistles when alone
Or sings so merrily.
I stept into the House at once.
A man was Laid in Bed
He said. You . have more than once.
My Eyes with tears to shed.
I’ve been laid here for many weeks.
I cannot sleep at night.
But as you.ve past with songs so sweet.
Its made my Heart so light.
God bless you Lad. and bless your songs.
And bless your whistle too.
Its made the nights to pass along
I know those songs are true.
Last Sunday morn when you went bye,
You sung. Lead kindly light.
And when you.d gone I had a try.
To sing it in the night.
But I.ve a favourite Hymn. You know.
I think its one You like
Because as you.ve passed too and frou.
You.ve sung it with delight.
He tried to sing me just a line
To let me know the Hymn.
I knew at once the tune and time.
This Hymn I then did sing.
In darky shades if thou appear.
My dawning has begun
Thou art my souls bright morning star

111
And thou my rising sun.
The Tears they rolled down that mans face.
He shouted Yes. its true.
And in His face. there Christ I trace.
I felt Christ’s presence too.
And as I left. He took my Hand.
And said, God Bless you Friend.
someday we’ll join the Heavenly Band.
where pleasures never End.
If we can sing. then let us sing.
If whistle. whistle bright.
As song. or whistle it may bring.
A Blessing in the night.

W Heath

Editor’s Note: As seen with previous poems, Heath’s signature is angled sharply and set
to the outer margins of the page, despite there being ample room below the final line for a
signature. The signature appears as a lighter hue of ink, and it is unclear as to why. The hymn
suggested by the ill man, known to the poem’s speaker, and suggested by the two lines “In darky
shades if thou appear. / My dawning has begun” can be found in Hymn 75 in the 1791 printed
work by C. Wheeler in Manchester titled “The Church Catechism, Hymns, Prayers, Etc. for the
Use of the Sunday School at Ardwick; and Also for the Chapel”. It cannot be determined that
Heath would have learned the lines from Wheeler’s work, or some other source. Further, Heath’
quote, if that indeed was his intention, varies from that of the text which reads: “In darkeft fhades
if thou appear, / My dawning is begun;” (Wheeler 118). The next two lines are identical to those
in Wheeler’s text, allowing for the archaic f applied for s. As seen elsewhere, the first letter of
dawning appears to be a script “b” rather than a “d” but it is logical that the author meant for the
word to read “dawning” based on the narrative of the poem.
Signed. Undated.

112
Grand Lad
Who nursed me in my Early days
And shielded me from harm
And sung to me those childish lays
That soothed my fear’s alarms.

my Mother

Who said just stop that awful noise
And let us have some peace
I never heard such noisy Boyes
stop it. will you please.

my Father

Who said I ate a pot of Jam
And daubed the Cat with lard
And saw me jump behind the tram
To ride a few of Yards.

our Polly

Who said I got up in the night
When all were laid in Bed
And wh went down stairs without a light
To get a slice of Bread
our Jack
What do they call that little Boy
That said I broke a pain
And ran away with all his toys
And threw them down a drain.

Tommy Smith

Although my Father. sister, Brother
And Tommy smith as well
Complained and always told my mother
She only said. Har. well.
He is a mischief Lad I know
His Eye with mischief shine’s
Although He’s always in a row
I can’t forget he’s mine
Who went and stood beside the Bed
And stooped to Kiss His mother
The very Lad whom people said
He’s always in a bother.
Who was it lifted Mother up
When she was ill in Bed
And tried to give Her Just a sup
And stroked Her aching head.

I am Lad

This Lad

113
Who held her hand until the last
And gazed into her Eyes
Until the words were said. she’s past
And gone to paradise

Same Lad

Who Knelt beside that Hallowed spot
And flowers did Entwine
This mischief Lad that ne.er forgot
His Mother that said mine.

GrandLad

dont say that mischief Boys are bad
They have a tender heart
Remember they are only Lads
Just try and take their part
poor Lads
W Heath
Editor’s Notes: Ancestry records reveal that William had a brother named John. Jack is a
common nickname for John, so this poem may be based on his own childhood. However, the
name Polly cannot be linked to any known family member. Again, Heath’s use of capitalization
is seemingly meant to emphasize some words over others, but it is also arguable that Heath does
not intend any emphasis with or without capitalization, and that these variations are coincidental.
Heath also uses the word “mischief” rather than “mischievous” which would be more
grammatically appropriate. As seen with other poems, Heath’s signature is found angled on the
lower most corner of the page.
Signed. Undated.

114
The Captain
On the north East coast off Scotland
A storm was raging high
The wind was blowing to the Land
And lighting lit the sky
Those on the Land. they could disern
A schooner. toiling on
The waves they washed Her stem to stern
That made them cry. she’s gone
The Rocks were standing right ahead
Just in the schooner’s track
when all at once the Captain said
said we.ll go right on her back
The Crew assembled around the mast
They saw all hope was gone
They.d done their best until the last
Then put the life belts on
Just then the Captains voice was heard
Amidst the awful roar
Men. Just let us pray a word
We.re going down that’s sure
unless the Lord will hear our prayer
Oh Lord. do save this ship
Our souls we know are in thy care
Thou art almighty Yet
Now Lads. Let’s Join in our Last song
And sing it from the Heart
You know that God is always stong
He may Yet take our part

They knelt upon that wave washed back
To Heaven. they turned their face
But on that deck. there Christ they met
And gave them help and grace
They sang. Hide me Ho my saviour hide
Till the storm of Life is past
Safe into the haven guide
Ho. receive my soul at Last
But when they looked. the ship had past
And left the rocks behind
They knelt again around the mast

115
And sang these very lines.
Plenteous grace with thee is found
Grace to cover all my sins
Let the healing stream abound
With the shadow of thy wings
The Captain went and marked the chart
With words we.ve oft times sung
And these are they we’ll try and start
To sing with heart and tounge
Rock of Ages Cleft for me
Let me Hide myself in thee
Let the water and the Blood
From thy river side which flows
Be of sin the double cure
Safe from wrath and make me pure
The Captain took me by the Hand
And said God does hear prayer
Because that day off Scottish Land
He came to us out there
_________________

W Heath

Editor’s Note: Lines 33 through 36 and 41 through to line 43 appear to be from a hymn
titled “Jesus, Lover of my soul” with the lyrics attributed to Charles Wesley (Hymnary.org). Of
note, Heath has replaced the hymn’s lyric of “O” with “Ho”. Line 49 through line 54 are
arguably from a hymn titled “Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me” with lyrics attributed to Augustus
Toplady, written in 1776 (Hymnary.org). Heath’s use of the two manuscript pages on which this
poem is found is curious; line 28 is followed by four unused lines, and line 32 is followed by one
blank line. The quoted lyrics from the hymn “Jesus, Lover of my soul” are presented in a stanza
form, as replicated here, while the quoted lines from the hymn “Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me” are
included in the poem with no delineation. Yet again, Heath’s signature is found at an extreme
angle in the lower most right-hand corner of the page.
Signed. Undated.

116
The Harbour is found
I’ve found the Harbour for my heart
For it to Harbour in
To shield myself from all thats dark
From storms that’s caused by sin
Though storms should come. and trials too
I.m safe from all the waves
God is my Father. Christ is true
He.s snatched me from the Grave
My sails were blown from off the masts
I.d lost my bearings too
But Christ. He took me in his grasp
He.s proved a Pilot true
I nearly got upon the Rocks
Was drifting with the tide
My Barge received a sudden shock
By waves that came broadside
But on the waves I saw a Man
Approaching near my Barge
He saw my helpless state. and ran
And bid my fears depart
He took the Helm in His own hand
And caused the waves to fall
The winds did ease. I saw the Land
It was the Harbour wall
My Barge. it glided through the mouth
We anchored in the calm
And then I heard the Pilot shout
Put in the oil and Balm
My heart was full. my Eyes as well
I asked Him for his name
When He did answer go and tell
I heal the sick and Lame
My name is peace. He then did say
What is thy name.
my Friend
I answered sinner., and asked my way
He said. thy steps I will attend
The Tears came rolling down my face
And thanks came to my heart
As he supplied me with His grace
My tears were forced to start
Weep I must. and weep I will
Why should I stay my tears

117
He made my heart with grace to thrill
And took away my fears
My Barge is safe. Im anchored now
Im lashed against the shore
I.m lashed with prayer and solemn vows
This Pilot I adore
I cannot dry my falling tears
My tears they will not stop
For I am Free and nought to fear
He.s brought me to the top
I now can view myself from there
The shoals__ and rocks within
I can sail past. with ease by prayer
Because the Pilot.s in
Oh soul of mine. Oh Breathe the air
And catch that Holy Breath
The Breath of life that’s known by prayer
That carries me through death
At morn. at noon. at night I.m thine
I’m thine no matter where
As peace and love on me now shines
For Christ has answered prayer.
______________
End
W Heath
Signed. Undated.

118
Round the Bivouac fire
Round the bivouac fire. at midnight. Lay the weary warrior Band.
Bloody were their spears with slaughter: gore was each Hero’s hand.
For the ghastly fight was ended: from each soul a whisper came
God of Battles: we have triumphed: Hallowed be thy might name
It was beautiful at midnight. when the Bloody war was done.
When the Battle clashed no longer. And no longer blazzed the sun.
Calmly. in the balmy starlight. to repose outwearied limbs
Not a sound to stir the stillness. save the sound of Holy Hymns
Thou has given us the glory. Thou hast cast our foes to shame
God of Battles we have triumphed. Hallowed be thy might name
Thou hast given us the Glory: thou hast bade our troubles cease
Thou art great as God of Battles. Thou art best as God of Peace.
Peaceful was the world around them: in the peaceful summer sky.
Watched the sentry stars above them, like the look of angel Eyes.
Shone the sentinel stars in splendour on each slumbering heros Head.
And the moonlight gleamed in Glory on the dying and the dead.
Rosily wore the night to morning: cheerily. at their Hearts desire
Sang the soldiers songs of Triumphed. round the ruddy bivouac Fire.
Flushed their faces were with glory. strong were they. and Brave .and tall.
But the tender tears of childhood bathed the bravest face of all.
Pensive, by the gleaming Fire light. mute the lonely warrior stood.
In his Hand a paper grasp He. Scrawled with letters. Large and crude.
In His gory Hands he grasped it. and the Tender childly Fear.
From the manly bosom welling. Bathed the blood upon his spear.
Silent wore the night to morning: silent at their hearts desire.
Watching lay the weary warriors. round the gleaming bivouac fire.
What.s the news from England. comrade: what the sorry news for thee.
From the Friends we left behind us. and our Home beyond the sea
Then the gory paper oped He. Scrawled with Letter. crude and wild
Little news from England comrade. tis a letter from my child
From our merry babes in England. welcome is the news. they said
And the soldiers lay in silence. while the warrior rose and read.

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Oh my Father: what has kept you. you are nigh three years away
It was snow time when you left us. it was morn o new Years Day
Good. by. Baby. until summer. or till christmas time. you said
Oh my Father what has kept you. Summer. Christmas twice have fled
Mother says your war his holy- that you bear a noble name
That you fight for God and Honour. and to shield our home from shame
But I often hear her praying. mark all war. O End. to cease
Thou art great as God of Battles. Thou are best as God of peace
Nigh and morn I pray for Father, in the sunny morning hours
I am often in the garden. I have sown your name in flowers
Like your coat. in flowers of scarlet. all in tulips. soldier red.
Come. before the flowers are faded. come before your name is dead.
Little brother died at Christmas: Mother told me not to tell.
But I think it better Father. for you said. The dead are well.
He was buried side of Mary. Mother since has never smiled.
Till we meet. good bye. dear Father. From your little loving child.
Silent wore the night to morning. silent at their souls desire
Lay the warriors lost in dreaming round the dying bivouac fire
Home were they once more. in England. miles were they from wars alarms
Hark. the sudden Bugle sounding. Hark the cry. to arms. Too Arms.
but from ambush. out from thicket. charged the foreman through the plain
Up. my warriors. arm my heros.strike for God. and Home again.
For our Honer. our Babes. our country. and the ruddy morning light
Flared on brandished falchions bloody still we gore of Yester night
Purple grew the plain with slaughter, steed and rider, side by side.
And the crimson day of carnage in a crimson sun set dried
Shuddering on the field of Battle, glimpsed the starlight overhead
And the moonlight Ghostlike. glimmered on the dying and the dead.
Faint and few around the firelight. were the stretched. outwearied limbs
Faint and few the hero voices that up rose in holy Hymns
Few the warriors Left to whisper. Thou hast cast our foes to shame
God of Battles. we have triumphed. Hallowed be thy mighty name.
On the purple slain of slaughter. who is this that smiles in rest.
With a shred of gory paper lying on His mangled breast.
Nought remaining. save a fragment. Scrawled with letters crude and wild
Till we meet. good by. Dear Father. from your little loving child
Raise him softly. Lift him gently. staunch his life blood ebbing slow

120
He is breathing. He is whispering. what is this He murmurs now.
Saved. my child. my Home. my country. Father. give my pangs relief
Thou art great as God of Battles. Thou are best as God of peace.

Copied

End

Editor’s note: In line 21, the word “Fire” appears above and between “gleaming light”,
suggesting that this word was added later. In line 30, the ink marking between “morn” and “new
Years Day” is noteworthy; the mark appears as a small oval and may indicate an ampersand or
may be an incomplete “on”. As it most closely resembles a lower case “o”, I have included that
single letter in transcription. In line 65, the unusual phrase “slain of slaughter” is found; it is
arguable that the poet intended this phrase to be plain of slaughter. However, the script is clear in
that the first letter of “slain” is as definite an “s” as that of the word “slaughter”, and other words
in the manuscript that clearly contain the letter “s”. As it is undoubtedly an “s” beginning the
word “slain” I have retained this accidental as it is written. In line 56, the phrase “brandished
falchions” refers to a weapon typically used between the 13th and 16th century. It is unclear from
the poem as to whether it represents a historical battle or a fictional one, despite clues that it is an
English army battling on foreign land for more than two years. In the ninth stanza, the child’s
letter suggests that Father was expected home by Christmas; this suggest that it references the
Second or Great Boer War: “the British public expected it to be over by Christmas” (Thomas
Pakenham 9). The inclusion of the word “Copied” at the poem’s end is curious as it is the only
poem in the manuscript to do so. Due to this nod toward the poem being a possible reproduction
as well as the absence of the author’s signature, it may be that this poem is the work of another
author. However, this assertion cannot be confirmed; there are many other poems that also do
not include the author’s signature. However, none of the other poems included the word
“Copied”. Further, “Copied” is placed in the lower right-hand corner of the page and is placed on
a forty-five-degree angle, in a similar fashion to Heath’s signature seen elsewhere in the
manuscript. While the theme and spirit of this poem are like that of many of the other works in
the manuscript that are signed by the author, this poem is more sophisticated in its complexity of
language, rhythm, and theme. Further, it is one of the longest poems, and has the longest lines of
all the poems. The poem draws heavily on Christian scripture with repeated references to a God
of peace as well as battle, God’s intervention on behalf of the righteous, God’s name as being
hallowed, and the endowment of glory. The poem’s accidentals, particularly unusual spelling
such as “Honer” rather than honour, and the use of a period like mark where a comma would
seem more appropriate, are like those seen in poems throughout the manuscript. It is my
assertion that this poem is the work of William Heath, and that the word “copied” is because the
author composed this poem at a different time and place, and then included it in this manuscript.
Unsigned. Undated.

121
A Little Child
The child is tired with playing about.
It simply lays its head
It is not troubled with doubt
As its simple prayer is said
Lord pity me a little child
And teach me how to pray
And though I cannot count my sins
Just take them all away
It is then carried to its bed
And on the pillow lays its head
And soon is fast asleep
A Gentle smile creeps oer its face
That has a touch of heavenly grace
So innocent_____ yet so deep
No thought of trouble or of care
Of which. it has not yet a share
To interfere with sleep
It simply lays and sleeps away
The night. until the dawn of day
The sleep to it is sweet
At early morn when it as dawned
The Hour. its presence it adorns
With child like fear and love
It creeps up to your weary face
Says dada. we must say grace
So Innocent. Yet so pure
It touches a chord in your own heart
And to your Eyes a tear does start
And silently endured.
You think. Ho if my days that now are past
And sounding Years bring nigh the Last
Had been as pure as thou
My heart Just now would not be pained
Nor would my head be hung with shame
At my past life just now
Ho breathe on me thy Holy breath
And may my heart to sin be deaf
Ho. breathe on me Just now
And as a child so Just so mild
But with that same sweet loving smile
Accept my proffered love
Unsigned. Undated.

