Happy and Thankful

This is one of the group of sonnets that DGR and WMR wrote to rhymes set by each other. The brothers played this verse game between 1847-1849, and principally in 1848. The rule was that the sonnet should be written quickly, in five to ten minutes (see 1911, pages 673-674 ). Twenty-six survive, fourteen of which were published by WMR in his edition of 1911, pages 263-267 . Paull Franklin Baum published the rest in his Analytical List of Manuscripts in the Duke University Library, 56-65 among which was this poem.

Although all of the sonnets first published by Baum are in DGR's autograph, Frances Winwar has argued that a number of them are not DGR's but WMR's. This is one of the nine Winwar correctly assigns to WMR.

Written by WMR, the poem is transcribed by DGR, and the revisions are also in his hand.

First published in 1931 by Baum in his Analytical List of Manuscripts in the Duke University Library, 64 .