I was just searching out an answer to a question posed by Dr. Paul White of the Darwin Correspondence Project in relation to the death of Charles Darwin and never remembering where I find anything, I returned to The Complete Works of Charles Darwin Online and to Emma’s diary for the year 1882 and discovered a choice morsel for poetry which I had previously, annoyingly, missed. In my writing of Darwin’s life I somehow failed to include Emma’s diary entry for April 20th, 1882:
“Polly died.
All the sons arrived.”
For anybody who doesn’t know, Polly was Darwin’s favorite dog in his latter years. She was a white terrier that slept in Darwin’s study and accompanied him on his daily ’sandwalk’. Apparently, she died the day after Darwin did, something I have previously never read about. If I had managed to discover this earlier, I would have called the poem: April 20th, 1882 and placed it after “The Green Need” and before “Afterwards”, which is an account of Emma’s life after Darwin’s death. What perfect brevity and rhythm Emma’s words have.
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