122
My Dream
I had a dream. A frightful dream
It haunts my troubled brow.
In that dream myself was seen
How vile my heart is now
My hopes were wrecked. my life was sad
I.d done a sinful act
That made my wife to go right mad
And people shuned my track
My children turned their back on me
They would not see my face
With sin. I.d made myself too free
My past life sad to trace
My friends they cut me like a knife
They would not even speak
I thought I.d end my very life
My trouble was so deep
A Friend at last came to my aid
With tears. and cries. and prayer
Until my past began to fade
I awoke Just then and there
I knew my wife was fast asleep
My children likewise too
I could not help but start and weep.
And thought____ if this were true.
And even now upon my mind
That dream has left a mark
Like sin. it always leaves behind
A pain. that cant depart.
The soul. and mind within my frame
By sin. can be so sad
That it may turn the Human brain
As my dream nearly had
But Ho the springs of Holy Joy
The calmness in the Heart
An Holy thought. It ne.er anoys
Nor leaves an aching smart
There is no pain from Holy fear.
The mind knows what is rest
A Holy life is very dear
By God is always blest
The Human soul with pure thoughts
We cannot tell its worth
Its not a dream. it cant be bought
Yet it may have a Birth

123
In this poor Heart thats had a dream
That now is wide awake
A pure life is always seen
By God. For Jesus sake.
Signed. Undated.

W Heath

124
What Man Eats
The food we get when first we come
Upon this stage of life
It must be good. we.ve all had some
Tis milk. we thought it nice.
We there do start with milk and Bread
Of course it should be boiled
Because a child on raw milk feed.
Its stomach will be spoiled.
In time we get a little tea.
Of course its mixed with water.
But its not always good to see.
When drinking from a saucer.
But then in Ernest we do start.
And Eat Just what we like.
I.ll tell you if you.ll only hark.
To what I say to night.
They bring us Beef and Mutton too.
Potatoes. Cabbage as well
perhaps a little Irish stew
I think stew is a sell
Some call it Hash to get it passed
But call it what you like
I think this stew is often hashed
Both morning noon. and night
Yorkshire pudding. apple pie.
or sago in a dish.
It all comes right we cant deny.
sometimes they give us fish.
But man was Born to Eat to live.
And so He gets his share.
so if attention you will give,
I.ll call there name with care.

125
Beef. Mutton. Cabbage and Peas.
Berry and plum pie.
Yorkshire pudding if you please.
Cow heel and pigs fry.
Pork. Ham. and potted meat.
And salmon in a tin.
Tripe sometimes it is a treat.
But Hash we cant take in.
A Bit of beer that make sound queer___
And Bacon that is fryed.
But stew or Hash we always fear.
And so we pass it bye.
Peas are good. and pancakes too
And so is fresh made Butter
Milk is good if not too Blue
But Hash we always cut her
Jam tarts and Currant Bump.
And Custards they will do.
Lemon cheese we Eat like fun.
But Hash it turns us Blue.
Roast Duck. or Rabbit pie.
Is Just the thing for me.
But if its hash Im rather shy.
As we can not agree.
Hash is hash, Just let it pass.
And let me have some Ham.
But when its hash I think its hash.
I.d rather have some Lamb.
They say that hash and stew are good.
I know its good for trade.
But when its hash you always should.
Just tell of what its made.
So if you give me one invite
To dine when I.ve no cash.
Upon my word. I’ll get a fright
If you do hand me hash.
Begon, thou mass of Boiled potates

126
Begon, thou mass of hash
Begon, thy name I fairly hate
Begon., thou tater Hash

W Heath

Editor’s Note: “What Man Eats” provides one of the few poetic examples where Heath
departs from his characteristic focus on faithfulness and virtue and delves into wit. Heath’s
description of a working-class Victorian diet provides insight into the fare of the Victorian
period, albeit with a droll but refreshing twist. Included in this poem are further examples of
accidental spellings such as “Begon”, “potates”, and “can not” which define Heath’s work.
Again, we find Heath’s signature on the lower most right corner of the page, angled upward,
with the end portion of the signature underlined.
Undated. Signed.

127
The British Lion
One day. a man got such a fright
His name was Mr Kruger
He thought He would the British bite
In fact He would pursue her.
He quoted scripture all the time
But mixed it with decit
But those two things you cant combine
They will not mix so neat
The thought came into his poor Head
This Land shall be for Boers
But oh dear me at Last tis said
The British Lion roared.
He wagged His tail and pawed the ground.
And waited for a chance
To see which way He had to Bound
And Make the Boers to dance.
The British lion had some whelps
Locked up in Cronjes Jungle
It looked which way to give them help
And tried. But had to grumble.
The Boers they Barked from off the Heights
Of Magersfontein where they Lay
The British Lion was in sight
But Boers and Lion stood at Bay.
But one old Lion known as Bobs
He played them such a trick
This move it made them fairly sob
For Bobs He is a brick.
This Lion went a long way out
To spy the young whelps track
The Boers they found without a doubt
That Kimberly whelps were back
To Freedom. that did mean a lot
The Boers. Their freedom robbed
The Boers a name they’ve not forgot
His name is little Bobs.
The Boers then left and off they went
But hard upon their track
Came little Bobs whose mind was bent
To bring poor Cronje back.

128
The Lions worked to left and right
And then to right and left
Also in rear they came in sight
In front He roared with Zest.
Just then He made an awful spring.
And got His paw well down
Until the Boers were wedged right in
By Lions all around.
They caught poor Cronje and His men
As they were in a Fog
And took them to the Lions den
The Den of Little Bobs.
But other Boers then came in sight along.
To see what could be done
But French He gave them such a song
And made them fairly run.
Towards Bloomfontins open door
But Kruger stood out there
He stood aghast. His Heart was sore
For Boers ran everywhere.
The Lion came upon that scene
And gave an awful roar
That frightened Krurer and poor Steyn
And all the other Boers.
Editor’s note: Heaths deftly weaves patriotism and witticisms to provide this albeit biased
account of a key battle during the Second Boer War. In line 22, the poem references
Magersfontein; the Battle of Magersfontein occurred on December 11, 1899 near the Modder
River in the North West of Cape Colony and was a massive defeat of the English at the hands of
Cronje’s Boers (britishbattles.com). This poem references several Boer War key players,
including “Cronje” or the Boer General Pieter A. ‘Piet’ Cronje”, “Bobs” or Field Marshal Lord
Frederick Sleigh Roberts of Kandahar, and “Bloomfontins”, or Bloemfontein, a key location in
the Boer War (history.net). Additionally, Heath references a “Krurer” in the penultimate line;
this may be a reference to President S.J. Paulus Kruger (Fransjohan Pretorius 26). “Bobs”, who
inspired English admiration, was also written of by Rudyard Kipling in three poems, most
notably “Bobs” which was published in the Pall Mall Gazette, December 1893 (Alastair Wilson
par 3). It appears that this would be the conclusion of this poem, but the narrative ends rather
abruptly. The next poem is untitled, and appears to begin at some mid poem state, referencing a
feminine character which is in “statue and in grace”. It is unclear from the manuscript if pages
were removed or fell out. There is no evidence of torn edges in the innermost binding of the
manuscript. While no date or signature for this poem is evident in the manuscript, based on the
poem’s detailed description of the Boer War, it must have been written after at least the battle at
Bloemfontein, which occurred in March 1900 (history.net). The first page of the manuscript is
not bound and is found loose. The first poem is titled “Sunday Schools”, and the overleaf is an
untitled poem with its first line referencing Bloomfontin and follows the Second Boer War battle
there. It may be that this loose page is misplaced, and should fall later with the manuscript, and

129
form part of the poem titled “The British Lion”. This placement would then provide the title of
“Sunday Schools” for the following poem which traces the death of a young girl.
Unsigned. Undated.

130
Untitled
She grew as only Growth can grow
In stature and in grace
And by Her life and ways did show
That she had Christ Embraced.
But just as womanhood was in sight.
Affliction laid its Hand.
On that young frame with all its might
In fact it fairly ran.
But has she lay upon Her bed.
Her Face was full of smiles
But on day to a Friend she said
Oh. Yes. Im recognized
Oh no. to me it is not hard to die
As Christ is always near
You must not weep you must not sigh
As I have nought to fear.
I soon shall be at peace and rest
I do so want to go
As Christ has me so often Blest
Good Night. I.ll meet you too.
Her spirit left that mortal frame
And winged its upward flight
To realms of Bliss where she became
A Witness at the right.
The mortal form was there enclosed
And laid amongst the clay
But to my mind. a thought arose
That Child had learnt to pray.
All this took place Just at this spot
In Newtown. which did bring
A Girl we knew. we.ve not forgot
Her name was minnie spring
God bless our school. we still will sing
Ho lead us kindly light
Just has thou did this Minnie Spring
To Heaven that’s calm and bright.

131

Then. its not true what people say
Its true. A Child takes in
Its true. This Girl did she learn to pray
For Christ called Minnie spring
_______________________________________________________
W Heath
Editor’s note: This poem is untitled, and it may be not a complete poem, but rather a
large fragment. It is unclear from the manuscript’s inner most binding if there are pages missing.
The significance of the place name Newton is unclear; there is a great number of Newtons in
England.
Signed. Undated.

132
Thoughts on Seeing a picture in
Communional street
One day. while walking through the streets
And looking in shop windows
I saw a picture Ho so neat
That told of artists fingers.
The picture was a garden plot
The flowers in full bloom
Composed of Lilies and forgetmenots
And Blossom in perfume.
Amon the grass I saw a chair
A Child was in it layed
By Mothers hands with tender care
And there it still remained
Just at the gate an old man past
With scthye in his right hand
And looking up the garden path
To where the chair did stand.
The Mother came to see Her child
That she had left alright
And found the child with face so mild
That gave Her such a fright.
The child had gone to its repose
Where gone can ere return
It looked so calm. Yet so composed
Not like death thats stern.
But calmness. Peace on that young face
At rest. from all its pains
I looked again. but could not trace
A mark of sin, or shame.
But Ho. that of that poor Mother
As she looked at that child
That look was deeper than a Lover’s
That look it had no guile.
That Mothers face I see just now
In all its pangs of grief
Also the care upon Her brow
That told of anguish deep.
I turned my Back upon that scene
But yet. my mind was fixed
On that dear Face. that I had seen
That morn at Half past six.
we see the Tears from Mother’s Eyes
we cannot see Her heart
We do kno not know those heavy sighs

133
When child and mother parts.
But this we know. Her heart is true
Her mind with goodness shines
A Mothers Love is always new
A Mother’s Love divine.
When ere you see a Mother’s Tears
Just lift a silent prayer
That God may stand so very near
That she may feel His care
And when we go to our rest
May this be in the Book
He breathed a prayer that I did bless
When Mother’s part He took
__________________________
W Heath
Signed. Undated.

134
Cats
They say that we should always love
Of course. I have my doubts
They say that love is like a dove
It always will get out.
There’s things I like and things I dont
But what I like I.ll tell
I dont belive in dont and wont
It does not sound so well
I like a Home thats always clean
And full of pleasant smiles
But if there.s frowns Im often seen
Just missing for a while
I cannot say I love a child
That.s yelling all the day
It makes me get to very wild
With its. Yay. Yay. Yay.
I cannot say I love a dog.
That always likes to Bite
Id rather hit it with a clog.
When it comes in my sight
I cannot say I love the man
That calls for income tax
Last time He called He fairly ran
The speed it stopped His watch
Now just you fancy some fine man
When you are fast asleep
A man to stand a blow a Horn
Right in your very street
Out of your Bed of course you get
And feeling for a match
Instead of match. a chair is met
Your Big toe nearly smashed
You cannot love that nasty man
You.d wish He ne’er were Born
And hatred in your Breast would form
To smash the man and Horn.
suppose you had a Garden plot
And full of nice sweet flowers
Roses. Lilies. Forgetmenots
And little shady bowers

135
And some old Cat comes crawling on
All through your flowery bed
And all at once He sings a song
Enough to wake the dead
And knock the flower pots off the stands
And pulls up all the soil
You could not stroke it with your Hands
And on your Knees to coil
No. You.d race that Cat with all your might
And hit it with a Brick
And set the dog to get a bite
Shouting. catching His kick.
That cat you.d hate and always would
You could not love that Cat
I know you.d think it was no good
To love a thing like that.
A Yelling Child I cannot bear
A Biting dog I dread
A nasty Horn I always fear
And Cats I wish were dead.
I love a Child that does not cry
I like a faithful dog.
A nasty Horn I.d like it shied
Into a dirty Bog.
But Cats. No cats. those nasty cats
I mean those that do fight
Not with mice. or even Rats
But those that fight a night
I.d put them all in one Large barn
In some deserted spot.
And paint this sign. they.ll do no harm
As they are all forgot
This is the Home of fighting Cats
They.re all packed in this shed
They cant get out. we.ve seen to that
Because they all are dead
So rest in peace. Their fightings done.
You ne.ver will say whats that.
Their days is past. we.ve had the fun
With all the Screaming Cats.
___________________________________
Unsigned. Undated.

136
The flowers Christ represents
____ ____
_____
We view the fields from where we stand.
White Clover. we behold.
Our thought they gather in a Band
For Clover.s. tale is told.
It means remember. think of me.
Then Hope. will come in view.
Think of me. we then agree
To be both firm and true.
The Rose that’s white it has a scent
Its fragrance is most sweet.
We little know that it was sent
By Him that once did weep.
I.m worthy of our noble mind
The white rose calls to you.
To let your heart be so Entwined
That grace may you pursue.
The Ivy clings so very fast
Sound Friendship it does mean.
And clings. and clings so very fast
When nothing Else is seen.
And thus we see its meaning
Of friendship’s honest grasp.
Like Christ is always leaning
From first until the last.
It brings our minds until we see
grand Heliotrope so bold.
And makes the Heart so good and free
As we devotion hold.
And thus we see the passion flower.
That means through faith. I will
From now. be under Christs own power
That He my heart may thrill.
But has we near the flowers named.
And grasp what they do mean.
Our thoughts. begin to be so trained
That God is often seen.
But how to write on one I .ve seen see
Its depth. and meaning too.

Think of Me

I.m worthy of you

Friendship

Devotion

137
I feel as if I.d rather flee
Its meaning is so true.
The water lily is so white
We stand against some stream.
And try to reach with all our might
A Lily we have seen.
And if we grasp it in our Hand.
It soon by us is spo soiled.
It is too white for any man
Who.s heart by sin is spoiled.
There.s only one upon this Earth
Thats worthy of this flower.
It is a Child. Just from its Birth
That.s brought loves gentle power.
The Child is clean in natures mind.
It has no thought of wrong.
Its like a Lily. pure. refined
Where sin has never gone.
But yet. we may approach this flower
And touch its tender stem.
And has we touch. there comes a shower
That grace can only send.
The Ivy. Clover. and white rose.
And Lily. pure and white.
Suggests. Inspires. also propose
That man shall Christ invite.
but gaze upon a flowery Bed
Without a serious thought.
Be careful how this life you tread
Or flowers to you are nought.
But say I will an Ivy Be.
An Heliotrope I like.
This life will then be rich and free
And like a Lily. white.
And when this life Just like a flower.
Begins to droop and fade.
Around your Heart will be a power
That never can decay.
You.ll fix your Eye on something white,
The Mind. will be at rest.
That white will be an Heavenly light
By Lilies own request.
Signed. Undated.

Purity of Heart

application

Wm Heath

138
A Mother’s Grief
When you speak of a Battle as glorious.
When you loudly praise Victories won.
do you ever think of the heart broken Mother
Who silently mourns for Her son.
that
He was all I had she cries.
He was my comfort and Joy.
Oh. why did they take him from me
Oh. why did they slay my Boy.
His Father fell fighting for homeland,
When my Boy was but a mere child.
And manys the time He has cheered me
When grief seemed to be driving me wild.
His innocent. Happy. Boyish ways.
His constant prattling tounge
Has bidden one take heart again
When my mind was well nigh unstrung.
And nightly I prayed by his little Bed,
For God’s blessing to crown his sweet sleep.
And from all trials great or small
My darling Boy to Keep.
And when He grew into Manhood.
No longer a thoughtless Lad
I watched him gaze upon for hours upon
The likeness of his Dad.
Whilst I unfolded the history.
Of his father long since dead.
Who for his Queen and country
His noble Blood had shed.
I did not for one moment think
Of what the cost would be,
Until at last it was too late
And my Boy was torn from me.

139
For the gallant deeds of his father
Inspired his Youthful Breast.
And soon. Alas. too soon for me
He joined in with the rest.
And now I gaze on a vacant chair.
He never more can fill.
For my Boy. the Idol of my heart
Was slain at Glencoe Hill.
When you speak of the glories of Battles
of each gallant victory won.
Just pray for a Heart Broken Mother,
Who silently mourns for her son.
W Heath
Editor’s Note: The reference to a battle at Glencoe Hill may be a reference to the
Massacre of Glencoe, which took place in the highlands of Scotland in 1692 (britanicca.com).
Given Heath’s other poetry which references the Boer War, the Glencoe Hill in this poem is
more likely a reference to the first battle of the Great Boer War, the Battle of Talana Hill, also
known as the Battle of Dundee and the Battle at Glencoe Hill which occurred during October of
1899. This elegiac poem of young lost in battle may pay tribute to the fifty-one British
causalities during this battle. A further 150 men were captured. (britishbattles.com).
Signed. Undated.

