A Last Confession (draft fragment)

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Document Title: A Last Confession (draft fragment)

Author: Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Date of Composition: 1869 October

Type of Manuscript: draft

Scribe: DGR

The full Rossetti Archive record for this transcribed document is available.

page: [1]

Note: The sequence of revision in several of the lines is conjectural, based first on the placement of the changes in the manuscript, and then the effect of those changes on the scansion.

Father, the day I speak of was the first
For weeks that I had borne her company
Into the Duomo; and those weeks had been
Much troubled, for then first the thoughts arose
That she so loved was growing changed & cold . to me
And as we entered on that day, I bent
My eyes on the fair image, and I said
Within my heart, “Oh warm her heart to me!”
And so I left her to her prayers, & went
10
Added TextTo gaze upon the great pride
[?]
Added Textof Monza's shrine,
Where in the sacristy the day still falls
Upon the Iron Crown of Italy,
Though long the night hours closed on the [?]
That [were?] it
Added TextOn whose crowned heads the day has closed, nor yet
[?] upon another head to crown
The hour gilds another head to crown.
But coming back I wondered when I saw
The image Our Lady's sovereign image
Added TextThat image stand alone; and till further off,

page: [2]

Yet one more day thing that's in my mind [?] my soul comes back on me to-night
[Will ?] That Which [with this answer?] telling I may tell you: for it bore my soul
20 Dread firstlings of the brood that rend it now.
It also happened once when then that in our wanderings
We dwelt at Monza, far away from home,
If home we had: A and in the Duomo there
I sometimes entered with her when she prayed.
There was There dwells An image of Our Lady dwells there, wrought
In marble by some great Italian hand
In the great days when she and Italy
Sat on one throne together; and [by them?] to her [she heard?]
[My child would ? and told her ? things] And to [?] none else my darling told her heart.
30 And many thoughts. She was a woman then,
And as she knelt below the sacred form
They seemed Her sweet brow in the sweet brow's shadow there
They [seemed?] two kindred images kindred forms that our dear land
Two [?] to blend [?] [location?]
Added TextWhose work still [?] serves the world for miracle [?]
Blent [?] with herself in [???] wondrous womanhood.

page: [3]

B[?] Before some new Madonna gaily decked,
Tinselled & gewgawed, a slight German toy,
I saw her kneel, still praying. At my step
She rose, and side by side we left the church.
40 I was much moved, & sharply questioned her
Of her transferred devotion; [?] but she seemed
Stubborn and [?] heedless; till she lightly laughed
And “Aye, the old Madonna!” So she said
She had my old thoughts,—this one has my new.”
Then silent to the soul I walked with her held my way:

page: [4]

And from the fountains of the public place
Unto the pigeon-haunted pinnacles,
Bright wings and water winnowed the bright air;
And stately with her laugh's subsiding smile
50 She stepped went, with well-poised feet & gleaming arms
And hands held light before her; and the face
Which long had made a day in all my life's night
Seemed night in day to me; as all men's eyes
Turned on her beauty, and she seemed to tread
Beyond the my heart to the world made for her.

Electronic Archive Edition: 1

Source File: 1-1849.princems.rad.xml

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