Secret Parting

Secret Parting Love's Moments Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1 1869 <author/> <city/> <publisher/> <date/> <pages/> </bibl> <note/> </citnliterary> <citntranslationoriginal> <bibl> <title/> <author/> <city/> <publisher/> <date/> <pages/> </bibl> <note/> </citntranslationoriginal> <citnpictorial> <title/> <artist/> <location/> <bibl> <title/> <author/> <city/> <publisher/> <date/> <pages/> </bibl> <note/> </citnpictorial> <citnmythic> <name/> <culture/> <bibl> <title/> <author/> <city/> <publisher/> <date/> <pages/> </bibl> <note/> </citnmythic> <citnhistorical> <event/> <place/> <date/> <bibl> <title/> <author/> <city/> <publisher/> <date/> <pages/> </bibl> <note/> </citnhistorical> <citnautobiographical> <name/> <place/> <date/> <bibl> <title/> <author/> <city/> <publisher/> <date/> <pages/> </bibl> <note/> </citnautobiographical> <citnscenic> <place/> <date/> <bibl> <title/> <author/> <city/> <publisher/> <date/> <pages/> </bibl> <note/> </citnscenic> </listcitn> </source> <commentaries> <head>Commentary</head> <section type="intro"> <head>Introduction</head> <p>The argument of this sonnet is perhaps clearer in the <title level="doc"> <xref doc="a.1-1870.1stedn.rad" workcode="11-1869">Poems</xref> (1870) text than in the <xref doc="a.2-1881.1stedn.rad" workcode="11-1869">1881</xref> text—because in the former it comes into the sequence immediately after <xref doc="a.10-1869.raw">Sleepless Dreams</xref> . The sestet of “Secret Parting” connects directly to the thoughts and ideas of the latter.

Textual History: Composition

Before mid-Autumn 1869 (see WMR, <hi rend="i">Classified Lists</hi> , 7 ); but it would have been written before August 1869, for it is printed in the Penkill Proofs for the 1870 volume.

Two manuscripts survive, both gathered in the Fitzwilliam composite “House of Life” manuscript: DGR's fair copy and his heavily corrected draft.

Textual History: Revision

DGR altered the third line from its Penkill Proof text, but the sonnet remained stable thereafter.

Production History

Reception

Iconographic

Printing History

First printed in mid-August 1869 as part of the Penkill Proofs, the sonnet remained in all proof stages and was published in the 1870 <xref doc="a.1-1870.raw">Poems</xref> and thereafter. It is <xref doc="a.44-1869.raw">The House of Life</xref> Sonnet XX in the 1870 volume, and Sonnet XLV in 1881.

Pictorial

Historical

Literary

Translation

Autobiographical

Bibliographic

Baum, ed., <hi rend="i">The House of Life</hi> , 129-131 WMR, <hi rend="i">DGR as Designer and Writer</hi> , 212-213

