This is one of several important and recently discovered early DGR poems. Its companion piece is another dramatic monologue,
âSunday Morning: Protestant Churchâ, which is fair copied after this dramatic monologue on the only known manuscript. Almost as closely related is anothere dramatic monologue, âJohannes Rongeâ. All three are imagined in the voice of
a contemporary English woman whose religious impulses and desires have been thrown into confusion by the rival claims and deficiencies of Catholicism, Protestantism, and an enlightened Rationalism. A fourth dramatic monologue in the same sequence of early poems, âDominus Fredericus (Rich Peace)â, is spoken by Frederick II of Sicily and represents the forecast of a spiritual dispensation that will resolve these conflicts and tensions.
This poem and its companion piece are clearly influenced by DGR's discovery and reading of Blake. They deliver a pastiche of the naive style of the lyric verse that DGR found in the Blake notebook he purchased in 1847. He made a
transcript of what he judged âAll that is of any worthâ in the notebook, and it is probably this selection that best illustrates the style he wanted to imitate here. The decision to map this style of address to the voice of a young woman is quite an arresting move because DGR explicitly frames the monologue in allegorical terms: the speaker has three âlovesâ, Catholicism, Protestantism, and Rationalism, each of whom fails her in some way. The young woman is thus cast as a symbolic
figureâindeed, as the initial type of that Victorian Beatrice who would assume so many forms in DGR's art and poetry alike.
The poems are closely related to the pair of sonnets he wrote for his sisters around 1848, âThe Church Porchesâ.
The final line of this poem is uncertain; the antepenultimate word is
undreadable.
The precise date of the poem is not known but the physical characteristics of the manuscript, the
handwriting, and the subject matter make it an early work. It could have been written as early as 1847.
A slightly later date is
perhaps more likely. The poem is written on the same pale blue paper as
âJohannes Rongeâ and
âDominus Fredericus (Rich Peace)â.
This collection contains 1 text or image, including:
South African National Gallery manuscript
Scholarly Commentary
IntroductionÂ
This is one of several important and recently discovered early DGR poems. Its companion piece is another dramatic monologue, âSunday Morning: Protestant Churchâ, which is fair copied after this dramatic monologue on the only known manuscript. Almost as closely related is anothere dramatic monologue, âJohannes Rongeâ. All three are imagined in the voice of a contemporary English woman whose religious impulses and desires have been thrown into confusion by the rival claims and deficiencies of Catholicism, Protestantism, and an enlightened Rationalism. A fourth dramatic monologue in the same sequence of early poems, âDominus Fredericus (Rich Peace)â, is spoken by Frederick II of Sicily and represents the forecast of a spiritual dispensation that will resolve these conflicts and tensions.
This poem and its companion piece are clearly influenced by DGR's discovery and reading of Blake. They deliver a pastiche of the naive style of the lyric verse that DGR found in the Blake notebook he purchased in 1847. He made a transcript of what he judged âAll that is of any worthâ in the notebook, and it is probably this selection that best illustrates the style he wanted to imitate here. The decision to map this style of address to the voice of a young woman is quite an arresting move because DGR explicitly frames the monologue in allegorical terms: the speaker has three âlovesâ, Catholicism, Protestantism, and Rationalism, each of whom fails her in some way. The young woman is thus cast as a symbolic figureâindeed, as the initial type of that Victorian Beatrice who would assume so many forms in DGR's art and poetry alike.
The poems are closely related to the pair of sonnets he wrote for his sisters around 1848, âThe Church Porchesâ.
The final line of this poem is uncertain; the antepenultimate word is undreadable.
Textual History: CompositionÂ
The precise date of the poem is not known but the physical characteristics of the manuscript, the handwriting, and the subject matter make it an early work. It could have been written as early as 1847. A slightly later date is perhaps more likely. The poem is written on the same pale blue paper as âJohannes Rongeâ and âDominus Fredericus (Rich Peace)â.