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Poetry by Edwin Browning Owen

07 Sep | News,

Poetry by Edwin Browning Owen has been uploaded to the FIBIS database website. The poetry was very kindly transcribed and sent to us by Dianne Mitchell who provides the following description.

This collection of poems comes from an octavo booklet bound in black leatherette which has been passed down in the family. The poems provide an insight into social activities during the period of the Raj. Many names are mentioned, particularly women friends he wrote poems to or about. Topics include love, humour, racism, events of the day and acrostics. Places mentioned are Simla, Calcutta, Bombay, Lucknow and Aden.

The poems have been reordered by date as they appear to have been copied into the notebook from
loose sheets in no particular order. Some have also been given titles (marked by an *) where none
existed. Punctuation and capitals have not been changed except where essential for understanding.
Poems and quotations from printed works have not been included. Several poems by friends have
been marked as such. Comments in [ ] were added to explain unusual words or to provide context.
A number of poems written by Owen were published in local papers including: Jubb Times (Jubbulpore), Aden Gazette and the Times of India. He usually signed his work E.B. Owen or E.B.O,
but from February 1903 he used the initials E.B.O.N. Where the initials O.N. play phonetically on his
surname.

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