Letter to Leigh Hunt, 1847

This would be the first of at least two letters that DGR wrote to Leigh Hunt in 1847-1848. Its elaborate rhetoric caught Hunt's fancy, for we know that he answered DGR and that DGR was induced to send Hunt more of his work—specifically, some of his original poetry, including “The Blessed Damozel” (see Family Letters (II. 37-38)).

The date of this letter must be late in the year 1847. Though uncollected to date and relatively unknown, it is one of DGR's most important early letters, and a crucial document for understanding his translation work.

The text here is taken from the first (and only) published text of the letter in William Harris Arnold's Ventures in Book Collecting (1923), pp. 211-215.

The “bouts-rimes” mentioned by DGR must have been some early work he did with his brother and sister. A series of these from 1848 have survived, but none from 1847, nor any that mention Hunt. The best known, if not most notorious, is perhaps “Another Love”, and more particularly the manuscript of the poem that survives from the manuscript book of verse that DGR exhumed from his wife's coffin.