Line counting

Counting the lines of verse in this oeuvre is not as straightforward as it might seem. I have restricted the count to actual lines of verse, excluding the following:

- poem titles

- rewrites of lines, noted in the database in square brackets

- salutations that introduce a poem (as in 'Dearest Mother'), unless they are a part of a verse line

- farewells, good wishes etc at the end of a poem, unless they are a part of the rhyme scheme

- notes and footnotes explaining individual words, or giving a reference (eg to the Bible)

- long quotations from other writers (e.g. Shakespeare) in the body of a poem (qutes of one or two lines are usually incorporated into a stanza)

- affirmations, usually single words, that are added to the end of a poem, such as 'Amen', 'Selah', Shalom', unless they are incorporated within the rhyme scheme

- section headings, such as 'posthorn' or 'Envoi' in ballades - again, unless incorporated into a line.

- John's signature or sign-off name, such as 'babblebard'

- artistic interpolations, such as a drawing of birds in flight, or the use of M with a cross

I have included single lines in other languages, such as 'Om mani padme hum', 'Domine permane mecum'.

John often includes a stanza from one poem within another, sometimes with minor adaptations, as in 'Ut Unum Sint', which recycles some earlier writing. I have tried not to include recyclings in the count, but I may not have caught all of them.

Images

All the surviving manuscripts of John's poetry and prose had to be photographed, as part of the beatification process, and these images are now uploaded onto the website. The quality varies a great deal, as some of the manuscripts are very faded, or are poor photocopies; but most are clear and easy to read. You will see a mixture of handwritten and typed items, as well as the pictures which John sometimes used to accompany his poetry.

The poems are enormously varied in length. John was scrupulous about using every bit of available space on a page, paper being in such short supply. This is why we see some very short poems, of just two or three lines: they enabled him to fill a tiny bit of space remaining at the foot of a page. At the other extrene, we see poems of a thousand or more lines, taking up several pages, which is why some poems are accompanied by a large number of images: each page was photographed separately. 

In many instances, more than one poem appears on a page - sometimes three or four. These have been separated for display here, unless there was a good reason for keeping some together. For example, John often wrote a poem and then followed it up with a short related poem, headed Ibid ('the same') or Continuo, or (his favourite) Posthorn. These have been kept together. Other connections between the poems are noted in the editorial column under Links.