The Child Jesus

James Collinson (1825?-1881)

General Description

Date: 1849
Rhyme: blank verse
Meter: iambic
Genre: narrative

Bibliography

◦ Fredeman 132-133

Annotations

Editorial glosses and textual notes are available in a pop-up window. Line numbering reflects the structure of the Germ text.

Scholarly Commentary

Introduction

A work by the minor PRB painter James Collinson (1825?-1881), now best known as the man CR thought to marry, but eventually threw off. The poem is clearly in debt to DGR's early work, and perhaps even more to Keble's The Christian Year and, of course, to the liturgy of the “Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious Mysteries.” The poem's subtitle, “A Record Typical of the Five Sorrowful Mysteries”, underscores its typological methodology—taking incidents (real and imagined) from the childhood of Jesus as prefigurative of the consummating events of his mortal life.

Printing History

First printed in The Germ 2, pages 49-56.

Electronic Archive Edition: 1