140
Tears tell tales
We see the child stand round the grave
And tears are falling fast.
She’s weeping for those whom she craves
That.s gone from Home at last.
We see the prisoner in the back.
And tears are streaming down.
That Handsome Lad who’s mind is shocked
Now Justice on him found
We see the child thats wandered far
Away from mother’s love and so dear.
Its childish ways are now so marred
That brings it childish tears.
We stand upon some lending stage.
And watch the people pass
Until our minds become Engaged
On Scenes that always last.
We see a strong and stalwark man
Upon a liners deck.
With tears that down his cheeks fair ran
That left his cheeks all wet.
He waves His hand to those on shore
And wipes his his tearful Eye.
Because He may not see no more
Those that have said good Bye.
But Yet. there is another sight.
That is not often seen,
And tears just tell of what is right
And what those tears do mean.
That sight is one that makes God smile.
The sight is Just a man.
That on His Knees for Just a while
Who’s prayer God has just formed,
And as the prayer does upward go
His tears begin to fall
Not tears of pain. or trouble. no.
Nor tears thats known to all.
The man Just weeps. He cant tell why.
He simply prays. and weeps.
Those tears they tell that Christ is nigh
The shepherd of the sheep.
Just gaze into that weeping face
And see the upturned Eye.
You.ll find that face is full of grace
That no one can deny.

141
Those are the tears thats never lost.
The Father see’s those tears.
He knows alone what they have cost
To God they are so dear.
When ere you see a person weep.
Be careful how you tread.
Be thoughtful. wise. someone may Keep
Your thoughts. and words you.ve said.
Just let a silent tear roll down.
It never will be lost.
Some day you.ll find it on a Crown
Its worth. and what it cost.
These word may be fixed on that tear
This tear was caught be me.
It glistened with an Holy fear
When on His private knee
__________________________________________________________
Signed. Undated.

W Heath

142
Relief of Mafeking Friday May 19th
City Square
I stood and watched a Crowd of men
Of various types and shapes.
And has I watched, I heard just then
A sound that always takes.
I watched those men. they all stood still.
And listened too that sound.
That came with sweetest notes that thrill
The soul that Honours Bound.
The song that came upon the air
Was on they heard before
Some hummed the Tune just then and there.
For song our Hearts adore.
This song came floating in the air
And all took up its strain.
And has they sang with Head.s all bare
This was the grand refrain
shall old acquaintance be forgot
And never brought to mind.
We.ll take the cup of Kindness yet
For the days of old Land syne.
The reason of this Happy throng
Was news. of sweetest Joy.
That told of Mafeking safe and strong
That had been so annoyed.
Someone shouted Three times three.
And then a grand Hurrah.
This day is Mafeking sound and free
The Enemey’s scattered far.
But in that crowd that was a man
That struck a splendid chord.
That touched the Heart. the song fair fanned
A song we all adore
So long thy power hath blest me
sun it still will lead me on
on moor and Fen or Craig and torrent till
The night is gone.
my voice it Joined in with the rest
I could not keep it Back.
I thought how we had been so blest
Under the union Jack.
God bless the land we love so dear.
May Righteousness abound.

143
May peace and love always be near
prosperity be found.
It will be so when we have men
Of Baden powell’s stamp.
That Kept the Boers from powell.’s den
And made them Homeward tramp.
The union Jack it still does fly
May it always be seen
And Blest by Him that.s always nigh
That.s Blest our gracious queen.
God bless our Land. our native land
The Land’s that’s always been
Surrounded th By the guiding Hand
That gave us such a Queen.
__________________________________
Editor’s Note: The rejoicing Heath describes here is confirmed in the Pall Mall Gazette of
Saturday, May 19, 1900 which describes the “roar of cheering” as well as “waving flags and
handkerchiefs” (Britishnewspapersarchive.co). Richard Cavendish also notes that the relief was
“greeted with hysterical rejoicing in Britain after the disasters of the earlier days of the war.
Riotous flag-waving crowds sang, danced and cheered themselves hoarse for hours on end” (53).
The patriotism Heath writes of here is juxtaposed with other poems which depict the hardships
and personal loss which accompany war.
Unsigned. Undated.

144
Sacramental Service
We stand in front and gaze upon
A Glass composed of Earth.
And we can see our features from
This glass that shows us dirt.
But yet there is a looking glass
That ne.er by man were made.
Composed of prayer from First to last
And Hung in private shades.
We Kneel in front. and gaze into
This glass. that does reflect
The marks. That always are so true
When sin our Hearts have met.
And has we trace the many spots.
We stand. and gaze in awe
Because these marks that we have got
Are there by broken Laws.
We weep in private. at the Thought
That we have been so wild.
And gaze into this glass which sought
Reflection. good. and mild.
And has we gaze. we always find
An hatred. deep and strong.
Fixed. and firm in our minds
That self is always wrong.
We gaze into that Hallowed glass
A Face. we do behold.
That Face is always first and last
When we devotion hold.
I see that Face by my Hearts Eye.
That Face. it has no mark.
That face. I find is always nigh
When pure is the Heart.
Behold that Face. That holy Face.
That face whose lines you read.
That face where sin you cannot trace
That face we all do need.
Well may I close my sinful Eye.
And hide my blushing face.
When sin in me is always nigh
And sin I always trace.
I can be clean, not like that Face.
I can be pure. But how.
By gazing on what I now trace
Ho Lord accept my vow.

145
Breathe on my sinful soul. Oh do.
And on my min . Heart. oh trace
And find something I know know thats true
A smile from that dear face
W Heath
Signed. Dated.

May 21 1900

146
Music
Thou gentle. soothing. Hallowed sound.
That floats upon the air.
A lodgement in my heart thou’s found
T.was carried there by prayer.
Thy graceful. Healing Christ like Balm
Restore’s to Life the dead.
Thou makes the storm to be a calm
And cheers the drooping Head.
Music. Thou art a native not of Earth
Thy native place is Heaven.
On Earth. we do not Know thy worth
By God to us was given.
We.ll sing the same sweet gentle strain
Inhale thy Heavenly Breeze.
so that thy notes may come again
Through Him whom we belive.
Music. Thy charms to me are Dear.
Music. Thou’s touched my Heart.
Music. Thy Friendship is sincere
And healing is thine art.
Where there’s music I will dwell.
I.ll worship at its shrine.
And with my voice its love I’ll tell
And breathe its air divine.
The Angles know thy gentle art.
They sent some notes to Earth.
That found a Home in some poor Heart
The day of Jesu’s Birth.
Ho soul of mine. Just catch that sound.
Inhale its sweetest Breath.
so that thy music may be found
In my poor soul at Death.
No discord will my life then hear.
My voice will never tire.
I.ll sing the songs I love so dear
That does my soul inspire.
Thou purefying Holy flame
Refining is thy theme.
Thy touch it always is the same
Awake.
likewise in Dream.
Be near. and be my constant guest.
I ne.er from thee will part.
I ask. I crave at Christs request
To Harmonize my heart.

147
Thy notes will carry me above
on wings of sweetest air.
And bye thy stream thats full of love
I.ll decorate with prayer.
I.ll weave my prayer around thy notes
With songs of Holy Breath.
so that thy spirit may denote
That music knows no death.
come near and be my bless me when awake.
come near me in my sleep.
come near me for my saviours sake
Thy Virtues are so sweet.
And when this life is past in song.
I.ll still thy life inhale
For pure then shall be my tounge
To sing the Heavenly scale.
WHeath July 2nd 1900
Signed. Dated.

148
Faults
My faults and failings I never see.
I.m always in the right.
Myself from wrong. I’m always free
s selfish is my Sight.
But when my Thoughts private thoughts do pause
And view my inmost mind.
I always first some broken Laws
That.s left a pain behind.
I then review what I have done
And bring them all in view.
The penetrating Searching sun
Just finds my virtues few.
It shows to me my feeble frame.
My mind my will. how weak.
It make.s me know I am to blame
Myself I cannot keep.
It brings in Sight a perfect Tree.
And on it Branches laid.
Are Virtues which by Faith I see
Thats never known to fade.
I see the Tree. I.ll take a root.
And plant it in my heart
Then ask the Master just to look
And of his life impart.
I cannot make that root take hold
Unless its watched with care.
Because the soil may be too cold
Unless its warmed with prayer.
I.ll shield it from the cold north wind
And let it face the East.
So that the sun on it may shine
That it may so increase
The Foliage of this pure Tree.
Are peace. and love. and grace.
You smell the Fruit ere it you see
And so the Tree you trace.
Just pull a bit of that fine Branch.
When mercy is so thick
For mercy Ju does the heart Entrance
When mind and Heart are Sick.
The shield your Eyes from selfish love
And pluck the Branch of pure.
You.ll see it if you look above
Tis easy too secure.

149
I.ve touched it. nay I.ve let it slip.
My Hands they were not clean.
I.ll try that Branch to grip
As Mercy can be seen.
The wind of prayer has carried it
And made it swing past me.
Not past. I caught a Bit
When reaching from my knee.
Its white. too white for my poor hands.
Too clean for my poor heart.
And Yet it came at my demands
For mercy took my part.
Oh may the fragrance of thy Breath
Keep me clean and white.
So that in life. also in death
This Branch may be in Sight.
I.ll fix thee with my private prayer.
Encompass Thee in love
And with my life. Ill try to share
Thy fruit I see above.
WHeath
July 2nd
1900.
____________

150
Love, pure Love
It staggers when there are vile thoughts.
It Blushes like a flower.
It has to grow. it cant be bought
And grows in shady Bowers.
It will not grow with seed of vice.
Because they are unclean.
It wont be forced. you may Entice
Its gentle soothing Beam.
Its stem. and roots are always white.
Its leaves are white has well.
You see its radiance in the night
Its fragrance you can tell.
You cannot soil it with your grasp.
Your Heart it must be clean.
If unclean, it stands aghast
When unclean Thoughts are seen.
Its only seen by pure Eyes.
For pure is its name.
It flys away with dread surprise
When there’s a touch of shame.
Ho. unalloyed. and pure love
Come let me dream of thee.
Just let thy nature from above
Sow some seeds in me.
I.d like too dream of what thou art.
I.d like thee in my life
I.d like thee in my weeping Heart
Thy self I will Entice.
I.ll muse. and cherish Thee with grace.
Enclose thee round with prayer.
So I may always see thy Face
And of thy goodness share.
Will thou never visit me.
Will thou never come.
I have been waiting long for thee
And searched the course thou’s run.
Ha’s I see thou’s Hovering near.
Just rest thyself on me.
I.ll feed thee with a love sincere
Come. let us agree.
I.ll wash thy Table with my Tears.
Attend thee with my prayer.
Thy call shall have attentive Ears
Thy sweetness let me share

151
W Heath
July 2nd 1900
Signed. Dated.

152
Sabbath Day
How sweet. serene the day of Rest,
Reviving is its air.
Calm and peaceful it requests
It turns away stern care.
It brings into the Human mind
Invigorating Thought.
Until the Hand of God we find
That we have often sought.
It makes our vision clear. and bright.
Until our Eyes can see
Not far away. but near our sight
Christ the rich. The free.
God rested on the seventh day
And Hallowed it with grace.
And by His smile He caused a ray
Of Bliss that we may trace
Ho sabbath day. thou art a peace
Thy Beams are full of light.
We crave thy light may never cease
To shine upon our sight.
We.ll shield thee with a wall of prayer
Avoid that which is wrong.
So that thy sabbath we may share
And trim it with our song.
Thou art a stream of Holy rest.
Thy Breeze from Heaven came
Thou came at once at God.s request
That Breeze is still the same.
We feel that Breeze when at the shrine.
So soothing is thy rest.
It makes us know what is divine
As thy day is the Best.
Ho. Holy Sabbath. we will Entwine
Around thine Hallowed Day
Our Earnest prayers with love combine
That thou may ne.er decay.
And when our Earthly sabbath’s oer.
Our souls to Thee shall bring
Our feeble thanks. and Thee adore
Our maker and our King.
W Heath June 3rd 1900
Signed. Dated.

153
Thoughts while looking at the sky July 12th 1900
Painters may try to paint a scene
Their soul may be on fire
But they cant paint what I now see
That does my thoughts inspire
No Canvas can be found so Large
No paints however mixed
Can this picture now Enlarge
That does my Thoughts transfixed.
Its Natures Hand that Colours found
Composed of Natures Blue
And white and Brown by Nature Bound
To this Blue that is true.
The sky serene. with tints of green
Have the sky so fine
I now can trace what it does mean
The painter is divine.
Could I but fathom Yond dark cloud
Could I just climb its height
In my might I.d cry aloud
The painter is in sight.
No one can paint like nature’s Hand
No Brush was ever made
No mind can grasp this picture stand
Thats never known to fade.
This sky. it purifies the mind
And makes the sight more clear
We find the sky is Just combined
By one whose pictures dear.
They are so dear. they cant be bought
They only can be seen
These pictures have been often sought
By painters in a dream.
But this is nature. not a dream.
I view Its Hallowed sight.
My mind is wraped in what I.ve seen
That fills me with delight.
In thy presence my head I bow
I cannot understand
This natures picture ere below
Thats drawn by natures Hand.
So full of mystery. Yet there thou art
In natures grand array
Thy Beauty never will depart
Or fade. no Yet decay

154
Finished at 12.0 noon at the open awful Thunder storm
See over
storm
Grand. Sublime. Ho what a sight.
The lightenings vivid flash
The Thunder roars with awful might
Thats followed by a crash.
No one can paint a Thunder clap
Or even seen the cause
This picture does my soul Enwrap
For these are natures Laws.
You cannot catch a lightning streak
Its speed was never told.
The lightning. Thunder. Nature keeps
When it is warm and cold.
We ll breathe the name of God with care
Our whole life should combine
To ask who can this God compare
For He is all divine.
While on the Earth we.ll Breathe thy air,.
Which is thy Holy Breath.
Our Thoughts shall now ascend in prayer
To God that knows no death.
Composed by W Heath July 13 1900
_________________________________________
Editor’s note: This is may be two separate poems, or a larger poem with two distinct
parts, with the overarching theme of the unsettling nature of a storm which links them. The
words “see over” are the author’s own, and the portion titled “storm” appears on the other side of
the page to the first part.
Signed. Dated.

