The Sonnet (Rosenbach Library second corrected copy)Dante Gabriel Rossetti1By permission of The Rosenbach LibraryThe SonnetDante Gabriel Rossetti1880fair copy manuscript with corrections1 small leafRosenbach Library4 7/16 x 7 1/8 in.This sonnet (as well as seven others) is written on paper identical with the paper carrying the Rosenbach Library's fair copy of “Transfigured Life”.
Commentary
Introduction
This is one of the two earliest fair copies of the poem. The other, the direct ancestor of this
document, is housed in the Rosenbach Library as well.
Textual History: Composition
Textual History: Revision
Production History
Reception History
Iconographic
Printing History
Pictorial
Historical
Literary
Translation
Autobiographical
Bibliographic
2DGR's numeration in the upper right cornerring toAt the lower left: DGR's fair pencil variant for the word
“guerdon” in line 11.The SonnetA Sonnet is a moment's monument, —Memorial from thy soul's eternityTo one dead deathless hour. Look that it be,Whether for lustral rite or dire portent,Of its own intricate fulness reverent:Carve it in ivory or ebony,As Day or Night claim rule; and let men seeIts every flowerflowering crest impearled and orient.A sonnet is a coin, whose face revealsThyself, and its reverse, to whom 'tis due : —Whether it guerdonring toguerdon Life's august appeals;Or dower thy service in Love's retinue;Or, nigh that wharf where sinks eachall labouring breath,In Charon's handpalm it pay the toll to Death.