1870 First Edition Text Baum says that WMR's paraphrase here “is all that is needed” (Baum, <hi rend="i">The House of Life</hi> 130 ) to grasp these lines at their statement level; but in truth the lines preserve their cryptic character. WMR speaks of the face of fate as being “like a moon pursuing her interrupted track athwart the controlling clouds” (WMR, <hi rend="i">DGR as Designer and Writer.</hi> 212 ). This explanation is hardly satisfactory, not least of all because it is at least problematic to speak of clouds controlling the moon's track. The difficulty is only compounded if one connects the passage back to <xref doc="a.8-1869.raw">“The Love-Moon”</xref> , which is scarcely a resistible connection. In that frame of reference one might take the lines strictly as an image of obscure and volatile changes. The “moon-track” probably ought to be read in two contexts at once: as the illusory movement of the moon when it is crossed by moving clouds; and as the monthly journey of the moon through its regular (fated) changes. No Christian church will be found in the Grove of Love. 1870 First Edition Text Poems (1870): Proofs for first edition, British Library copy, (Ashley 1405) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1870 March 1-7 0 Poems (1870): Proofs for first edition, Fitzwilliam Museum (Copy 1) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1870 March 1 (and 22 March for additional material) 0 Poems (1870): Proofs for first edition, Princeton/Troxell Copy Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1870 March 1-7 0 Poems (1870): Mixed Proofs 1869-1870, Fitzwilliam Museum Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 October - 1970 March 0 Poems (1870): First Edition Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1870 April 26 0 Poems (1870): Second Edition (DGR's corrected copy) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1870 May 0 Poems (1870): Second Edition Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1870 May 0 Poems (1870): Third Edition (copy 1) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1870 June 0 Poems (1870): Third Edition (copy 2) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1870 June 0 Poems (1870): Fourth Edition Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1870 July (or early August) 0 Poems (1870): Fifth Edition Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1871 0 Poems (1870): Sixth Edition Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1872 0 Poems. (Privately Printed.): A Proof, Lasner Copy Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 September 13 0 Poems. (Privately Printed).: the A2 Proofs, Fitzwilliam Museum Copy Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 September 20 0 Poems. (Privately Printed.): the A2 Proofs (partial), Princeton/Troxell (Copy 1) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 September 20 0 Poems. (Privately Printed.): A Proof (partial), Princeton/Troxell (copy 1) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 September 13 0 Poems. (Privately Printed).: Penkill Proofs, Princeton/Troxell (copy 1) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 August 18 0 Poems. (Privately Printed.): Penkill Proofs, Princeton/Troxell (copy 2) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 August 18 0 Poems by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1873): the Tauchnitz Edition 1873 November 15 (late November or early December) 0 Poems by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1873): the Tauchnitz Edition, with author's corrections (Yale copy) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1873 November 15 (late November or early December) 0 Poems. (Privately Printed).: First Trial Book, British Library copy (Ashley 1393) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 October 3 0 Poems. (Privately Printed).: First Trial Book (Fitzwilliam Museum copy) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 October 3 0 Poems. (Privately Printed.), First Trial Book (Huntington Library copy DGR 1869 October 3 0 Poems. (Privately Printed).: First Trial Book, Princeton/Troxell (Losh copy) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 October 3 0 Poems. (Privately Printed.): Second Trial Book, British Library, (Ashley 1400) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 November 30 (25 November - 6 December) 0 Poems. (Privately Printed).: Second Trial Book (Fitzwilliam Museum copy) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 November 25 0 Poems, Privately Printed: Second Trial Book, Alice Boyd/Lasner copy. Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 November 25 0 Poems. (Privately Printed.): Proofs for the Second Trial Book (partial), Princeton/Troxell. Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 November 25-26 0 Poems. (Privately Printed.): Second Trial Book, Princeton/Troxell. Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 November 25 0 The Collected Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, vol. 1 (1886) Dante Gabriel Rossetti William Michael Rossetti 1886 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), first edition Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 October 17 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), second edition Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1882), fourth edition Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1882 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), (author's proofs, British Library copy) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 April-June 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature O (Delaware Museum, first author's proof) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 May 3 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature O (Delaware Museum, complete first revise, author's corrected copy) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 May 6 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature O (Delaware Museum, complete first revise, uncorrected copy 2) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 May 6 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature O (Delaware Museum, complete first revise, uncorrected copy) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 May 6 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature O (Delaware Museum, complete second revise, author's copy) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 9 May 1881 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature O (Delaware Museum, complete second revise, uncorrected copy) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 May 9 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature O (Delaware Museum, incomplete third revise, author's copy) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 May 18 -1881 June 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature O (Delaware Museum, complete third revise, uncorrected copy 1) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 May 18 - 1881 June 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature O (Delaware Museum, complete third revise, partial uncorrected copy 2) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 May 18 - 1881 June 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature O (Delaware Museum, complete third revise, author's copy 2) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 May 18 - 1881 June 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature O (Delaware Museum, final proof, uncorrected copy) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 May 18 - 1881 June 0 The House of Life (composite manuscript posthumously arranged, Fitzwilliam Museum) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1845 - 1881 0 The House of Life (composite manuscript posthumously arranged, Fitzwilliam Museum) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1845 - 1881 0 The Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1911) Dante Gabriel Rossetti William Michael Rossetti 1911 0 Dante Gabriel Rossetti. His Family-Letters with a Memoir (Volume One) William Michael Rossetti 1895 0