Dyad

At the office all the morning, and at noon my father, mother, and my aunt Bell (the first time that ever she was at my house) come to dine with me, and were very merry. After dinner the two women went to visit my aunt Wight, &c., and my father about other business, and I abroad to my bookseller, and there staid till four o’clock, at which time by appointment I went to meet my father at my uncle Fenner’s. So thither I went and with him to an alehouse, and there came Mr. Evans, the taylor, whose daughter we have had a mind to get for a wife for Tom, and then my father, and there we sat a good while and talked about the business; in fine he told us that he hath not to except against us or our motion, but that the estate that God hath blessed him with is too great to give where there is nothing in present possession but a trade and house; and so we friendly ended. There parted, my father and I together, and walked a little way, and then at Holborn he and I took leave of one another, he being to go to Brampton (to settle things against my mother comes) tomorrow morning.
So I home.

On the clock,
by appointment, I talk
to God. There is nothing
but us together,
born to one another,
to settle against.


Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Thursday 29 August 1661.

3 Replies to “Dyad”

  1. Oddness was seemingly inescapable with this entry. My first attempt at an erasure read:

    On the road
    to sell a daughter,
    we sat and talked about sin.
    God is too great
    to give where
    there is nothing.

    1. I juxtaposed the letters of “first attempt at erasure” to read:
      do not
      slaughter
      let it tank
      goat dregs
      whore gite
      inters noh

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