155
Keep Smiling
When ere you see a little child
Just help it in its play.
T.will make you gentle meek. and mild
And will some Joys repay.
Remember you were once a child
And someone played with you
Although those days have past awhile
They do some scenes renew.
A merry child is free from care
It does not know whats wrong.
It only knows the Bright. the fair
And innocent its tounge.
What we are our child will be
Its full of Imatation.
It only copies what it sees
It is God.s own Creation.
A ugly child was never Born
For what is pure is good.
And what is good should not be shown
Until its understood.
A Child is simple. Blithe and free
It does not know a care.
Then let us take it on our knee
And of its sweetness share
Although I.m old I once were Young
Although I.m old. I hear
A gentle sound from Mother’s Tounge
That was a smile sincere
Therefore if man should like a smile
A child must love one too
So let us smile upon a child
Because its love is true.
A smile is cheaper than a frown
It brings us Joys untold.
But if we frown it Just brings down
A feeling that is cold.
Then always smile on those thats Young.
And smile on age as well.
And when thy smiles on Earth are done
A tale too thee I tell.
Then let us smile in word and Deed
Our Thought to with smiles aspire
To droop drop a smile on those in need

156
And then too Heaven retire.
WHeath July 16th 1900
Editor’s note: I have retained the author’s spelling of tongue as tounge. The OED Oxford
English Dictionary advises that “The natural modern English repr. Of Old English tunge would
be tung, as in lung, rung, sung (and as the word is actually pronounced); but the Middle English
device of writing on for un brought in the alternative tonge with variants tounge, townge…….
The spelling tongue is thus neither etymological nor phonetic and is only in a very small degree
historical.” (OED)
Signed. Dated

157
Principle
Thou art a meaning deep and strong
Thou dwells in heart and mind.
Sometimes thou says to vice begone
I will some virtues find.
I know that man is frail and weak
But with me He is strong.
And with my strength He guides his feet
Away from what is wrong.
I build around where I do dwell
A wall composed of care
I never tknew the man that fell
When guided by my prayer
Temptation comes to every one
No matter who they be.
But with my no at once its done
For principle is free.
A fool can travel with the tide
When principle is gone.
But when I help I always guide
Against the tide thats on.
I.ve never lost a single soul
Although the storm may rage.
The winds may blow the billows roll
But I their strength can gauge
With my no. the Tempter.s gone
My path is clear from strife.
My No is full of manly song
That sings to me Through life.
Just clasp my virtues to my Heart.
I.ll be thy constant Friend.
I never will from Thee depart
As strength I always send.
(Resolve)
Come. I will thy life inhale
Come Principle too me
I.ll be a man although Im frail
I.ll be a man thats free
Upright. Noble. free from vice
Free from Human woe.
Guided by thy good advice
The advice known as no.
Success to what I now have done
May peace and Hope combine
To make my life a noble one
By principle’s Divine

158
W Heath 16th July 1900
Signed. Dated.

159
A Letter to Mr George Cooper
You said I.d set your soul on fire
By thought.s I put in words.
It only proves that we inspire
Someone by what theyve heard.
We each Express in our own way
Our thoughts. our life in deeds
Therefore my Friend a moment stay
And pluck the growing weeds.
The spring of Thought will there arise
Thou.ll catch the rhymes flame
And to thine Heart with glad surprise
Will come thy rhyme again.
Take up thy pen and let it write
And let thy Ink be Thought.
Then on thy paper put a light
That is so often sought.
On thy desk where thou does lean
Just dust it with sincere.
Thy writing then will always mean
The pure spring is near.
What is our Rhyme unless its clean.
It is not fit to read
Its like a Fever that does mean
Contagious is the seed.
But if our Thoughts do rise and soar
On wings of pure air.
some Heart or mind that may be sore
May find a solace there.
Then let the fire of thy thought
Be kindled by thine Heart.
Thou must. Thou should. Thou really ought
To take a rhymes part.
we ne.er shall come this way again
so let us always try.
To write our Thoughts in such a way
That they may never dry.
Think and write while thou as time
Then when thy days are past
Thy thoughts in words that Thou as Rhymed
Be on thy Tombstone cast.
Here lies a man. That put His thoughts
In words. and made them Rhyme
Although He.s gone. His Rhyme is sought

160
By those with pure minds
WHeath July 14th 1900
Editor’s Note: The Mr. George Cooper in this poem may refer to the American Christian
hymn writer (1840-1927) (Hymnary.org). However, this is only supposition as no concrete
relationship between the poem and a specific George Cooper can be determined based on the
poem’s text.
Signed. Dated.

161
Thoughts while in Bed
Im laid upon this Bed of pain
And all is quiet within
My Thoughts they crowd upon the Brain
That Bitterness does bring
I.m thinking what I have not done
Although I vowed I.d do.
To be both firm and true to me
That has been to me been true.
My past it haunts me like a Ghost
Its there both day and night
I cannot say with any boast
That sin is not in Sight.
The vileness of my Evil heart
Disturbs my peace of mind.
Although not seen. I feel its smart
That.s left remorse behind.
Remorse for past deeds I have done
I cant remove its strains
I cant remove a single one
The past.
my mind sustains.
But. Though my mind does look in rear
And though it is so pained
There is a voice I often hear
That ne.er by sin was stained.
That voice is speaking now to me
Ho Heart. Just take me in.
I am He that liveth Free
Thou cleanseth all thy sin.
I love them that love me
And those that seek shall find.
Come unto me and be ye free
And peace rest on your mind.
Come in. Thou Heavenly gentle dove
And be my constant guest.
I feel thy unction from above
That came at Christs request.
Sit on the Throne of my poor Heart
And let me Bathe thy feet.
With Tears of Joy because thou art
My Hallowed mercy seat.
Could I but always live Just here
Where all is pure within.
Could I but always be sincere
And always free from Sin.

162
But thou art hold of my poor Heart Hand
And Thou art in my Heart
Around me thou does always stand
And where I am Thou art.
Then. I can always live like this
If self be left behind
And I may always have this Bliss
That in my Heart I find.
Love. and peace. I see thy form.
Mercy all in white
Ho let these virtues me adorn
Thou gently kindly light.
WHeath July 17th 1900
Signed. Dated.

163
A Letter to Mr George

Lawson

When you are laid upon Your Bed
Some thoughts may come into your Head
Some in gloom and some in light
Some may perplex and cause you fear
And to your Eyes may come a tear
And to our Hopes a Blight
No one may see or hear or know
The pain of mind while ere below.
All caused by passing Thought.
And thus you keep all in your Breast
That robs you of your Earthly rest
That you have often sought.
Yet. in the dark and silent night
There is a ray of coming light
To those that only wait
We see the lights sweet gentle Beam
Sometimes awake. also in dream
We can its Beams partake.
Therefore we ll try and trace the Beam
From when it comes. not when its seen
But when is out of Sight
The clouds they gather oer our Head
We see them with a fear and dread
But yet there is a light.
That light is flashed with Faithful Hope
That does some help at once denote
Its flashed upon our way.
We see the shadow of that light.
Its not a shadow. Its too Bright
This shining gentle ray.
The sun may be kept from our Sight
But yet it sheds its glorious light
It never stops to rest.
It sheds its Beams on You and me
Its course is always rich and free
So pure is His Breast.
We.ll gather round that shining light
That comes upon our faithful sight

164
And let its rays impart
A sweetness to our Hearts and Mind
So that some day its rays may find
An Heaven in our Heart.
Ho ray of light Be thou my Friend
And let thy rays just now decend
And always on us shine
And if this Heart be touched with fear
Just let thy ray of Hope be near
And round our Heart Entwine.
Our fear at once will disappear
If Thou Ho ray of Hope be near
Ho rest on us Just now
And bless us with thine Holy ray
With Hopefuls cup so That it may
put strength in our love.
Ray of light turn on thy Beams.
And let it rest upon our dreams
And on us when awake.
Then we.ll feel its heat
Awake. Asleep. nay at this Hour
Just for Jesu’s sake.
William Heath July 18th. 1900.
Editor’s Note: It is unclear who the George Lawson referenced in the poem is; research
suggests that this name is far too prevalent to support even potential subjects that would be
related to the poem.
Signed. Dated

165
MY THOUGHTS ON A CHRISTIAN LIFE, AND END.
It is a journey we all make, And bound to make the trip,
We can’t forsake, the trip we take, We must stick to the ship,
Until the harbour we are in, And safely from the storm,
We must throw overboard the sin, Of formality and form.
The Captain points us to the land, That we can just discern,
He points to us the shifting sand, And says of me ye learn
To sail the craft o’er sunken rocks, To shun the breakers too,
Although the crew sometimes may mock, the Captain’s always true.
And if He leaves us for a time, the Pilot takes the bridge,
And be the weather wet or fine, The sail Himself He rigs,
Until the sails are all stretched out, And also full of wind,
He cries aloud, just tack about, The harbour we shall win,
He cries, behold the harbour lights, Just steady that main sail,
We see the land, it is in sight, Christ never never fails.
And as the harbour mouth we reach, There’s friends to shake the hand,
And on the shore they all beseech, Just view the promised land.
And then we hear them all strike up, We’ll part no never more,
We know that bitter’s been the cup, But now you’re on the shore.
We all shall sing, Oh bless His name, He’s brought me home at last,
I was afraid when first He came, But He did hold me fast,
We then shall sit just at His feet, And gaze into that face,
And bathe His feet just as we weep, And thank Him for His grace.
But we must take some on the trip, We cannot go alone,
Our scholars we want in the ship, To take them with us home.
(2)
Oh Lord, my God, just smile down here, And on us put thine hand,
Oh bless our scholars, direct their fears, And help them all to land,
Oh breathe just now on these young hearts, And guide them all through
life,
And cleanse their hearts from sin that smarts, Their minds from evil
strife
Then we’ll sing with loudest notes, The blessings of the cross,
And Lincoln Field’s shall still denote That sin is only dross.
-------------------------------------Type written by Miss Floori Hagrgraves
W Heath Feb 16th 1900

166
___________________
Editor’s Note: This poem is type written on blank paper and glued into the manuscript.
The type ink is of a blue-purple hue, with double spacing between each word. The note
indicating that the poem was type written is handwritten in black ink, as is the signature and date.
The end of lines 27 and 28 reach the outmost edge of the page, which would explain why “life”
and “strife” are positioned below these lines. The significance of “Lincoln Field” in the final line
is unclear; it may reference Lincoln’s Inn Field, a historical garden square in London which has
been described as a “place of evil repute, and the scene of bloody execution”
(historicengland.org).
Signed. Dated.

167
My Thoughts on Sacred Song.
Ho the pure delight of Sacred song.
Thy worth no one can tell
We sometimes gather in a Throng
That we thy charms may swell.
Thine Hallowed. Holy soothing Thrill
Has set my soul on Fire
By thy strain my soul did fill
With music.s sweet desire
I love to feel thy Healing Balm
Not simply in my Ears
But in my Heart when false alarms
Have caused me rising fears
I.ll weave around thy sacred scale
A wreath of Heartfelt song
So that thy presence may prevail
In Heart. in mind. On Tounge.
Let thy abode be my rest.
That rest my constant care
Thy Harmony my souls own guest
Thy notes my private
prayer
sent up with
Then. no discord shall I hear.
I shall always repeat
My smiles. my Tears shall be sincere
If I thy spirit meet.
My tears shall water has the dew
The seed.s that music.s sown.
And all my song shall Thee pursue
To guard Thee as my own.
I love thee. Thou knows I do.
Thou purifying stream.
In my soul I now renew
What thy songs do mean.
I.ll raise my voice in Loudest praise
Of thy refreshing strain.
So that someone may hear my Lays

168
That song can only train.
I would not do without Thee.
I would not if I might.
Thy home to me is Rich and free
That shows my path a light.
Gentle. Holy tender sound.
Thy Friendship is sincere.
Thou sooths the Heart that thou hast as found
And checks the rising fear.
I never will from Thee depart
Although my Voice may fail.
In my Heart I.ll sing a part
Of Music.s Hallowed Scale.
Written after hearing Mr Bishop preach July 22nd
for the last time.
Wm Heath
Signed. Dated.

169
My Thoughts after Singing 67 Hymn
I may this moment be set free
From sins that I retain
That keeps me from a look at Thee
That always is the same
Why should I retain what.s bad
My mind would be more pure
Although not seen. It would be glad
To make my life sequare
Therefore from now, away Ye Vice
I will be free from wrong.
Thy grace my Heart it shall entice.
Away. my sins begon.
Now. I soar to realms of light
The picture is serene.
I did not know these splendid sights
That I by Faith have seen.
What Kept this Sight away from me.
What covered up my sight
T.was only self that I could see
That Kept me from the right.
Now I breathe the Heavenly air
And soar on wings of Faith.
So That the smoke of my poor prayer
An upward flight may take.
I never Thought it half like this.
This peace none can compare.
Its gates are known as perfect bliss
That opens unto prayer.
As I past inside the gate
They then were closed behind.
That kept back sin and sealed their fate
While I new scenes did find.
I saw a path where lilies grew
The Emblems of the pure.
And round my soul the Angles drew
To keep me more sequare
They sang to me in strains so sweet
That caused my falling tears.
And as I wept. I saw a street
And marked__
to those Sincere.
I Entered. trembling all the time
As Everything was white
When Loo a Friend came up behind
And lead me to the Right.

Wesleys

170
I Kissed this Friend upon the Cheek.
And looked into His face.
And there I fell right at His feet
As Christ I then had traced.
My voice then Joined in with the rest.
Accompanied by my Tear.
Because I found I was the Guest
Of Christ the most sincere.
I wondered how I got up there.
And thought I must have roamed
Just has the Angles swing thru Air
Known here as Home Sweet Home.
And thus on Earth we all may sing
As sweet as those above
If not in voice. our Hearts may wing
To realms of Pure Love.
But I am here.
I am not there.
But Yet I may aspire
To sing those songs through fervent prayer
And Help the Heavenly Choir
Editor’s note: I believe that the word sequare is intended to mean secure; both times the
word is used in the poem it is written in the same fashion and appears to suit both the meaning of
the lines and the rhyme pattern. In a Wesleyan hymnal, Hymn 67 begins with the lines “How
weak the thoughts, and vain / Of self-deluding men” in a section of the Hymnal titled “5.
Describing Heaven” (69 Everett).
Unsigned. Undated.

171
Thoughts of the past.
The past has set my Brain at work
That.s known as serious Thought
Sometimes they please. Sometimes they hurt
The feelings they have brought.
The feeling always do depend
Upon the life that.s past.
When foolishness has been our bend
The actions always last.
If we could only start again
In all the Bloom of Youth
And know just then what now remains
We.d know more of the truth.
Ha.s Yoyth. thou lives in shallow dreams
Thou does not know the hue
Thou only grasps what it does seem
And Black is sometimes Blue.
If thou would only read and think
Thou.d miss a deal of pain.
That man now has as Black as Ink
So serious Thoughts maintain.
To look at time that has to come
Looks very far away.
But when its past. thou.ll think its run
Its like a Dream of Day
Life is like a pleasant trip
Before the trip’s begun.
But when its past the Joys have skipped
The path that Youth has run.
The old man says be careful Lad
As Hedges have got Ears.
And while thou Laughs. The Hedge is sad
It knows the danger.s near.
Just lend thy inexperienced Ears
And listen too the aged.
Thou.ll find their words to be sincere
So life by then is gauged.
And when thy Tears have all run bye
And thy Thoughts do reflect.
Advice thou.ll give to someone nigh
Like this.
Mind thy step.
And thus we gain from someone.s past.
That.s found the Rocks of Life
So That our life may ne.er be cast
In trouble. pain and strife.

172

If some Young Man should read my words
That I now site and write
I hope they will his Thoughts disturb
As my thoughts are tonight.
WHeath
Editor’s note: as with the entire manuscript, any spelling errors have been retained. The
word “youth” appears twice in poem, once as Yoyth and again as Youth. The script for the words
is identical, particularly the “y” and the “th” which suggests both are intended to be “youth” but
one with a spelling error, which I have not corrected.
Signed. Undated.

173
A Letter to Mr George booker
Love + Lust
There are some things upon this Earth
That man could never Buy
Some speak of one in nought but mirth
Its presence they deny
They say that Love is nought but lust.
The mind that does so think
Is full of Vice. that brings on rust
That snaps the Human link.
Vice it saps the Human frame
destroys what God has Blest.
A Blight is always in its train
And death is Vice’s own guest.
But Love. Builds up the Human frame
Accepts what God has blest
A flowery path is in its train
That brings a pure guest.
I pity in my Inmost soul
A person with no love
His mind and life is in the dark
While love gets light above.
If I dont know a certain thing
Must I say it is not there.
If I do. someone may bring
And lay it out quit bare.
suppose there was no Human love
This world would be an Hell.
Our Thoughts would never rise above
The Breath that Vice does smell
But love. it is no fancy dream
It is to those thats Blind
Its spring is not what it may seem
To those that vice do find.
Ha. no love is pure from the spring
And pure in its stream
And where it goes it always brings
A sacredness serene
While Vice is dirty at the spring
And filthy in its stream
And when it goes it always does bring
A bruse that can be seen.
Love is White. Vice is Black.
How opposite they are.
Love has peace upon its back

174
While Vice does always mar.
I.ve seen this love in all its Bloom
I.ve seen it in the flower
Its always pure and knows no gloom
But Built like Castle Towers.
I.ve seen this Vice on dark red lips
That Breathes a rotting air
That cuts the Frame Bit by Bit
Its stench none can compare
The Kiss of Love as got God.s smile
And watched by Angle.s Band.
Its clean and white and has no guile.
And Blest by God.s Ha own Hand.
Love..I’ve seen it. So have You
unless you are too Blind
Therefore this love we know is true
We .ll leave all Vice behind
W Heath July 23rd 1900
Editor’s Note: The two manuscript pages which contain this poem contain what appears
to be water damage, with numerous ink spots and smears. While the damage made transcription
challenging, it did not hinder an accurate rendering. It is unclear who the George Cooper
referenced in the poem is; research suggests that this name is far too prevalent to support even
potential subjects that would be related to the poem.
Signed. Dated.

175
My Thoughts on Heaven
No Rich or poor. No pain or gloom
No Thoughts of what is past
No faded flower. But all in Bloom
Whose fragrance always last.
No Aged with wrinkles on the Face
No weak and tottering steps.
Which way you look. you always trace
A peace with no regrets.
They never ask about your health
Good night is never said.
They do not know the use of wealth
And strange to what is dead.
No sinking sun behind the west.
No rising in the East.
God is the Host. they are the guests
Whose’s praises never cease.
The soul is robed in splendid white
The air they Breathe serene
Their wealth consists of calm delight
And life is always seen.
The sun is always shining Bright
Thats focused on a Face.
That throws an Halo of Delight.
Whose shadow we Embrace.
They know no shadow They see the Face
Almighty God is near.
We only trace His saving grace
That comes from filial fear.
They talk to Christ. we talk in dream
But they sit Bye his side
While we drink the passing stream
With Cups that sometimes dry.
Just fancy no pain or sighs no fear
No secret Thoughts to crush.
The very Thought brings Heaven near
While we are still of dust.
I fancy I now see that Face
Almight God is near
I do not trace. I have His grace
Whose’s wings have caught my fear.
They talk to Christ, and I will too
But not in fancies dream.
But calm. and Thoughtful I. ll renew
My place against the stream.

