DGR first wrote this sonnet in October 1849 on his trip home from Belgium with
Holman Hunt and he copied it into his letter to WMR of 18 October 1849
(see Family
Letters (II. 79)). He did
not publish the poem at the time. Later, in 1869, he conceived the idea of rewriting the sonnet slightly and pairing it with
another early unpublished sonnet, the 1847 work known as “For
an Annunciation. Early German”, and then publishing them together in the 1870
Poems under the title
“Filii Filia”. He seems to have abandoned this idea
just as he was about to execute it late in the elaborate proofing process for that volume.
Printing History
First printed in 1895 by WMR (see
Family
Letters (II. 79)) and collected thereafter.
This collection contains 4 texts and images, including:
Manuscript text from DGR's letter to WMR
Scholarly Commentary
Introduction
DGR first wrote this sonnet in October 1849 on his trip home from Belgium with Holman Hunt and he copied it into his letter to WMR of 18 October 1849 (see Family Letters (II. 79)). He did not publish the poem at the time. Later, in 1869, he conceived the idea of rewriting the sonnet slightly and pairing it with another early unpublished sonnet, the 1847 work known as “For an Annunciation. Early German”, and then publishing them together in the 1870 Poems under the title “Filii Filia”. He seems to have abandoned this idea just as he was about to execute it late in the elaborate proofing process for that volume.
Printing History
First printed in 1895 by WMR (see Family Letters (II. 79)) and collected thereafter.