Cino da Pistoia. “Sonnet. Death is not without but within him.”

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

General Description

Date: 1849?; 1861
Rhyme: abbaabbacdedce
Meter: iambic pentameter
Genre: sonnet

Bibliography

“Introduction to Part II” (in The Early Italian Poets), 206-211

◦ Marti ed., Poeti del dolce stil nuovo, 898-899

Scholarly Commentary

Introduction

This is a fairly strict translation, not least in the metrical features of the original work. DGR keeps the rhyme scheme exactly and also preserves the interesting enjambment at the turn from the octave to the sestet.

See also the commentary for DGR's source text, which was Ciampi's Vita e Poesie di Messer Cino da Pistoia (page 62).

Textual History: Composition

Probably an early work, late 1840s.

Printing History

The translation was first published in 1861 in The Early Italian Poets; it was reprinted in 1874 in Dante and his Circle.

Electronic Archive Edition: 1
Source File: 187d-1861.raw.xml