◦ T. A. J. Burnett, Unpublished Notes on the Ashley Library (The British Library, n.d.), 25
◦ T. A. J. Burnett, Unpublished Notes on the Ashley Library (The British Library, n.d.), 25
Editorial glosses and textual notes are available in a pop-up window. Line numbering reflects the structure of the Fitzwilliam Manuscript text.
This collection contains 3 texts and images, including:
Fitzwilliam Manuscript text
Scholarly Commentary
Introduction
The sonnet was written either in 1869 or 1871. It was not included in the 1870 text of The House of Life, which suggests an 1871 date. The subject of the poem, on the literal level, is DGR's love for Jane Morris.
Textual History: Composition
Originally written in the spring-summer 1869, DGR made a second copy at that time, and then made another fair copy in 1871 for Jane Morris.
Textual History: Revision
Three texts of this sonnet descend to us but we can be certain of the date of only one of these: the fair copy included among the sequence known as the Kelmscott Love Sonnets. The other two may have been written either before or after this text. One is a corrected fair copy—the Ashley Library text in the British Library; the other is the Fitzwilliam Library copy.
Printing History
The sonnet was not published by DGR or WMR. Oswald Doughty (first) published it in A Romantic Victorian, 398.
Literary
The sonnet should be compared with DGR's “Love-Sweetness”.