The poem is WMR's. It clearly is placed so as to
form a small unit with Coventry Patmore's essay on Macbeth, which immediately follows it. WMR undertook
the poem—at DGR's urging—to accompany the
drawing by Madox Brown which precedes it in The Germ as frontispiece. DGR was supposed to do
the poem but failed to produce anything. WMR began the poem around
mid-March (see Fredeman, The P.R.B. Journal, 63). The obligatory character of the work shows
through in its distinct lack of vigour. Nonetheless, the poem is an
interesting early example of a genre that DGR would make one of his
special forms: the poem on the subject of a picture.
This collection contains 2 texts and images, including:
Germ text
Scholarly Commentary
Introduction
The poem is WMR's. It clearly is placed so as to form a small unit with Coventry Patmore's essay on Macbeth, which immediately follows it. WMR undertook the poem—at DGR's urging—to accompany the drawing by Madox Brown which precedes it in The Germ as frontispiece. DGR was supposed to do the poem but failed to produce anything. WMR began the poem around mid-March (see Fredeman, The P.R.B. Journal, 63). The obligatory character of the work shows through in its distinct lack of vigour. Nonetheless, the poem is an interesting early example of a genre that DGR would make one of his special forms: the poem on the subject of a picture.
Printing History
First printed in The Germ no. 3, pages 97-98.
Pictorial
The poem accompanies Ford Madox Brown's Cordelia, which appears in an etching as frontspiece to the third number of The Germ.