Sister Helen (fair copy, lines 93-98, 205-273, British Library)

DGR sent these four pages of manuscript additions to the poem in a letter to Jane Morris dated conjecturally November 1879. DGR called these “the new stanzas” showing “that the witch began her spell on the wedding-morning of her false lover. Thus the ‘alas for birth!’ which was of course not probable. I think you will agree that the gain to the subject is enormous—in fact, once thought of I cannot think how I never did it before. Moreover, the excess of her provocation (in spite of the height of her spite) humanizes her somewhat. I suppose you have the Tauchnitz edition which has several amendments” (see Bryson and Troxell ,124-126). The change that DGR talks about here was in the end kept out of the poem.