The most important feature of this early poem is the clear
relation it bears to
âThe Blessed
Damozelâ, which DGR wrote about the same time. Images
and phrasings recall DGR's famous poem at several points. The poem also
recollects âMy Sister's
Sleepâ, and it reminds us of DGR's early
aptitude for constructing an ethos of Christian piety in his work.
WMR was the first to publish (part of) this
early workâten stanzas from the original poem comprising
(he says) twenty-one stanzas. The excerpt is in his
1911 edition (pages
259-260). WMR informs us that the poem was written in September
1847 âsome few months later than the original âBlessed Damozelâ. It
is about the only thing my brother wrote âto orderâ: i.e.,
he was requested by a family friend, Cavalier Mortara, to write some verses
commemorative of a youthful member of the Stanhope family [Algernon Stanhope],
known to Mortara but not to Rossettiâ (see
1911 673n.).
Written in September 1847, the poem descends to us in two fair copy manuscripts:
the shorter fair
copy in the Library of Congress; and
the fair copy in the Ashley Library, which has
two stanzas not in the Library of Congress manuscript. The Library of Congress
manuscript is undated but is written on lined paper torn from an early
notebookâpaper very like that to be found in the Duke U. Library
early notebook materials. The manuscript also contains, at the end
of the transcript of the Stanhope elegy, a poor
satiric epigram on Louis Philippe,
King of France.
WMR's text was apparently printed from another manuscript,
which was dated September 1847 (according to WMR). This manuscript has not appeared.
This collection contains 3 texts and images, including:
Ashley Library manuscript text
Scholarly Commentary
IntroductionÂ
The most important feature of this early poem is the clear relation it bears to âThe Blessed Damozelâ, which DGR wrote about the same time. Images and phrasings recall DGR's famous poem at several points. The poem also recollects âMy Sister's Sleepâ, and it reminds us of DGR's early aptitude for constructing an ethos of Christian piety in his work.
WMR was the first to publish (part of) this early workâten stanzas from the original poem comprising (he says) twenty-one stanzas. The excerpt is in his 1911 edition (pages 259-260). WMR informs us that the poem was written in September 1847 âsome few months later than the original âBlessed Damozelâ. It is about the only thing my brother wrote âto orderâ: i.e., he was requested by a family friend, Cavalier Mortara, to write some verses commemorative of a youthful member of the Stanhope family [Algernon Stanhope], known to Mortara but not to Rossettiâ (see 1911 673n.).
Textual History: CompositionÂ
Written in September 1847, the poem descends to us in two fair copy manuscripts: the shorter fair copy in the Library of Congress; and the fair copy in the Ashley Library, which has two stanzas not in the Library of Congress manuscript. The Library of Congress manuscript is undated but is written on lined paper torn from an early notebookâpaper very like that to be found in the Duke U. Library early notebook materials. The manuscript also contains, at the end of the transcript of the Stanhope elegy, a poor satiric epigram on Louis Philippe, King of France.
WMR's text was apparently printed from another manuscript, which was dated September 1847 (according to WMR). This manuscript has not appeared.
Printing HistoryÂ
The poem was first published by WMR in his edition of 1911.