Map
Poems After William Smith's Geological Map of 1815
Published on 15. March 2015
Book
Paperback/Softback
88 pages
978-1-905208-32-6 (ISBN)
Description
The poems in this anthology celebrate a map, a man, and a science. The science is geology. The man is William Smith (1769 - 1839), civil engineer and geologist. The map is Smith's masterpiece: A Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales, with part of Scotland, the first geological map of an entire country, published in 1815. 2 As a working engineer, not a gentleman, Smith was unable to become a member of the newly formed Geological Society. His contribution to the new science of geology was initially dismissed by the Society, which set out to produce its own rival map. Coupled with some imprudent investments, Smith's venture culminated in a stretch in debtor's prison. By the time of his death in 1839, however, Smith's achievements had been recognised; in 1831 he was awarded the Geological Society's first Wollaston Medal in recognition of his work, and honoured by the Society's President, Adam Sedgwick, as 'the father of English geology'. To mark the two hundredth anniversary of its publication, I invited a number of poets to respond to the map, Smith's life, and his legacy.
I was thrilled by the generosity and enthusiasm with which they embraced this invitation and the different routes their poems took. It was a pleasure to introduce many of them to the Geological Society's map up close and to listen to their astute and creative observations. There are poems in this anthology that tell the story of Smith's genius and his misfortune; poems about fossil hunting and map making; poems about the drive of the Industrial Revolution and our continuing reliance on fossil fuels. When most of us look at a map we look for home, and the same is true of many of these poets. But Smith's alien cartography of colour makes us see home in a radically different light, and so the poets, representing the geographical reach of Smith's map, confront the reader with new ways of seeing the landscape and history of Britain. Their poems illustrate not only the vibrancy and variety of contemporary poetry but also poetry's unique ability to take on uncharted territory with vision, to make connections and find relevance: the poems here make Smith's map anew in moving and surprising ways.
I was thrilled by the generosity and enthusiasm with which they embraced this invitation and the different routes their poems took. It was a pleasure to introduce many of them to the Geological Society's map up close and to listen to their astute and creative observations. There are poems in this anthology that tell the story of Smith's genius and his misfortune; poems about fossil hunting and map making; poems about the drive of the Industrial Revolution and our continuing reliance on fossil fuels. When most of us look at a map we look for home, and the same is true of many of these poets. But Smith's alien cartography of colour makes us see home in a radically different light, and so the poets, representing the geographical reach of Smith's map, confront the reader with new ways of seeing the landscape and history of Britain. Their poems illustrate not only the vibrancy and variety of contemporary poetry but also poetry's unique ability to take on uncharted territory with vision, to make connections and find relevance: the poems here make Smith's map anew in moving and surprising ways.
Reviews / Votes
"These poems illustrate not only the vibrancy and variety of contemporary poetry but also poetry's unique ability to take on uncharted territory with vision, to make connections and find relevance: the poems here make Smith's map anew in moving and surprising ways." - Michael McKimmMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Tonbridge
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 210 mm
Width: 140 mm
Thickness: 7 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-905208-32-6 (9781905208326)
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Schweitzer Classification
Content
Introduction 1 Michael McKimm Treasure Island 5 Maura Dooley The 1815 Overture 6 Philip Gross Smith 8 Matt Merritt The New Red Sandstone 11 Peter Robinson Complex 13 John Greening strata 15 Mario Petrucci From a Chalkface 17 Anthony Wilson Mappa sub-Mundi 18 Alyson Hallett Lithologies / Mythologies 19 Andy Brown Allegory of the Navigation Canal 21 James Brookes Conversation 22 Isabel Galleymore Strata Smith 23 John Freeman greensand and gault: a portrait of the young palaeontologist 24 Elizabeth Cook The Drainage Engineer 26 Alison Brackenbury William Smith's Poem 29 Jonathan Davidson My Brilliant Career 30 John Freeman Classical Bust of William Smith in Oxford University Museum 31 James Brookes Clever and Capable Men 32 David M. Orchard Mapping on Tilberthwaite Fells 33 Barbara Cumbers Shades of Hades 34 John Freeman Beachcombing 35 Peter Robinson Itinerary 36 John Wedgwood Clarke Red Rock 44 Alan Buckley The only proper way to go on a fossil hunt is in a minibus 46 Ailsa Holland Ammonites 47 Alyson Hallett To Make a Map Look Old 48 Penelope Shuttle Geological Survey 50 Stephen Boyce chroma : mapping 51 Alyson Hallett Greensand Ridge 52 James Brookes Parchment Scalpel Rock: Stratigraphical Economics 53 George Ttoouli Whole 58 Helen Mort Pathways 60 Sally Flint 1815 61 John Greening The Chalk Hills of Surry and Kent 62 Peter Carpenter The Mud Pump 64 John McAuliffe Sequence 66 Isabel Galleymore To read a history in the Earth 67 Kate Potts A Fold in the Map 69 Stephen Boyce Smith the Poet 71 John Freeman The Afterlife of William Smith 72 Andrew Motion On Discovery 74 Jane Commane The Painted Soil 76 Isobel Dixon Map 78 Penelope Shuttle Notes on Contributors