Dante Alighieri. “Sonnet (to Cino da Pistoia). Written in Exile.”

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

General Description

Date: 1848?; 1861
Rhyme: abbaabbacdecde
Meter: iambic pentameter
Genre: sonnet

Bibliography

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

◦ Foster and Boyd, Dante's Lyric Poetry, I.194-197 (II. 318-321)

◦ Marti, ed., Poeti del dolce stil nuovo, 726-727

Scholarly Commentary

Introduction

Dante's sonnet, which is clearly post-exilic, was answered by a response sonnet from Cino da Pistoia. DGR's translation, wooden to a degree, is one of his least successful.

The source text for DGR's translation was Fraticelli's Opere Minori di Dante Alighieri (I. 129).

Textual History: Composition

Probably an early translation, 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: 43d-1861.raw.xml