176
I will inhale its healthy air.
Enjoy the Hallowed scene
And that stream shall float my prayer
To Him That I have seen.
He.ll take my prayer and hold it up
To see what it contains.
Then Hand to me devotions Cup
That I may drink again.
He got my prayer. I got the Cup
And Christ stood at my side
To give me strength to lift it up
Before the stream went Bye.
Where is Heaven. It must be here
I can its Glories see.
I can the Angles song Just hear
Thats come to sing to me.
I.ll sing down here. While you sing there
We.ll sing the same sweet theme
My part must be a fervent prayer
To Christ on whom I lean
WHeath July 25 1900
Signed. Dated.

177
Thoughts in Burmantofts Cemetry
July 25th 1900
If all the Tears that have been shed
On this most sacred spot
Could all be gather in a Bed
Their depth could not begot
If all the sighs that have been drawn
Could all be gathered up.
There weigh would crush the dew of morn
Through natures waiting Cup.
If all the Hearts that.s gathered here
Thats heaved an unseen sigh
Could tell their tales of Hearts own fear
They.d reach unto the sky.
Blighted Hopes. a painful mind
A life that has been crushed
Is what the place has left behind
There’s nothing here but dust.
These stones Just mark the resting place
Of those’s thats run this life
They must remain. They cant retrace
The steps of those behind
But Yet. This soil it just contains
The Frame that always dies
There is a Hope that still remains
That.s not built up on sighs
Here the Tear falls to the Ground
And lost to those thats near.
But there is one that stands around
Whose Hand has caught that Tear
He takes that Tear on wings of Love
And carries it away
Then stores it up in Heaven above
And brings it out some day
And when its brought and put in right
An Halo shines on it
A voice then comes so sweet and light
And says. My Crown it Fits.
The Blighted Hopes. If they are wraped
In garments known as grace
Christ always will supply the sap
That grace can only trace.
The Birds are singing in the Trees.
They do not know of death
Their voice does always doubts relive

178
So pure is their Breath.
The weepin willow Bends Her bough
Towards the Wreath thats laid
That marks the spot of Broken vows
That are now in the grave.
But from the grave some will arise
And hear a welcome sound
That comes Through space know here as sky
Thy Hope. a pardon’s found
Then let us hold onto this Hope
With Faith’s Tenacious grasp
It will at last to us denote
An anchor firm and fast
And in this when I must be laid
And wait until the morn
When that blast by God is made
To waken this poor form.
My chance of Mercy will be past
My boon I then shall hear
I.ll take the Chance before its past
And worship more sincere.
Ho Lord. My God. My heart inspire
My Mind Ho purify
So That at death I may retire
Where thou art always nigh
No sin will I have in my Heart.
No Vile Thoughts in my mind
I want to be clean as thou art
In life. and death combined.
Then when I hear that awful blast
At morn. or noon. or night
Thy Hand may take me in thy grasp
And Clothe me all in white
July 26th 1900 William Heath
Editor’s Note: The cemetery referenced here is of note as it is in close geographical
proximity to the Heath’s residences in Leeds, England. Both of Heath’s parents, Abel and
Matilda, are buried here, near the burial plot of Jabez Tunniclff, founder of the Temperance
Movement in Leeds. Heath’s opening line suggesting the number of tears shed is pointed; nearly
200,000 souls have been interred in this cemetery. (beckettstreetcemetry.org)
Signed. Dated.

179
The Radiant Face
How often have we gazed upon
A face that speaks of Health.
With tints of Red that Face had on
Was natures Riches Wealth.
We see the Bloom upon the Cheek
That speaks of coming Ills
That in the Face it always seeks
To print
Yet, There is a Bloom. Ho such a Bloom
That rushes too the Face.
It has a radiance like the moon
Whose Beams we often trace.
That Blush or Bloom can only come
Where sin has never Been.
If sin comes. The Blush then runs
And tells Just what it means.
That Blush it is the sweetest Flower
Thats sought by Angles wings.
Although its tender. Yet has power
To make a pure spring.
If they should find a Blushing ray.
They shield it from the cold
They take that Blush and fly away
To Christ. The shepherd’s fold.
They plant it where it can be seen.
In God.s most Sacred spot.
Then. those that see it knows it means
Theres not on it a Blot.
We.ve seen the Blush on Maidens Cheeks
Thats rushed Just like a flood
Thats forced its way new soil to seek
And stirred up dirty mud.
This Tender. Holy. pure blush
It makes the Face more sweet.
If there’s sin. That Blush has crushed
When sin that Blush it meets.
In Holy scripture it is found
In letters plain but dear.
Take off thy shoes, tis Hallowed ground
And God they found was near.
Thus the Blush is Rich and dear.
By God’s love it is bound.
Keep down your sin when Blush is near
For Christ that Blush has found.

180
Dont say a word. or do a thing
That Brings a painful blush
Into that heart it leaves a sting
That is the cause of rust.
speak to a maiden in pure words
And let your Thoughts be pure
If you speak do not disturb
A Heart from sin secure.
The Blush is God’s own Heavenly bloom,
The Human Heart the ground
Where grows the Blush with sweet perfume
That decks the virtues found.
Ho may we witness in our time
A reverence for that blush
And may we always Keep in mind
That sin a Blush will crush.
When ere you see it in full bloom.
Around its tints Entwine
A Sacredness that prayer of Rich perfume
That God may on it shine.
And when you plead. Just have your prayer
Like lilies that are white
Then our prayer may have a share
To Keep That Blush in sight.
When you and I stand at the Bar.
And Christ our only trust.
Christ may say we ne . er did mar
A Holy. pure. Blush.
W Heath July 31st 1900
Signed. Dated.

181
The Love of Christ
Tenacious. Firm. sublime is love
If Wisdom has it sway.
Its watered by the dew above
That cannot be said nay.
No matter what may go or come
This love is always sure.
And if alarmed it simply runs
That it may love the more.
I speak of Love. a sacred love
A love that.s always pure.
A love whos Leids are from above
That makes the Heart secure.
keeps
Love it is not Human passion.
For passion is a curse.
And love will mould and always fashion
A Heart By love’s own nurse.
It will not spring up in a day.
Nor will it always grow.
It has no Vice. and yet it may
Some Holy Virtues show.
Imagination sees what’s wrong.
And love see.s what is right.
It is not always on the Tounge
Although it is in Sight.
It lifts. restores a heavy heart.
To life. it is a Balm.
Its Virtues are to heal a smart
And make a storm a Calm.
Its like a Bud who’s leaves are pressed
Against each tender leaf.
And when the sun does it caress
It opens out so neat.
Thus. pure love does always press
Towards a pure love.
Its only there where it can rest
Before it soars above.
It cannot Breathe an Impure Air.
Or anything thats Vile.
This purity none can compare
Or have a sweeter smile.
Those that live where it is pure
May always have a share
But those that.s vile will not secure

182
A seed. for love is prayer.
And prayer are words right from the Heart.
Thats Piloted by thought.
Caused by the spirit God imparts
when Christ by men are sought.
Thus the Love is God.s own stream
whose Banks are Hallowed grace.
On its Current there shines a Beam
When Christ is always traced.
Approach this stream with Thought and care.
You.ll on its waters trace.
An Halo which you see by prayer
That shines from Christs sweet Face.
Aug 5th 1900
W Heath
__________
Editor’s note: In line 11, Heath writes “Leid” which I assert is the misspelled word
“Lied” which refers to a typical 19th century German art song, which balances the piano and
voice. The OED defines it as “A type of German song, especially of the Romantic period,
typically for solo voice with piano accompaniment”. In line 12, Heath crossed out the word
“makes” and replaced it just below the manuscript line with a printed “keep”, which falls just
above line 13’s “is”. One of the few corrections made in the manuscript, it is unique in the
replacement word is in print rather than script.
Signed. Dated.

183
Satisfied
What ere I wish. What ere I get.
Im never satisfied.
It always leaves me with regrets
That brings a rising sigh.
I use to Think when in my Youth
What I should try to be.
I did not know the Bitter truth
I thought.
But could not see.
I.ve built my Castles in the air.
And furnished them throughout.
But facts has laid those Castles bare
And scattered dreams about.
I Built my Castles all of stone.
By Fancy. all cemented.
Now. Im left with facts alone
That makes me discontented
I find that Castles are not built
With stone of fancies dream.
As facts they force up to the hilt
For facts they will be seen.
Sometimes the sky has looked all clear.
No clouds of coming pain
Could be seen.
Yet they were near
And others in there train.
I sometimes sit in silent thought.
And view the troubles past.
I must be honest,
some I.ve bought
Whose sting will always last.
What I have bought they sting the worst.
So they have touched the Heart.
which proves that man may buy a curse
That never will depart.
Some have been handed down to me
Inherited.
some say.
Inheritance I do agree
For it is natures way.
Yet. there is a gleam of hope
Within the Human grasp.
Whose rays do always help denote
That sure. and firm and fast.
That help. Begins with serious thought
Of what I am.
and why.
Then. perplexities are brought
That brings divine Ears nigh.

184
That Ear. is sensitive to sound
Can Ear the rising sigh
Can Ear the Tear fall on the ground
Can Ear the Private Cry.
Then. God sends a soothing word
Like these of Ancient times.
Keep thine Heart. Be not disturbed
I.m near with Help Divine.
Then New Thoughts come into the mind
New feelings in the soul.
Old desires are left behind
For Christ has got control.
We Then do revel in those words
Blessed is the Heart thats pure.
Keep thine Heart. be not disturbed
I.ll Keep thee firm. secure.
We walk by Faith not by sight
And Hope just hands the Cup
Thats full of grace both day and night
That we may always sup.
sweet is thy help. sweet is thy love
sweet is thy smiling face.
sweet is thy smile from Heaven above
sweet is thy healing grace.
Now. I see what I did not.
Now. I feel Thee nigh
Now. I know Im not forgot
That makes me satisfied
William Heath August 21st 1900
________________________________________
Signed. Dated.

185
Early Impressions
My Mother took me to a class
When I was but a child.
Although the days and Years are past
Its followed me all the while.
The Leader asked my Mother to pray
She prayed. and weeped has well.
My Infant Eyes they did betray
My fears. , my my heart as well.
I weped to see my Mother weep.
The Leader stroked my Head.
He tried to dry my Youthful cheek
Until Her prayer was said.
she stopped her prayer. and dried Her tears.
And soothed my troubled Breast.
she kissed away my trembling fears
And soothed my mind to rest.
Those Years are gone. Its memorys dear
I am no longer strange
I.ve met in class for twenty Years
And there I still remain
Ive weped as Mother did
Ive prayed and sang as well.
Tis there from sin I.ve oft times hid
And of my saviour tell.
How He has cleansed my Heart from sin.
My mind from Evil Thoughts.
And by His love. my soul did win
A peace I often sought.
And now I revel in His grace
His grace I revel in.
I want to see that Holy face
That ne.er was marked by sin.
My Face is marked. my mind has well.
But Christ was always clean.
Oh. may my life and actions tell
Im cleaner than I.ve been.
I trace all this to Years gone bye
When in my Infant days.
When Mother prayed as well as cried
Impressions deep it laid.
Oh. Mother’s take your Child to grace
And also grace to Child.
You.ll find that grace is in his face
Both Gentle. Meek. And
Mild.

186

William Heath August 22, 1900
Editor’s note: Heath’s accidental “Weped” was retained throughout rather than the
correct spelling of wept. Heath may have spelled the word this way with great intention, as it is a
natural progression from “weeper”, or one who cries. The class that Heath refers to is likely one
with a religious theme; Heath’s father Abel Heath was a leader in the Leeds Temperance Society,
and the family were staunch Methodists.
Signed. Dated

187
On the sands at Scarbro August 11th 1900
While sitting by the ceaseless waves
That washed towards the shore
I could not help but be amazed
At waves that simply roared.
There in the offing lay a smack
With nets paid out for Fish
And other Boats they had to Tac,
That they might miss the smack might miss
I thought. that is the way of life
No matter where we be
we have to tac to miss the strife
That floats about so free.
we all have got a net laid out
That we might catch something.
And when its caught we are in doubt
The pleasure it may bring.
The nets sometimes are made to wide
The Fish if caught. has gone
Of course the Fisher gives a sigh
Because His net was wrong.
some people fish to catch some health
some people fish for naught but rest.
While other’s fish for naught but wealth
For they think wealth the best.
of all the fishers I have known
There’s one thats always sore
The net is one of great renown
And always catches more.
The net is made of pure Band
That’s wrapped Hands of grace
when it is hauled. it brings on Land
Something where God is traced.
In that net you see it laid
And nothing else you see
Its white. and pure. never fades
And caught on Private Knee.
Its hauled up with a Chain of Prayer
whose links are made of grace
It never rust rusts There’s too much care
To Keep it in its place.
We.ll let our chain of prayer run out
Attached to nets of grace
Then haul it up without a doubt
And purity thus trace.

188
Then when the net is hauled once more
we.ll look into the net.
Then take it out and view it oer
And pray the more to get.
Thus in life we always try
To catch or gain a prize
Then let us try while hope is nigh
To have our nets right size.
William Heath
Editor’s note: The title’s location is difficult to decipher and transcribe from the
manuscript; the “Scar “portion is quite clear, but the following letters can be read as either “bro”
or “bo” or even “tro” if the fifth letter is read as an unsigned “t”. This confusion is not due to
deterioration of ink or paper, but rather due to the lack of clarity in the script. There does exist a
Scarbro beach in Perth, Australia. There is a Scarborough Beach in England, located near North
Yorkshire. It is more likely that this latter beach is the scene which Heath writes of, using an
abbreviated form of the beach’s name.
Signed. Dated in Title.

189
Thoughts are never in Prison
Those walls that are composed of stone
Are known as prison Cell’s.
To Keep the Prisoner from His home
Because from Laws He fell.
It only Keeps the Human frame
Thoughts are never Locked.
Except the Thinker Keeps the same
And even then they knock.
No walls however strong or Thick
Can keep Thoughts in a Cell.
They fly away through stone or Brick
The Goaler knows that well.
The Hands may pick the oakum string
And Keep His Cell all clean.
Yet. while He picks his thoughts take wing
Although the Gaoler’s seen.
The Thoughts they bring back what they like
That satisfies there taste.
If Thoughts are good they bring back light
That stamps it on the Face.
who ere did live on pure Thoughts
That had an ugly face
No. Human nature wont be Bought
Or favorites Embrace.
Pure Thoughts brings pure air
That pushes purer ways.
And pure ways none can compare
So they do ne.er decay.
Vile Thoughts live on vice and wrong
That Blights the flower of man.
Who’s offspring is an Impure tounge
That goodness cannot span.
But thoughts thats clean they wing there flight
Return with Ladened wings.
Thats full of Hope and calm delight
With Tender voice it sings
Thus we.ll let our Thoughts now fly
On wings of pure air.
When they return we.ll gather nigh
And build them sound with prayer.
Therefore my Thoughts basked in the sun.
And hear the songs Divine.
Then when thy tale to me is done
I.ll soar to sweeter climes

190

William Heath
August 26th 1900
Editor’s Notes: In the thirteenth line, the word preceding “string” was challenging to
transcribe. Initially, the first letter was read as either a “d” or a “b”, followed by the letters a k e
and finally either “m” or “n”. As this combination did not provide a suitable word, the word was
initially transcribed as “darken”. As this transcription did not fit the narrative of the poem,
research into string used in Victorian prisons was conducted. Based on this research, the word
was revealed to be “oakum”, which the picking of was hard labour done by prisoners. Prisoners
were required to untwist and unroll old rope (nationalarchives.gov.uk/education)
Signed. Dated.

191
All the worlds a stage, we are actors
How true those lines. Yes very true
We each do act a part.
What ere we do we must pass through
Experiance of lifes art.
The one that prompts mistakes when made
Stands just behind the scenes.
Insists upon attentionpaid
Although some pain it means.
We cannot put the prompter down
His voice it will be heard.
No matter how we fret or frown
The prompter’s not disturbed.
He goes on with his daily task
Can read the Heart and mind.
He never does a question ask
And so is Thought unkind.
No matter where we go. or be.
The prompter’s dog’s the steps.
Just like a Hound who’s scent is free
The scent He always get.
Then why not listen to his call
When first the voice be heard.
Because the prompter does know all
Both private thought and word.
We.ll listen too (ink blot) thy promptings now
Obey thy word and will.
And by thy promptings keep our vow
And thus our vow fulfill.
William Heath.

