This is a corrected copy of four pages from the first author's proof 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 six partial sets of earlier
proofs for this signature where one can track DGR's successive acts of
revision. In addition to the
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.
‘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. After several editions
t
The fifty
Each
seeing the
addition thus made here late to the ballad of
‘Sister Helen’. The
writer's best excuse is the belief
that others will wonder with himself
how such a climax
failed to enter into the first conception.
The fragment of ‘The Bride's Prelude’, now first
printed, was written
present volume. There may perhaps be readers not
unwilling to have
it preserved;
with other work of the same date;
though its appearance
in an unfinished state needs some indulgence.