Idle Blessedness

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

General Description

Date: 1849 August 18
Rhyme: abbaabbacdeedc
Meter: iambic pentameter
Genre: sonnet

Bibliography

◦ Paull F. Baum, DGR: An Analytical List of Manuscripts in the Duke University Library (1931), 14-16, 56-65

◦ Frances Winwar, “Dante Gabriel's or William Michael's?” (March 1933), 312-315

Scholarly Commentary

Introduction

The poem is one of the group of sonnets that DGR and WMR wrote to rhymes set by each other in 1848 as a poetical exercise. Of the sonnets that came out of the engagements this is perhaps the most colloquial.

Textual History: Composition

DGR composed the sonnet when he was at Thomas Woolner's house on 18 August 1849 (see Fredeman, The P. R. B. Journal (18 August 1849), 11 ).

Printing History

First printed by WMR in his 1911 edition, apparently from the Yale manuscript, which it reproduces nearly exactly.

Electronic Archive Edition: 1
Source File: 26-1848.raw.xml