Rossetti Archive Textual Transcription
Document Title: Letter to William Bell Scott, 13 July 1853
Author: DGR
Date of Composition: 1853 July 13
Type of Manuscript: letter
Scribe: DGR
The
full Rossetti Archive record for this transcribed document is available.
Red Horse Inn Stratford on Avon
Wednesday 13 July [1853]
My dear Scott,
I got here yesterday evening, walking 12 miles from Kenilworth. Since I got into Warwickshire, I have walked always from
place to place, & have seen some stunning things. I saw Shakspere's den last night, but it was too dark to see its inside
properly, & I am eager to get at it again this morning, so this note is a very short one. You will hear from me again about
my plans as soon as I am in London which will be in a day or two. Please, if any letters have come for me, send them on here
at once on getting this. I feel a great deal better now, with constant walking, & the weather is splendid. I fill up the
note with a master poem which I composed on the road yesterday on the occasion of plucking a honeysuckle.
- I plucked a honeysuckle, where
- The hedge was high & set with thorn,
- And clambering for the prize, was torn,
- And fouled my feet in quag-
water
mire there.
- And by the thorns and by the wind
- The blossom that I took was thinned,
- And yet I found it sweet and fair.
- Then to a richer bush I came,
- Where, grown in mellow intercourse,
-
10 The honeysuckles sprang by scores;
- Not harried like my single stem,—
- All lamplike, full of scent & dew.
- So from my hand that first I threw,
- Yet plucked not any more of them.
Remember me kindly to Mrs. Scott and Mrs. Norquoy. I expect on returning to London to find a certain amount of hair on end.
Most sincerely yours
D G Rossetti
Electronic Archive Edition: 1