Poetry on Display (2): Victorian txt poems @ the British Library

Did you know that a kind of txt-speak was being used to good effect in the Victorians era?

The British Library has begun to advertise its forthcoming exhibition, Evolving English: One Language, Many Voices, which opens in November. You can read about it here. The exhibition runs from 12 November 2010 – 3 April 2011, and the earliest surviving copy of Beowulf will be on display.

David Crystal (and here) feels that, 'This is a first. No exhibition anywhere has ever been devoted to the entire history and present-day global use of the English language.'