[Anonymous] “Sonnet. A Lady laments for her lost Lover, by similitude of a Falcon.”

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

General Description

Date: 1861
Rhyme: abbaabbacdcdcd
Meter: iambic pentameter
Genre: sonnet

Bibliography

◦ Trucchi, Poesie Italiane inedite vol. 1,54 (see also 53).

◦ Panvini, Le rime della scuola siciliana vol. 1, 654-655.

Scholarly Commentary

Introduction

The translation is fairly close to the original sonnet, which remains anonymous to scholars. It is an uncommon example of a Sicilian work by a woman, and it seems of a fairly early date.

DGR's translation departs from the metrical form of the Italian octave. His source text was Trucchi's Poesie Italiane inedite (I. 54); the manuscript source describes it as a ballad for two voices.

Textual History: Composition

Probably a later translation, late 1850s.

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: 82d-1861.raw.xml