August 26th 1900

_____________________________
Signed. Dated.

192
Harmony.

Sweet Harmony

I know thy name. and where thou dwells
Thy Name brings peace and calm
The Human mind may find thy wells
That are an Healing balm.
I never thought thou’d dwell in me
When thou became my guest
I Thought thou only came to see
My Home. at my request.
But when thou came in all thy bloom
Thou purified the air.
Thine Hallowed Breath dispersed the gloom
That sweetened my Lifes share.
Thy Treble Voice sang out the song
I listened too thy sound
When low I heard the Alto’s tounge
so sweet. Yet so profound.
My soul was wraped in silent awe
When Bass and Tenor came.
And wrapped there voice in music’s Law
That brought out Harmony’s name
My soul was full of strange delight
My mind in calm repose.
I.d found the spring of Heavenly light
So thy sweet songs arose.
I now may drink at thy sweet shrine
Inhale thy sweetest air
My Heart and mind may always find
A peace and comfort there.
Although my Voice may soon be gone
And feeble be my frame
I still may love these Hallowed songs
With Hearts own prayerful Scale.
But some day I do hope to sing
A part in which I love.
I.ll send a prayer on Faiths strong wings
To Harmonys Home above.

193
I know my voice it is not sweet.
But ye. I may EnJoy
Thy presence. when thy songs I meet
That brings an Hallowed Joy.
I.ll nurse and cherish Thee with Grace
And clothe Thee round with prayer
That I thy sweetness may so trace
And thus get my own share.
I.ll wash thy table with my tears.
And serve Thee with my heart.
I.ll sing thy notes with Holy fear
And Angles hear my part.
W Heath

Sept 6th 1900

Editor’s note: When Heath writes the word “wrapped” he usually spells it with one “p”,
but in this poem the word is spelled correctly the one time. Heath’s spelling of angels is seen
here as in other poems as “angles”.
Signed. Dated.

194
Sacred Spot
Some think the ground a sacred spot
Where lies the dead remains
They plant they rose. Forgetmenot
There love is still the same
We each do look with different Eye
Our tastes are not alike
They are has varied as the sky
That changes day and night
Yet. There.s a place to me most dear
More Sacred than the Grave
For in that place I never fear
Who’s peace I often crave
It is the school the sunday school
That is a sacred spot
And round it hover’s God’s own rule
Who’s smile the school has got.
Tis there we seen the Handsome Face
Thats not been marked by sin
And purity we there do trace
When those Young Hearts we win.
Tis there we see the Happy smile
That has no touch ofshame
Who’s Youthful Beams we see awhile
And Virtues we can name
Tis there we see the light Young feet
And how they nimbly tread
How some dress tells they are neat
And modest By their Head.
Tis like a Garden in full Bloom
With roses Sweet and Rare
That has a rich and sweet perfume
That purifies the air
W Heath Sept 7th 1900
Signed. Dated.

195
Cries heard in Leeds Market
Oranges sweet. oh come and Buy.
I.ll take a dozen please
Now you Gents your strength Just try
Powder for Bugs and flees.
Country Butter. New laid Eggs
Now Ladies Just taste That
Iron Ware and wooden pegs
A shilling for this Hat
Time and Margin a penny a Bunch
One penny for this sage
Take that Bunch Just for once
Three Bob for a Linnet cage.
Now Ladies and Gentlemen with Bad livers
These Pills will remove all pain
Now Just for once a trial give us
You cannot try in vain
Lumbago. Gout. Rumatic darts
This ointment will relive
It also will remove all warts
All pain at once will leave
A grand Gold watch for 7/6
And all in good repair
Grand rhubarb a penny a stick
Rabbits. Eighteen pence a pair
Sold again they still will come
They know I sell good stuff
A penny a stick that chewing gum
Who.ll buy this splendid muff.
Cabbages. Taters a Bob a score
TwoLemons for a penny
Ten Yards of carpet for a floor
Come buy I have.nt many.
Beef and mutton come sot it out
There’s no American here
It is all English there’s no doubt
Cider and Ginger Beer.
Fresh Haddocks. Herring. place and Ling
Fresh Cod. who will buy
Now my Ladies buy something
I know you.ll want a fry
All German Birds I have in stock
Hullo. Hullo she Bumps
The noted shop for Best Mint Rock
T.will cure all kinds of mumps.

196
Sixpence a pound good Brandy snap
There all good sheffield knifes
Try the patent mouse traps
Cockle.s and mussels .alive
Vill you fie dis fair of foots?
I vill take two and six
Tuppence for dis Turkey root
Tis good ven you are sick
Some will shout Hie up Hot peas
I draw a line at That
Now my Friends If you please
I.ll stop I think I.m flat
WHeath
Sept 7th 1900
Editor’s note: The inclusion of the lines of broken English, with an apparent accent
applied via Heath’s language, is unique to this poem. This inclusion of an accent, along with the
reference to a “lied” in a preceding poem, suggests a potential German influence or interest in
the author’s life.
Signed. Dated.

197
Mother’s Remarks to a child
Har bless they Handsome pretty face.
Thou art my darling Boy
Thou art a credit to thy race
My own.
my little Joy.
Well. I declare. Thou mucky Brat.
I washed and made Thee clean
Thou like a little trailing Rat
Where ever has
been.
Thou’s daubed all over with lump of muck
I’m sick.
I am for sure.
It always was and is my luck
Thou likes to roll on t floor.
Thous always climbing on to chairs
Wilt thou Lad sit still
And dont thee let one see thee dare
To swallow any pills
Come here my Lad. thou makes me glad
To see thy little smile
Thou art the picture of tee dad
I love my Bonny child
Now get the Tea. Thats a boy
Thou knows Im forced to Bake
And here’s thy little cake
And here.s thy little Box of toys
Thou knows Im forced to Bake
Thou’s done it now. Thou’s spilt all lot
I never saw such Bairns
Thou makes me feel right boiling hot
Thous always doing Harm
Come. dry thee Tears, and sit on t rug
And here.s thee tea and cake
Well I never He’s smashed his mug
Thou makes my heart fair ache
Now Charlie Lad Just play with John
And mind that Bowl of dough
I want to speak to Mrs. Long
Hie.
I Just thought so.
Now thou’s in Bonny plight
Thous upset dough on t rug
Oh I wish it was Just night
I.ll bet I.d see thee snug
Thou.s spilt the Tea and smashed the pot
And tumbled down Three steps
Come to my arms thou little clot

198
Thou’s still thee Mammas pet.
Now hush love. dont cry love
The Mamma is not cross
Thou is thee Mommys little dove.
Here.s thy little Hos.
Well come. Thou wants to have a sleep
I know Thou s tired Lad
Now Just thee shut thy little peeps
He.s off. I am so glad.
I would not like to loose that Lad
For a million pounds or more
He mac’s me mad. He macs me glad
Listen. He.s opening Bedroom door.
Im coming love. now stop Just There
Oh I am so glad
Thou did not dare to come down stairs
Hurrah,
Here’s thy dad
WHeath

Sept 9th 1900

Editor’s Note: In this humorous imagining of a Mother’s love and exasperation at
parenting a small child, Heath provides a glimpse into working class Victorian family life, as
well as the nuances of language replicated in his writing as well as colloquialisms which may be
attributed to Leeds.
Signed. Dated.

199
Kissing.

What it means

The puriest Kiss that I have seen
Was done by Mother’s lips.
You cannot gauge what it does mean
Her love it always grips
Just watch a Mother kiss her child
Her kiss knows nothing wrong
Its full of love. Not for a while
But all her whole life long.
She puts her Arms around the child
And hugge’s it too her breast.
And kisses it has well as smiles
That brings a loving Guest.
She gazes in those Infant Eyes
And sees her Image there
Then plants a Kiss that never dies
Upon that cheek so fair
And when the child is wrapped in sleep
She.ll creep up too that Bed
Then bro Bows her Head that face to meet
The she Her love may shed
A lovers kiss may be alright
Also one from a Friend.
But both of those are not has bright
As what a Mother sends.
A Mother’s kiss is full of grace
That never losses power.
It brings a peace we all may trace
That blooms Just like a flower.
Dont treat a Mother’s kiss with mirth
Just plant it round with prayer.
For God alone knows what its worth
For purity is There.
And what is pure blooms from the pure
Thats Sacred in its Breath.
That makes the life the more Secure
For kisses know no death.

200
When Mother kisses let us pray
That God may crown with Bliss.
That Mother’s kiss. so that He may
Just smile on Mothers kiss.
Wm Heath
September 10th 1900
Signed. Dated.

201
Troubles of a Married Man
One nigh . my child it cried so hard
I got out of my Bed.
But when I walked about a Yard
I knocked my poor old Head.
of course I tried to get light the Gas
The matches were not there.
I gropped about until at Last
I tumbled down the stairs.
of course I was not wide awake
When I got out of Bed.
But I awak awoke and no mistake
When Thump went my poor Head.
I got the matches. struck a light.
Then put it too the gas.
But oh dear me I got a fright
As I the Globe had smashed.
Of course the Child kept crying on
In fact it would not stop.
I nursed it. coxed it. Hummed a song
T.was wound up like a Clock.
I put some sugar in its mouth
And thought now that will do.
When oh dear me. it gave a shout.
And turned its face right Blue.
At last my wife got out of Bed
And ran down stairs to see.
But trod upon a tac instead
That she had left for me.
She said I was a Crewl man
Cruel
I.d tried to kill the child.
When loo that child it there began
To Laugh.
I did feel wild.
I left Her with the child to muse
While I once more retired.
Into another room I burst

202
That was a storey higher.
But in that room I saw some stars
That is not often seen.
If They are seen you don’t see Mar’s
But stars are what I mean.
My wife had left some Soap about
Upon that Bedroom floor.
I found That soap without a doubt
And slipped Bang at the door.
I got in Bed and rubbed my Head
And rubbed my shins as well.
I was so glad I had two Beds
For there asleep I fell.
When you retire for the night
Have matches Just at Hand.
so if you want to get a light
T.will save your Head a Bang.
Dont get up when half asleep
It is a sad mistake.
If you do I think you.ll meet
A door. That will awake.
Don’t let your wife leave soap about
And always have your way.
(If you can) I have my doubts
Your wife a word may say.
Let her say Just what she likes.
It will relive her mind.
You dont speak But strike a light
Or stars I think you.ll find.
William Heath
September 10th 1900
Signed. Dated.

203
What is art.
To get a Brush and paint a Scene
Requires care and thought
The picture then subject then it must be seen
Before it can be wrought.
Therefore the picture must be there
In mind. Or Natures own.
Then the cavas canvas is laid bare
On what the picture’s shown.
A sculptor works on stone or wood
To form a Human face.
Then when its done we think its good
For there fine art we trace.
Man. walks with Camera in his hand
To snap a passing Scene.
For Art He has at his coma command
That imatates whats seen.
But painters only imatates a Scene.
They cannot paint a Thought.
They only paint what Eye or Thought has seen
Or work what Thought has sought.
They imatates thats all they do.
But is that really art.
Accomplishment I think more true
So that is mans own part.
But art. I think it is Divine.
The Brush is God’s own Hand.
The Human soul the canvas find
And Hope. the painters stand.
When once the painter makes a mark.
The colours never fade.
Although the frame decays and parts
You trace the picture made.
The artist likes to paint a scene
With Back ground rather dark.
Then Brings in front what may be seen
The Artist’s private mark.
He puts the light shade too the dark.
Then gently brings in white.
Until the artist shows the art
Of changing Black to Bright.
You see my Thoughts in all this Rhyme
The picture is the Heart.
That can reflect on Art divine
Who’s colours ne.er depart.

204
We all are Artists of a kind.
And pupils we have got.
But if the shades are all divine
The Subjects ne.er forgot.
He brings the subject out so clear.
That proves how fine the art.
We then approach the picture near.
And read the pure in Heart.
We all may call that picture mine
And look the subject through.
Then as we look a light divine
Will prove the picture true.
I.ll take a Copy. give me one.
I.ll Keep it clear of dust.
Just send it with Thy Holy Son
I Know He will me trust.
William Heath Oct 2nd 1900
Signed. Dated.

205
Blows and Wounds
How many Blows we get in life
Some pains the Human mind.
And wounds the feelings like a knife
That leaves a mark behind.
The flesh sometimes recives a Blow
That smarts Just for a time.
It may be healed. Yet we behold
The Scars its left behind.
But there are wounds that are not seen.
And deep and cruil too.
The wounds are deep and very keen
That travels this life Through.
The deepest wounds are in the Heart.
Where springs the stream of sighs.
That runs to rivers deep and dark
Where Human help’s not nigh.
Yet. help may come to that dark stream
And lift the falling Sigh.
And heal the place where Sighs have been
With Balm that God supplies.
The wound when found is wrapped by Hands
Thats full of healing grace.
That makes the Heart to understand
The presence of a Face.
That Face Just smiles upon the wound.
Which does take in that smile.
Then grace around the Heart is Bound
By nurse thats meek and mild.
A wounded heart may not be seen.
By those thats near bye.
They cannot tell what it does mean
Or hear the rising Sigh.
There is an Eye
A wounded heart it may be seen
By one thats always nigh.
Because His Eye has Healing Keen
That sees the rising Sigh.
Oh wounded heart let in the Balm
And dry thy falling tear.
T.will sooth thy heart with Hallowed calm
Its Help is so sincere.
September 28th 1900

206
William Heath
_____________
Signed. Dated.

207
Man was made in the Image of God
No other thing upon the Earth
No matter where it be.
Can. like man be of such worth
Or think. or act so free.
The mind may wander where it will
Can touch the Hills divine.
And get a sight of that which fills
The soul. by what it finds.
The Beast.s that wander in the field
Are under mans Command.
They always did and still do yield
Unto the words of man.
Man we know is God’s design
And perfect He was made.
Upon Him God did put a Sign
His Image on Him laid.
The Bad and Vile are in the heart mind
That blunts the tender heart.
As the Thoughts. so man we find
Composed of Dying parts.
The soul we know it has a spring
That runs into a stream.
Until a course is found that Brings
An Image that is seen.
The Image shines upon the soul
Then Breathes on it a Breath.
And through that Breath the soul is told
That it shall know no Death.
Soul Immortal. approach with care
That Image which we trace.
And ask Just Enter on the steps of prayer
And see thy makers Face.
September 29th, 1900
Wm Heath
Signed. Dated.

208
Not

Alone

Tis 2. am. the sky is Black.
No drifting clouds I see.
But stars I see that point a track
That points a way tome.
Why should those stars be always out
Although not always seen.
I cannot answer without doubt
But light I think they mean.
The clouds pass from the moons bright face
That throws a Beam of light.
And by that Beam we always trace
An Heavenly light at night.
No Lamp surrounds the moons sweet light.
No wick. or oil it needs.
And Yet thou shines both day and night
And thus the world thou feeds.
The sun is peeping in the East
The moon now in the west.
Oh. what a sight for thought to feast
On natures welcome guest.
A streak of Brown. a streak of grey
Adorns that Lake of green.
That tells me this is Early day
That is no fancy dream.
This picture purifies the Thought
Brings Heavenly Scenes so near.
And its aid the soul is caught
On wings of filelfear.
It fills the soul with calm delight.
The Heart vibrates with love.
It fills the mind with Hallowed light
I only seen above
Wm Heath September 26th 1900
Editor’s note: In line four, the final word reads as “tome”. I believe that the intended
reading is “to me”, but as the author joins the two words via a firm ligature, I have retained that
ligature in the signature. Similarly, in line 28, the final word reads as “filelfear”, and it likely that
the intended reading is “filial fear” but as there is a continuous flow of ink from the letter f
through to the final r, the transcription is replicated as “filelfear”. As spelling errors have been
retained, I assert that “filelfear” is meant to mean filial.
Signed. Dated.

209
Wandering. But not alone
I.m all alone. nay. not alone.
My Thoughts now visit me.
They make me wish I could atone
For what my Thoughts now see.
Although I.m shielded in this tree
From Everybodys gaze.
I know my Thoughts now visit me
That make.s me so amazed.
I cannot get away from Thought
No matter what I do.
It haunts my mind where ere I walk
And makes me learn the Tree.
I.ve tried to cover up thy stream
But Nature stayed my Hand.
And made me learn what thou did mean
when thou did me command.
Therefore my Thoughts, Basked in the light,
And climb the Heights Divine.
Because. from there thou.ll get a sight
Of what Thou.s left behind.
From There thou.ll gaze in wraptured awe.
And gaze on natures face.
Tis there thou.ll find that nature’s Law
Is God.s own Hand we trace.
Look at that cloud Just oer thy Head.
It is an Heavenly Blue.
Then at the right are tints of Red
That tell thee Nature’s true.
There in the distance is a green.
Thats framed in clouds of white
The frame is shadowed by a Cream
That does the Green unite.
with
Beneath that cream right far away
Are clouds like passing smoke.
That’s drifting to the suns Bright rays
Enfolds them like a Book.
Now Thought. who put those clouds in Bright array.
who made that cloud like snow.
If thou knows. I beg. I pray
That Thou should let me know.
A Hand divine created all.
God. we say by name.
And nature answers to his call

210
For God hold’s nature’s frame.
If He withholds his might Hand
Chaos and darkness reigns.
For God has nature at command
As He does nature train.
September 25 1900
W Heath
Signed. Dated.

