As WMR's 1911
note to this sonnet remarks, this is one of DGR's very few directly political poems.
It is also notable for the entirely positive view it takes of the epochal events of the
âyear of revolutionsâ, 1848. His other political poems tend to be
either skeptical or
darkly mordantâfor example, âOn Refusal of
Aid Between Nationsâ (written a year later).
This collection contains 5 texts and images, including:
The fair copy at Yale
Scholarly Commentary
IntroductionÂ
As WMR's 1911 note to this sonnet remarks, this is one of DGR's very few directly political poems. It is also notable for the entirely positive view it takes of the epochal events of the âyear of revolutionsâ, 1848. His other political poems tend to be either skeptical or darkly mordantâfor example, âOn Refusal of Aid Between Nationsâ (written a year later).
Textual History: CompositionÂ
Three manuscripts are known: a draft at Princeton; a corrected copy at Texas; and a fair copy at Yale.
Printing HistoryÂ
First published by WMR in his collected edition of 1886, and kept thereafter.