Bodleian Manuscript Collection

This collection was put together by the Bodleian Library from the loose manuscripts received by the library from a bequest of May Morris, daughter of Jane Morris, who had them originally from DGR. The bequest included the blue leather notebook that DGR also gave to Mrs. Morris as a gift in 1874, the so-called “Kelscott Love Sonnets”.

The collection contains seventeen works plus DGR's transcript of the Italian original for his translation from Leopardi, plus a corrected version of the sestet of “True Woman II”, which is included in the letter to Jane Morris that is also part of the collection.

The collection includes the following works, in this order: “Introductory Sonnet” (here titled “The Sonnet”); “Death-in-Love” (here titled “May 1869”); “Winter”; “Hero's Lamp”; “John Keats”; “Gracious Moonlight”; “During Music”; “Ardour and Memory” (here titled“Pleasure and Memory”); “Transfigured Life”; “True Woman I.”; “True Woman II.”; “True WOman III.”; “Untimely Lost” (here untitled); “A Death-Parting” (here titled “The Water Willow”); “A Little While”; “La Feuille”; “The Leaf”; [Letter to Jane Morris, 18 Dec. 1880].