211
Saturday night September 29th 1900
11. o clock. in one short hour
Will dawn the sabbath day.
Our feet shall wander to a tower
Where voice is heard to pray.
Even now my Thoughts are there.
I hear those Hallowed songs.
That rise and fall upon the air
From That Harmonious Throng.
Refreshing are those scare Sacred Scenes
For strength they do supply.
They even bring into our dreams
A taste of grace gone bye.
The Memory can bring up the past
That gives the Heart a feast.
And so a stream is found at Last
Who’s current never cease.
And thus we take before we get.
Are there before we go.
The songs now come that I have met
They will not be said no.
Oh Sabbath day. Calm sabbath day.
On me they Cloak put on.
And as our Hearts begin to pray
Just trim them with thy song.
As we Enter at thy shrine
Direct our Thoughts above
And as we pray let light divine
spread in our Hearts thy love
Infuse thy Healing Christ like Balm,
Thy guiding Hand point on
To where the stream of Holy calm
Flows on with Sacred song.
Oh. sabbath day. Calm Sabbath day.
Thou lowly day of rest.
I ask. I beg. I even pray
Thou.ll be my constant Guest.
following day after Evening Service.
I walked into the House of prayer
And saw a splendid sight.
There were some flowers rich and rare
That helped tomake all Bright.
We all stood up to raise our voice

212
In sweet and Hallowed Hymns.
The very sound made all rejoice
That Holy pleasure brings.
The preacher said in voice most clear
God. does always love.
And has He spoke we felt love near .
Who’s dews fell from above.
Our souls they soared to realms of Bliss.
They plucked the fruits Divine
And drank the Juice we oft had wish
That left his love behind.
It touched the spring where flows the tear
The Channel was the Cheek.
That carried all the dews of fear
When soul and God do meet.
No Human Hand can paint the Scene
No Thought how ever fine
Can that Sight paint on a Scene
God. only paints divine
Hallowed be thy Holy Name.
Pure.
is thy love.
And now thy love my heart shall train.
With love from God above.
W Heath
Signed. Dated in Title.

213
Learning to skate
I thought I.d like to learn to skate
Ho it looked such grand fun.
But little did I know my fate
When skating I had done.
I put the skates upon my feet
Then tried to stand upright.
Of course I tried to do it neat
As Ladies were in Sight.
My left Leg went towards the south
My Right unto the west.
I found I had without a doubt
To seek a place to rest.
I tried once more to stand upright
Just has a Lady passed.
But slipped. I grabbed with all my might
And down I went at Last.
I saw some stars while on my Back
Not stars thats in the sky
But stars that shine upon a track
That darts from Head to Eye
I got some Breath and nerve as well
And Kept my Knees right firm.
Then at it I did go pell mell
As I did want to learn.
The speed I went was simply grand
Just floating on in space.
It was the height of Joy Just fanned
Just like a splendid race.
But oh dear me.
I lost my Hat.
I lost my Head as well.
I tried to turn my feet like that
And Through the Ice I fell.
I Bobbed about Just like a fish
Till some one pulled me out.
Then some one said they only wished
They had not heard me shout.
The cold went to my very Boons Bones
I hailed a Handsome Cab.
But what I heard Just made me moan
Not one.
It cant be had.
I had to walk in that sad plight
With urchins round in scores.
One Young Lad. He was a tyke

214
He said I was a Boer.
I ran to get out of their Sight
They ran and gathered more.
They shouted. Laughed with all their might
As they ne.er did before.
But when my wife Just Gazed on me
And saw my dirty plight.
She would not let me in you see
She Said I was not right.
I.ve played at football. Broke my Leg.
With Biking had a fall.
But skating Broke my poor old Head
For skating beats them all.
It shoots one leg right out in front
The other slides right back.
Your Body then performs a stunt
Upon a new made track.
My ribs. and Leggs are now all right
But Yet I can relate
The story of that awful night
The night I learnt to skate.
Begone thou nasty skating thing.
Begon. thy name I hate.
For peace and love they Just took wing
When I began to skate
October 6th 1900
WHeath
Signed. Dated.

215
A Thought
I like to see a Handsome face
That sin did never mark
For in that Face something we trace
That death can never part.
We cannot trace it in a man
In woman it is found
But in a Child we always can
Just find a peace profound
Just gaze into a Young Girls Eye
You.ll find what I do mean.
For there it is none can deny
A Sacredness serene
Gentle. Sweet. a Searching look
Whose Beams are full of grace
Her life you read Just like a Book
And thus Her Virtue’s trace
No Car. or Thought of what is wrong
She trips her lithesome feet
And sings a snatch of some sweet song
That tells the Friends she Keeps
Oh. my merry Handsome Friend
Keep clear of sin and Guile.
Be care less thy way should End
Where peace does never smile
Keep thy heart Just like a flower
Who’s leafs close when its night.
And open with the Suns warm power
That floods the Earth with light.
Then thy fragrance will be sweet
Thy radiance be the pure
Then in the End thy soul shall meet
A Heaven that is secure.
W Heath Oct 23rd 1900
Signed. Dated.

216
Thoughts after lead Kindly light
Now, I can see as I ne.er did before
I light I hold
My Heart is calm because I thee adore
I.m of thy fold
I.ll walk by Thee and take hold of thy Hand
Because my soul is now at thy command
I . now can pray. oh what a glorious Thought
still lead me on
I . love to choose thy way that thou has taught
.
me to walk on
I . see thy face that brings to me a smile
Who’s Beams I feel that Keeps my Soul from Guile
Thy power hath blessed found the Secrets of my heart
Through Holy song.
I.ll Bathe thy feet with Tears that now do start
For Sin has gone
I.ll take the fruit that grew on trees divine
Inhale with prayer the sweetness I now find.
Written by Wm Heath
after reading Lead Kindly light
October 27th 1900
Editor’s Note: It is likely that Heath references yet another hymn/poem by John Henry
Newman entitled “Lead, kindly light, amid the encircling gloom” or “The Pillar of the Cloud”
written in 1833 and which speaks to Newman’s personal feelings regarding challenges in his
church and his desire to continue his passionate work in that same church. The hymn was
extremely popular in England during the Victorian period. (hymnary.org). In Heath’s poem of
reflection, the stanza takes on a novel format, as does his closing signature which includes his
inspiration for the poem. Heath also draws on the formality of Newman’s work with his
extensive use of thee, thou, and thy. Also of note is Heath’s notation of “after reading” as
Newman’s work was set to music. Heath’s poem does not contain any direct quotes from the
hymn.
Signed. Dated.

217
Must submit to pain
How varied is the Human face
We. ne.er see two alike
of course some features we can trace
That brings a name in sight
The nose that tells you of conceit.
The Lip of discontent
Also a lip we sometimes meet
on those that have contempt
The doubtful Eye Just speaks a word
The Knick of Lusts own passion
Also a look that is absurd
Thats brought by pride and fashion
The Haughty walk we.ve seen as well
For it Just tells a tale
In fact our ways do always tell
Just our nature fails
But hatred. malice and all faults
Are brought unto a stand.
When pain Just comes and crys out halt
We answer pains command.
I know my failings that I do
But where are they Just now.
I do not want them to renew
There friendship or their vow.
What made this change in mind and heart
Why Just a racking pain
I wish it would with faults depart
But. oh its there again.
I cannot walk with ease or grace
I cannot stand upright
Because a pain does me Embrace
And faults have taken flight
Oh haughty man. what is they worth
Thy soul can only rise
Thy frame right from thy very Birth
Was doomed to pain and Sighs

218
I know thy failings are thy own
But they may be set free
If only self will faults disown
Then free from vice thou.ll be
Thou cannot do it by thyself
But there is such a stream
That can supply some Private help
For by that stream I.ve been
That stream is only caught by prayer
When on thy private Knee
The stream will come Just then and there
And vice will be set free.
Get by that stream. let prayer take wing
A current thou may trace
Thats full of Virtues that may bring
Thee too thy makers face
Written while Lumbago had me
Wm Heath October 25th 1900
Signed. Dated.

219
Oh my saviour
Thou doth clothe my soul in love
Hear my Humble prayer
Thou doth point me to above
Tells me Home is there
I can see thy guiding hand
Grace my soul as now command
Thou my souls own saviour
I now Thee may share
Let me see thy pure Face
Let me be like Thee
Clean and white no sin can trace
Just like Thee I.d be
Then my soul will do no wrong
Clean and pure shall be my tounge
Thou art still my saviour
Guide and Keep me free
Oh I want to be like Thee
Yes thou knows I do
When no wrong thy Eye can see
Just like Thee as true
Then I.ll have a pure heart
Know my saviours Private mark
Yes thou art my saviour
And I know it too
WHeath

Signed. Dated.

Oct 27th
1900
____________

220
I Thought on my ways and turned my feet
unto thy Testimonies
I Brought my Thoughts unto a stand
And some I then turned out.
While others I would understand
That had been full of doubt.
My ways I then did look at
With Thoughts own searching light.
And found my ways lead too a trap
That Kept me from the right.
I could desern another’s faults.
Forgetting that I had
Just hid right down in my own Vaults
The seeds of ways right Bad.
I saw upon a Brother’s Sight
A note. so large. so queer.
Yet in my Eye a Beam shone Bright
Reflecting Insincere.
But when my ways Engaged my Thoughts
I was surprised to find
How my faults my heart had sought
And Cherished in my mind.
I looked into the vaults of Thought
And a look within.
There on the Ground was what I sought.
some ways coiled up with sin.
Those ways arose and tried to hide
Behind a Brother’s faults
They could not hide although they tried
As light to them cried halt.
They hated there and stood in line.
I counted them to see
How many ways had light divine,
And those from sin marked free.
I got some help and turned all out
They fought to get within
The struggle was one full of doubt

221
For nature tried to win.
A Friend that helped. held out his Hand.
I grasped it then and there
He then my ways did Just command
For He had heard my prayer.
He changed the nature of my Heart
And taught me how to pray.
Then on my ways He put his mark
As they were then His way.
November 11th 1900
Signed. Dated.

WHeath

222
The Japanese Minister from Washington going Home asked Professor Max Muller for a
new Religion for Japan. But must not recommend Christianity
wanted a New Religion
They say religion is too old. They want one that is new.
But new Religion cannot hold. it virtue’s are so few
The New Religion cannot check The Private sins of man
For Vice is only what it gets and vice it always can
It satisfies a mind depraved. Pollutes the stream of Thought
And tries to crush a soul that’s Saved. By Vice that it has sought
It never shed a drop of Blood, For Blood it never had.
Its full of Bad. Knows no Good. And never cheered the Sad.
An healing Balm it has not got. For wounds are what it makes.
A rising sigh it sees not. And Blessings it forsakes.
The old Religion shed some Blood. And wounds it wants to heal
It shuns the Bad. Collects the Good. And for a sinner feels.
Its Virtues finds a trembling heart. And hears a private prayer.
It sees a tear ere it does start. and gathers it with care.
It helps a soul to keep from sin. And runs too it with grace.
And on a Wound pours Balm right in. That helps the Human race.
It help a mind that knows distress and lets it feel a love
That sooths the mind to Holy rest. And shows it Heaven above.
This old Religion has a spring. Where Christ is always nigh.
And if a Cup you only Bring He will not pass you bye
No. new Religion we require. But of the old will share.
From the new we must retire. And Clasp the old by prayer.
November 14th 1900 WHeath
Editor’s Note: Heath’s title inspiration for this poem is detailed in his title. However, it is
unclear as to who the Japanese Minister is, or on what occasion said Minister consulted with
Muller regarding religion. It is likely that Heath is referencing the German scholar and
Orientalist Friedrich Max Muller, who moved from Germany to England in 1846. Muller died in
England on October 28, 1900 and was a noted scholar of comparative religion, language, and
mythology. Muller’s views on religion were drawn from German idealism and focused on the
origins of belief systems; his ideas were challenged by scholars and religious leaders
(brittanica.com/biography). In the work “The Life and Letters of The Right Honourable Friedrich
Max Muller”, edited by his wife Georgina Adelaide Grenfell, there are clues to the inspiration
for this poem, but the specific event suggested by the poem’s title could not be determined.
However, it is clear from the text on Muller’s life that he lectured extensively, resided in England
for much of his life, and that he engaged in robust communication with individuals from around
the world. The text also indicates that the early part of August 1900 was the last period during
which Max Muller was active following a lengthy illness.

223
Oh it is cold
I.m starved to death. I am for sure
Will you always shut that door
It Blows right at my Back.
My flesh Just now is all Goose bumps.
also my teeth they Jump. Jump. Jump
Get me my Slippers Jack.
I.ve coughed and Sneezed and fairly Barked
All this day from morn to dark
Until I.m fairly done.
My nose I.ve wiped above a Bit
I really thought I.d have a fit
No. I want no rum
I.ll have some Kompo Boiling hot
Just make me some I.ll drink all lot
shut that door
You have no sense I do declare
get me that cushion off that chair
I.ve asked for one before
My nose is running like a tap
This Handkerchief is like a mat
And oh my nose is sore
When I get warm I.ll go to Bed
This cold I think in in my head
shut that door
I.ll rub my legs with olive oil
I think I.m going to have a Boil
Oh. I do feel Bad
I cannot eat. I cannot sleep.
And oh how cold is my poor feet
Kompo let me have
You cant have been as Bad as me
If you have you.d all agree
To do your very Best
To Keep that door shut all the time
But no you think it very fine
To leave it wide I guess
I.ll go to Bed. I will for sure
Then I know you.ll shut that door

224
And Keep all snug and warm
If your Back did ache like mine
I know youd make a pretty shine
If cold came to your arms
Im sweating now. But oh this cough
If nearly sends my Head right off
But Kompo is grand stuff
Ive drunk a quart if I.ve drunk ought
I.m glad a Bottle I have Bought
Nay. I think I.ve sipped Enough
Shut that door I.ve told you before
dont you open it any more
Before I go to Bed
That door is shut. Keep it shut
Hullos who’s there. it Mother’s fool
good night I said.
With Blankets. sheets and Heavy rugs
I made my self so very snug
I soon began to snore
I woke. as I began to shout.
This of course you.ll fairly doubt
shut that door
W Heath Dec 1898
Editor’s Note: The date of this poem positions it well outside of the chronological order
followed thus far, suggesting it was written over two years prior to the preceding poem but over
three years prior to the following poem. The drink referenced in Heath’s poem was difficult to
transcribe due to script style, but “Kompo” was confirmed based on research which suggests that
Heath is referring to “Dr. White’s Kompo, supplied by J.F. White and Co. of Leeds, which was a
well-known cold remedy containing 6.42 % alcohol, oils of cinnamon and cloves, salicylic acid,
and eucalyptus gum. (1543, 1544. British Medical Journal)
Signed. Dated.

225
Music’s Influences
Music must be heaven Born
Transplanted down to Earth
That brings to man the dawn of morn
As thought it brings to Birth.
Its tones. they find the aching heart
And soothes in unto rest.
Its spirit does at once impart
An Holy Hallowed guest
Its power. always draws and clings
Like Ivy round a Tree
And we may feel its healing wings
For Heaven sent it free.
Where.er it goes. it leaves behind
some seed that is divine.
And when its gone we still may find
Its chords. the Heart entwine.
Its spirit enters private ground
where lies a sleeping past.
Awakes to life what it has found.
sustains it too the last.
It calls to mind what Mother Sang
Though she has gone to rest.
The heart may feel an heavy pang
At music’s own request.
The Angels sang. a Child is born
And we repeat that strain
That cheers some heart that feels forlorn
And thus a peace regain.
The chords of music we will prize
And nurish them with care
The heart and voice they shall arise
To heaven. on wings of prayer.
Then when our soul at God’s command
An upward flight may take.
The Heavenly choir around may stand
And sing us through the gate.

226
Around the notes of Music’s shrine
we.ll decorate with love.
Then Harmonize with light divine
With chords from Christ above.
What God has sent. we will return.
Christ shall give the tone.
And thus by music we may learn
What Angels sing at Home.
WHeath March 18th 1901
Signed. Dated.

227
Faith.

Hope. And Charity.

