Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Note on Edited Text and Apparatus
- List of Abbreviations and Sigla
- Introduction
- Texts and Notes
- Part I Youth and Change
- Part II Change and Fate
- Appendix One Dating and Ordonnance
- Appendix Two Poems: Proof States
- Appendix Three Poems: Chronology 1868–71
- Appendix Four Poems: Bibliographical Summaries
- Appendix Five Ballads and Sonnets (1881): Chronology 1879–82
- Appendix Six Ballads and Sonnets: Bibliographical Summaries
- Appendix Seven Locations of Sources: Concise Survey of Manuscripts, Proofs and Other Documents
- Appendix Eight Unpublished and Excluded Sonnets
- Bibliography of Works Cited or Consulted
Part I - Youth and Change
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 March 2023
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Note on Edited Text and Apparatus
- List of Abbreviations and Sigla
- Introduction
- Texts and Notes
- Part I Youth and Change
- Part II Change and Fate
- Appendix One Dating and Ordonnance
- Appendix Two Poems: Proof States
- Appendix Three Poems: Chronology 1868–71
- Appendix Four Poems: Bibliographical Summaries
- Appendix Five Ballads and Sonnets (1881): Chronology 1879–82
- Appendix Six Ballads and Sonnets: Bibliographical Summaries
- Appendix Seven Locations of Sources: Concise Survey of Manuscripts, Proofs and Other Documents
- Appendix Eight Unpublished and Excluded Sonnets
- Bibliography of Works Cited or Consulted
Summary
Sonnet I.
Love Enthroned.
I marked all kindred Powers the heart finds fair: –
Truth, with awed lips; and Hope, with eyes upcast;
And Fame, whose loud wings fan the ashen Past
To signal-fires, Oblivion's flight to scare;
And Youth, with still some single golden hair
Unto his shoulder clinging, since the last
Embrace wherein two sweet arms held him fast;
And Life, still wreathing flowers for Death to wear.
Love's throne was not with these; but far above
All passionate wind of welcome and farewell
He sat in breathless bowers they dream not of;
Though Truth foreknow Love's heart, and Hope foretell,
And Fame be for Love's sake desirable,
And Youth be dear, and Life be sweet to Love.
Date of Publication: 1881, B&S
Date of Composition: 1871, Works
MS Sources:
1. Ashley Notebooks 1410 (BL)
Notebook No. 1, p. 3
‘And passionate youth
he dreams of love with some stray
golden hair
Still to his shoulder clinging’
[lines 5–6]
Notebook No. 1, p. 15
‘And Youth, with one bright spray
of golden hair
Still to his shoulder clinging since
the last
Embrace wherein his sweet love
held him fast’
[lines 5–7]
Manuscripts:
(1) (2) Princeton HL fols 2a, 9a (3) Bodleian Eng. poet. d. 43 fol. 4
(4) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 4a: (2) is a fair copy of (1) and (3) is a fair copy of (2).
Revisions/Variants:
1. All MSS/B&S
2 <proud>/ awed Prin.(1) 3 past/Past [thus on all MSS, evidently revised in proof]
4 <fires that dull> <fires of strength,>/ signal- fires, Prin.(1)
4 <can scare>/to scare Prin.(1)
5 <some bright spray of woman's hair> / still some single golden hair Fitz.
6 <Yet to>/ Unto Fitz.
7 <sweet> <kind> <fond>/ sweet Prin.(1)
11 <dreamed>/ dream Fitz
Sonnet II.
Bridal Birth.
As when desire, long darkling, dawns, and first
The mother looks upon the newborn child,
Even so my Lady stood at gaze and smiled
When her soul knew at length the Love it nurs’d.
Born with her life, creature of poignant thirst
And exquisite hunger, at her heart Love lay
Quickening in darkness, till a voice that day
Cried on him, and the bonds of birth were burst.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The House of Life by Dante Gabriel Rossetti: A Sonnet-SequenceA Variorum Edition with Introduction and Notes, pp. 39 - 143Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2007