This is the final uncorrected proof for the front matter of DGR's 1881
DGR revised the initial proofs for the front matter for this book twice, and the library of
the Delaware Art Museum preserves four partial sets of earlier proofs for this signature where
one can track DGR's successive acts of revision. In addition to this complete final proof, the
library has two copies (both partial) of the first author's proof,
POEMS.
TO
WILLIAM MICHAEL ROSSETTI,
THESE POEMS,
TO SO MANY OF WHICH, SO MANY YEARS BACK,
HE GAVE THE FIRST BROTHERLY HEARING,
ARE NOW AT LAST DEDICATED.
1870-1881.
‘MANY poems in this volume were written between
1847 and
1853. Others are of recent date, and a few
belong to the intervening period. It has been
thought
unnecessary to specify the earlier work, as nothing is
included which the
author believes to be immature.’
The above brief note was prefixed to these poems
when first published in 1870. They have
now been
for some time out of print.
The fifty sonnets of the
The fragment of
printed, was written very early, and is here associated
with other
work of the same date; though its pub-
lication in an unfinished form needs some
indulgence.