Faith is trust that holds the hand
Although it would hang down.
For strength it always can demand
Though Human Nature frown.
It is an help in time of need.
It leads man up to hope.
Its not the fruit. Its not the Seed
But will the fruit denote.
It sees the ground. Knows the soil.
And brings in View the Seed.
That Hope shine up on loves Sweet toil
It plucks the growing weed.
When man would fail. it lifts Him up.,
And strength it will supply.
It points to Hope to fill the Cup.
When man would droop and die.
It can desern the weakest spot.
The drooping heart will cheer.
May bring a light man has forgot
And bring hope very near.
It brings to View things out of Sight.
A substances man may feel.
It is a Witness. Brings to light
Facts it will reveal.
Hope. is a Beam. it is a light
It is a shining star.
It penetrates the gloom of night.
And Brings day near. when far.
Storms may break upon lifes shore
Waves run mountains high
The Wind may make the Breakers roar
And cause the heart to Sigh.
But through the storm a light is seen
That penetrates the gloom.
Its only hope I left a Beam
To show where flowers Bloom.

228
The Human mind may live in doubt
Without a Ray to cheer.
Yet hope will come and turn it out
And show that help is near.
The Secret cells within the heart
With trouble may be Sealed.
But they give way to hopefuls art
And to its light they yield.
The soul may search the world for light
And search for it invain.
Because the soul did not invite
Good Hope. a light to train.
Hope stands near. it is Sincere.
It never leads astray.
Its Radiant Beams take old of fear
And leads it far away.
Oh Beam of Hope. Thou Heavenly light.
Thou light within the gloom.
I would just now thyself invite
To make my hope to Bloom.
Storms may gather oer my Head.
The waves of Trouble roll.
But Hope will show me where to tread
It can the waves control.
When mornings light dispels the night
Be Thou my mornings Guest.
To entertain my soul with light
My Heart and mind to test.
I will Build an altar here.
And Hope on Guard shall stand.
So That it may bring Heaven near
And calm delight command.
But Charity. it is divine
Arrayed in Robes of White.
Its seeks to save. it doth Entwine
And lead from wrong to right.
It seeks for Virtues. not for Vice.

229
And ne.er upbrades the wrong.
When Virtues found it doth entice
To paths of Holy song.
Charity. has many names.
And every one is sweet.
Because they never look for shame
Its virtues they do seek.
Mercy is its Gentle frame.
And kindness is the Art.
But love is Just the artist name
And Charity its mark.
It is a Nurse with gentle hand.
That sooths the storms of strife.
For healing power it doth command
And leads from death to life.
It is Chaste. perfect. true.
It never was defield.
God alone keeps it secure.
By Nature it is mild.
It never turns aside from pain.
But takes its sweetest Balm.
Helps the fallen. hides the shame
For Charitys a Charm.
It fragrance is so rich and sweet.
That none can it compare.
It purifies the air we meet
For Charity is Care.
Kindness. Mercy. adorned with love.
Are Emblems of the True.
And Charity is Heavens dove,
It gentley comes in view.
It Breathes an atmosphere divine.
And flies on wings of prayer.
Return to Earth from Yonder clime
Its attributes to share.
You cannot soil it if you try.
Its always clean and white.

230
For pure it came from the sky
To lead to morning light.
Faith will come into the Mind,
And Hope the heart will cheer.
And Charity the soul will Bind
To make a love sincere.
It is a picture God has made.,
And framed in Heaven above.
Its perfect colours cannot fade
Because its watch by love.
Hang that picture in thy Home
And Keep it clear of dust.
Then Charity will be a Throne.
Of Rest. and peace and Trust.
Editor’s Note: Heath’s reference to faith, hope, and charity is arguably a reference to 1
Corinthians 13:13, as per the King James Bible Version (biblehub).
Unsigned. Undated.

231
What I have seen
I.ve seen the waves run mountains high
Seen the lightings flash.
Heard the wind go rushing bye
And Thunders loudly crash.
I.ve seen the snow fall gently down
Seen the dew and rain.
Felt the sun shines golden crown
And walked through fields of grain.
I.ve seen the Labourer in the field
Attending too the plough
Turning up what frosts have sealed
preparing seeds to Sow.
I.ve seen the harvest gathered in
partaken of the Same.
Seen the Lark rise up and Sing
Its praises to Exclaim.
Seen the Buds. and the flowers.
The Trees with Lusicous fruit.
I.ve searched about for natures powers
In fields and sky and Books.
But I had to say I could not find
The powers that I sought.
Until I utilized my mind
And found the powers sought.
The powers sought I found was God
The God that doth create.
For Nature shows me where He trod
With marks I cant mistake
The ocean with its wide Expance
Also the rising Sun
Are pictures.
perfect at a glance
That proves what God has done.
But has I think about the Seed
Thats planted in the Earth.
Just proves to me That very deed
That God alone gives
Birth.

232
Where is this God. where can He be
I would so like to know.
If I knew I.d try and see
The God that nature knows.
I.ve found this God through Nature’s Art.
Thats pointed out to me.
That in the mind. in the heart
This God we feel and see.
Therefore Heaven is on Earth.
Not in the Bright blue sky.
For on this Earth God brings to Birth
A love that cannot die.
WHeath .
Signed. Dated.

Jan 18th 1903

233
What Christ sat on .
Upon the mountain Side he stood
And preached the word of life.
His whole life long was doing good
That often brought Him strife.
No Carpet for His weary feet
No velvet where He sat.
He preached that souls a peace might meet
And pride He preached right at.
No Scarlet Robe adorned His form.
His rostrum anywhere.
He preached to Hearts that felt forlorn
His love He gave a share.
Sometimes He stood upon a ship
Also on the Sands.
I never heard He had one bit
Of pile on which to stand.
No Human Choir gave him help.
No organ at His side
But simply stood just by Himself
Through life until He died.
But we must have Just in the rear
An organ Rich and Sweet.
Also a Choir very near
Whoses Singing is a treat
Our wrship worship has to be on pile
or velvet. Red or Blue.
Yet. sometimes this is only guile
That proves we are not true.
God will hear a praying heart
Knelt on wood or stone
His Grace He will at once impart
And make that heart His home.
Pile may be easy too kneel on.
And velvet catch the Eye.
They do not help an Hallowed song
Or prove that Christ is nigh.

234
He sees the tear. the rising Sigh.
He.ll catch the rising prayer.
Although no pile or velvets nigh
His love the heart may share.
He wants the worship from the heart
That He a seat may find
Not where velvet is a part
But in a pure mind
The wearer of a pair of Clogs
Or even naked feet
Can find the path that Christ has trod
And sit down at His feet.
WHeath Jan 18th 1903
Signed. Dated.

235
What I’d like to hear
The Heavenly choir I.d like to hear
To learn the Tunes they sing.
Holy Rapture must appear
Has soon as they begin.
Discard they will never make
Their Harmony Sublime.
They.ll swell. Retard. then just partake
The pleasures most divine.
Their music Books I.d like to see
And see the writters name.
Their Instruments I think must be
Of Holy Hallowed fame.
I know one Glee they often Sing
Its in the Natural Rey.
They sing it when they see the King
For Christ composed that glee.
this.
I sent my Son from Heaven to Earth
To lead my lost one.s Home.
Those have found what Christ is worth
That sit around the Throne.
No care. or pain they ever feel
No anguish in the heart
Joy and peace has got my Seal
To show my private mark.
page)
page)
torn

I now have found the Song…

they sing (upper right-hand corner fragment, torn

Christ brought there…
me
To give my prayer in faith……

(upper right-hand corner fragment, torn page)
Holy Wing (upper right han corner fragment, torn

That I may sing that ………

Glee (upper right-hand corner fragment, rest of page
away)

Editor’s note: This concludes the content of the bound manuscript and it is obvious from
the binding and remaining attached page fragment that at least two pages have been torn away,
leaving the final poem as a fragment. The tear is rough, and it unclear if the tear was intentional
but it does not appear to be due to deterioration to the page.

236
Unsigned. Undated.
End of text held in the bound manuscript
Poems found on loose papers found in the bound manuscript:

237
Yet there’s Buds beneath that Frost
And the Staff will watch the Sun
Hear to calling Buds to come
And will help each gentle Flower,
Morning- Noon- and Evening Hour
Till those Banks are dressed sublime
In robes no Artist could design
Holders of a N. E. Pass
Strangers, while those Banks you pass
Let the Staff know you are there
By praising them for skill and care
Then you’l “Pilot” them across
The Bar of doubt, and Winter’s Frost
Hope will there be in their eyes
And you their pilot to their Prize
The Judges there will want to know
How they watch those Banks in Snow,
The Staff will say, we watch the Sun
And hear it whisper- Buds- Come.

Yours respectfully,
“SILENCE”
Editor’s Note: This type written poem is found on one sheet of beige coloured paper in
the bound manuscript. The paper is unlined and unlike that of the pages in the manuscript. The

238
paper does contain a faint watermark which provides the name St. Cuthberts. St. Cuthberts is an
active papermill which dates back to the 1700s in Somerset, England (St Cuthberts Mill). As it is
unsigned and type written, I cannot definitely attribute this poem to William Heath.
Signed: Silence. Undated.

239
Mount
Cheam
_______

(1)

(3)

(5)

I cannot paint the break of day.
or sketch the shades of night.
They come. But how they go away
Is far beyond my sight.
It is a maze to my poor mind
The Artist must be near.
(2)
Each shade and shadow both combine
To prove the moulder there.
Deep is the mystery of this world
Far deeper than the sea.

The moulder’s flag we see unfurled
As Break of day we See.
The shades of night. wrapt in gloom
he woven by some power
(4)
That moves the shuttle in the Loom
To make a genter flower.
Artist. Take me by the hand.
Thy woven scenes are in the sky
Captain. Thy work is me.
(6) And in the cold green Sod.

Lift the curtain Thou has’t planned. No man can frame wats pasy
Im lost in mystery.
They must be done by God.
WH
____

Editor’s Note: While Heath’s script has consistently provided a challenge in transcription,
this loose poem written on blank paper sees a script that is laboured. Many words, such as
“genter” and “pasy” cannot be accurately transcribed. The paper is unlined and unlike that of the
manuscript; there is no watermark and the page edges are clean and even. Mount Cheam is found
near Chiliwack, British Columbia. This location suggests that the poem was written when Heath
resided in this community.
Signed. Undated.
_____

240
Hymn 457

Tennyson’s Sunset

I see the old man on the hill side.
Watching the restless see.
Musing on scenes far and wide
His thoughts on Eternity.
___
The Harbour so placid and still
Waves of the sea near and far
Were rolling and tossing at will
But. never could cross the bar.
The lights at the Harbour mouth.
The Bell rang on the old rock
are signs to clear him of doubt
That He would land at the dock.
_____
He gazed on evenings twilight.
And heard the wild billows roar.
He knew He’d see the morning light
Where farewells are no more.
The Pilot had taken command
And Chart and compas could see.
The old man saw the promised land
The Rock of Ages see.
He was not in a passing dream.
Just musing in silence alone.
The lights and Harbour he had seen.
For He was moving Home.

WHeath
Editor’s Note: This handwritten poem on loose paper also has a script which appears to
be laboured. The paper is unlike others found in the manuscript, does not contain a watermark,
and at one time it was folded into six partitions. The literary reference to Tennyson is strong in
that Heath names the poet laureate in the title and follows a similar theme of guidance by God,
and an eventual acceptance into the sanctuary of Heaven as man’s eventual home seen in
Tennyson’s work.
Signed. Undated.

241
Musing
Its very easy to sit and talk
Another thing to think.
I wonder now how do I walk
How do I use this ink.
How does the mind show me the way.
Do they tell my eyes.
How it is done I cannot say.
Its nature big surprise.
There are wonders I the grass
Also in the trees.
Seasons come. Seasons pass
But. What directs all these.
There must be some great moving power.
A moulder out of Sight.
That puts the fragrance in each flower
Unfolds the shades of night.
The maker of this perfect realm
Its hand I.ve never seen.
Yet. some power must hold the helm
To guide the worlds machine.
We see no wheels. no map. no Sign.
We see the rising Sun.
Or Saw the drawings done.
Drawings. Model. Moulder too.
The flowers and thi Sod
All natures pictures that we view
All works that’s made by God.
Do you wonder why we sing
The praises of creation.
We’ll see the map of everything
The wonders of Crator Creation.
And know what is Creation
WH
____
Editor’s Note: Like other loose poems, Heath’s writing appears laboured in this poem.
Found on a single sheet of blank paper without watermark, the edges are clean and straight, and
the paper was at one time folded into six partitions. The poem is placed quite close to the lefthand edge and consumes the entire length of the page. The final five lines and signature are
placed vertically to the remainder of the poem in the lower right-hand corner of the page.
Signed. Undated.

242
I.m an ignorant

man.

I cannot point the break of day
Explain the shades of night.
They come . But. how they go away
Is far beyond my sight.
It is a maze to my poor mind
The Artist must be near
Each shade. each shadow all combine
To prove the Artist near.
Deep is the mystery of this world.
Far deeper than the Sea.
The Artist’s flag we see unfurled
So Break of day we see.
The shades of night clothed in gloom
Are woven by some power.
That moves the shuttle in the loom
To make a gentle flower.
Artist. take me by the hand.
Explain thy works to me.
Lift the curtain Thou has’t planed
I.m lost in mystery.
They woven scenes are in the sky.
Beneath the cold green Sod.
No man can frame what.s passing by
They must be done by God.
WHeath
Editor’s Note: This poem is also found on loose unlined paper which does not contain a
watermark. It was also folded at one time into six partitions. Heath’s poems “I. an ignorant man”
and “Mount Cheam” are nearly identical; only lines six, seven, eight, eleven, thirteen, twentytwo each contain a minor word variation such as “moulder” and artis” being used
interchangeably. There is no evidence which suggests which poem was written first as neither is
dated.

243
Do - Ray - Me .
______________________
A Cat came singing at my dorr.
Do. Ray . Me.
I.d often heard him sing before . Do. Ray. Me.
My Cat it tried to answer back
But struck a note that sounded flat
But . Im at once He answered back. Do. Ray. Me.
Tom then yelled oh do come out.
Sol. Fah. Ray.
I’ve a song we should try out.
La. Fa. Ray.
Then my Cat it struck B. sharp.
A Dog came round and gave a Bark
Then sang an obligato Smart
Sol. Fa. Ray.
That Dog had gone a splendid tone. And Breath control.
He got his grace note from a Bone. Spencers sold.
He never could sing the messiah
From spencers store would not retire
I never kew that dog to tire
Eating Sausage Rolls.
To hear that Dogrun up the Scale
Sustaining C.
And hear both Cats start in a wail
Yelling
B.
was enough to wake the dead
And give us men a fine Bold head.
But relief when it was said.
Do. Ray. me.
I raced that dog across our Lawn. He’d lost the Key
It was a pity He’d been Born.
He dreaded me.
I think He must have burst a tyre
or His tonsils got on fire
A Hammer made him fast retire
And Do.
Ray.

me.

When the night is dark and drear.
And you in Bed.
And some Cats are Yelling near.
Words are said.
Words that have no mellow tone.
Words that penetrate thru Bone.
Words that make you moan and groan. And wish all Cats were dead.
__________
Editor’s Note: This poem is on unique paper as it is longer than all others at legal size.
The paper is unsigned, without watermark, and was once folded into eight partitions. On the
reverse side of the page is the word “C ats” with a strike underline and appears to be written in
pencil rather than in ink. The script of the poem, like that of the other loose page poems, appears
to be laboured. The script appears to be in Heath’s hand, as despite the poem being unsigned I

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attribute the poem as that of William Heath. This assertion is based on the nature of the script,
the poem’s rhythm, theme, and language being in line with that of signed poems written by
William Heath.
Unsigned. Undated.

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9. Appendices
Appendix A: 1851 United Kingdom Census Record: Abel and Matilda Heath at Lower
Hanover Street

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Appendix B: West Yorkshire, Non-Conformist Records, 1646-1985 for William Heath

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Appendix C: 1891 England Census for William Heath at 5 Chapman Street

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Appendix D : West Yorkshire, England, Marriages and Banns Record

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Appendix E : 1901 England Census for William and Hannah Heath: 17 Florence Grove

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Appendix F: 1911 Census of England and Wales, William, Hannah, and Ella Heath, no
address

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Appendix G: Canadian Passenger List, confirming William Heath’s arrival in Canada

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Appendix H: 1916 Canada Census of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta for William
Heath

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Appendix I: William and Hannah Heath

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Appendix J: Handwritten note, found loose in the manuscript

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Appendix K: handwritten note

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Appendix L:

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Appendix M: The Leeds Mercury Newspaper

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Appendix N: Untitled Poem, found loose in the manuscript

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The Autographic Manuscript of William Heath

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