Adopting the genre of the song allows DGR to depersonalize somewhat this lyric, whose subject—DGR's dead wife—would otherwise inflect it with the kind of romantic style he always strove to avoid. Comparing this work with any number of similar poems by DGR's sister is instructive. Both solicit impersonal styles of address, but DGR's religious agnosticism, very evident in this poem, contrasts sharply with Christina's religious faith.
Textual History: Composition
The poem was written sometime in 1881. Three draft fragments survive, two in the small British Library notebooks (one in Notebook III, the other in Notebook IV), the third in the Rosenbach Library, Philadelphia.. The printer's copy is the only surviving integral manuscript.
Printing History
First printed in the Ballads and Sonnets first edition and collected thereafter.
This collection contains 15 texts and images, including:
Ballads and Sonnets first edition text
Scholarly Commentary
Introduction
Adopting the genre of the song allows DGR to depersonalize somewhat this lyric, whose subject—DGR's dead wife—would otherwise inflect it with the kind of romantic style he always strove to avoid. Comparing this work with any number of similar poems by DGR's sister is instructive. Both solicit impersonal styles of address, but DGR's religious agnosticism, very evident in this poem, contrasts sharply with Christina's religious faith.
Textual History: Composition
The poem was written sometime in 1881. Three draft fragments survive, two in the small British Library notebooks (one in Notebook III, the other in Notebook IV), the third in the Rosenbach Library, Philadelphia.. The printer's copy is the only surviving integral manuscript.
Printing History
First printed in the Ballads and Sonnets first edition and collected thereafter.