Introduction
The idea for this book began slowly during 1879, the year after the last
copies of DGR's 1870
<hi rend="i">Poems</hi>
were sold out. From January of 1879 DGR began asking around about
how he might obtain some copies of the 1873 Tauchnitz edition, which had
readings that superceded the readings in the 1870 editions of his
<hi rend="i">Poems</hi>
. A decisive moment comes in December 1879, when DGR is finally able
to obtain copies of the Tauchnitz edition (see DGR's letter to Edmund Bates
of 22 December 1879, Fredeman,
<hi rend="i">Correspondence</hi>
79.209). DGR would cut up a copy of this book into the
equivalent of proof pages and use those texts, with his new corrections, as
his copy text for the preparation of both the
<hi rend="i">Ballads and Sonnets</hi>
and its companion volume, the
<hi rend="i">Poems. A New Edition</hi>
(see the copy of the
Tauchnitz edition at Yale, which carries DGR's initial set of corrections
and revisions for the books that would be published in 1881).
In that month DGR was working to finish
“Soothsay”
and he wrote William Davies about what he said was his first sonnet
in eight years,
“Ardour and Memory”
, enclosing a copy for him (see Fredeman,
<hi rend="i">Correspondence</hi>
79.224). It should be noted that both of these poems, as
well as many other sonnets that would appear in the 1881 volumes, have draft
and fragment presences in the notebooks that DGR used throughout the 1870s.
DGR initiated practical publication plans early in February 1880, when he
contacted his publisher F. S. Ellis about a new book of poetry (see
Fredeman,
<hi rend="i">Correspondence</hi>
80.32). (For a detailed discussion of the publication of
the book see the commentary for the first
edition. See also the commentaries for the 1881 companion volume,
the
<hi rend="i">Poems. A New Edition</hi>
, for the 1873 Tauchnitz
edition), and the proofs for the 1881
<hi rend="i">Ballads and Sonnets</hi>
.)
Originally DGR intended to publish only one book of his works in 1881, a
revised and augmented edition of his 1870
<hi rend="i">Poems</hi>
. In working over his materials, however, he soon realized that he
had more poems than could be accommodated to a single volume, so he devised
the scheme that eventuated in the publication of this book and its
companion, “A New Edition” (so identified on the title
page) of
<hi rend="i">Poems</hi>
. As a consequence of this move, the latter became much less personal
than the 1870 volume it superceded. The change comes not simply because DGR
moved
“The House of Life”
sonnets into this
<hi rend="i">Ballads and Sonnets</hi>
volume, though that is clearly decisive. Almost equally important
is the difference between the pair of corresponding “Lyrics” sections printed in the two books.
The “Lyrics” section in the
1881
<hi rend="i">Poems</hi>
gathers together as a unit the “Songs” that in
1870 were part of the
“Sonnets and Songs, towards a work to be
called ‘The House of Life’”
. In the latter work, these poems served to underscore the
transpersonal symbology of the 1870
“House of Life”
project. In their 1881 setting the transpersonal character of the
poems is even more strongly apparent.
By contrast, the poems gathered into the
“Lyrics” section of this book have a
singularly personal cast. Even a philosophical poem like
“Soothsay”
comprises what is clearly a set of very personal reflections, and
the “Lost Love” theme dominates nearly all of the other
poems in this group. Notable in this respect is the fact that the poems
leave it ambiguous whether we should read the “Lost
Love” in relation to Elizabeth or to Mrs. Morris (or to
both)—that is to say, if we are to read the work biographically at
all.
Printing History
Four “editions” of this book were issued although the
text was reset only in the (1882) fourth, so called. The other three were
all issued in 1881, one being an American edition issued by Roberts Brothers
(printed from sheets provided to that publisher by Ellis, from the second
printing run). For further details see the commentaries for this book's
first edition and fourth edition.
The printer chosen for this volume was Charles Whittingham's Chiswick Press,
which Morris introduced to the Pre-Raphaelite circle in the 1850s. DGR
deliberately sought to move away from Strangeways and Walden, who had
printed his 1870 volume (see his letter to his publisher Ellis of 3 February
1880, Fredeman,
<hi rend="i">Correspondence</hi>
80.32). As it turned out, DGR would become even more
frustrated with Whittingham's pace with the proofs for the book (see the
commentaries for the book's proofs and for the first
edition).
Bibliographic
Fredeman,
“The Shadow of Dante: Rossetti in the
Final Years (Extracts from W. M. Rossetti's Unpublished Diaries,
1876-1882)”
,
<hi rend="i">Victorian Poetry</hi>
(1982) 217-245
Lewis,
“The Making of Rossetti's <hi rend="i">Ballads and Sonnets</hi> and <hi rend="i">Poems</hi>
(1881)”
,
<hi rend="i">Victorian Poetry</hi>
(1982) 199-216