Commentary
Introduction
DGR makes one of his common variations (abba for abab) in
the octave, but follows the original rhyme scheme in the sestet.
DGR's source is the text in
<hi rend="i">Poeti
del primo secolo</hi>
(I. 112). The source indicates that the sonnet was addressed to
Bonaggiunta Urbiciani, an important feature of the original; but DGR does not make a similar
indication in his translation. It is important because the person
referenced in “He that has grown to wisdom” in Guinizelli's
sonnet is clearly understood to be “the poet”. The original sonnet's subject
is poetry and poets. DGR seems not to have understood this, as we may also judge from
line two, which is a very free translation. DGR's “Reason” seems a poor choice
for rendering Guinizelli's original line, where orderliness is explicitly associated with
verse.
Textual History: Composition
As with most of DGR's translations, this one cannot be exactly fixed.
It is probably a fairly early work, however—done in the late 1840s.
Textual History: Revision
Printing History
The translation was first published in 1861 in
<hi rend="i">The
Early Italian Poets</hi>
; it was reprinted in 1874 in
<hi rend="i">Dante
and his Circle</hi>
.
Bibliographic
“Table of Poets” in
<hi rend="i">Early Italian Poets</hi>
vol. 1,
xxv.
Valeriani and Lampredi,
<hi rend="i">Poeti del primo secolo</hi>
vol. 1,
112.