Commentary
Introduction
Though written before
“St. Agnes of
Intercession”
, DGR may have meant to incorporate this poem into the story
(whose chief central figure is Mary Arden). In any case, the story was not completed nor was the poem incorporated. DGR
thought well enough of the poem to have considered printing it in his 1870
<hi rend="i">Poems</hi>
. It was
set in type in the
<hi rend="i">Penkill
Proofs</hi>
but subsequently dropped from consideration.
Textual History: Composition
The Fitzwilliam
manuscript represents an intermediate holograph carrying the revisions and changes DGR made when
he had the work set in type in August 1869. The Ashley Library
manuscript is of an earlier date, but the earliest of all is the
fair copy in the Duke University Library.
Textual History: Revision
Printing History
The poem was first published in WMR's 1911 edition of the
Works, where WMR
seems to have worked from the Fitzwilliam manuscript,
which he would have purged of its cancelled variants.