Percy Bysshe Shelley (Inscription for the couch, still preserved, on which he passed the last night of his life) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1 1881
abbaaccadeedff iambic pentameter sonnet
<artist/> <location/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnpictorial> <citnmythic> <name/> <culture/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnmythic> <citnhistorical> <event/> <place/> <date/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnhistorical> <citnautobiographical> <name/> <place/> <date/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnautobiographical> <citnscenic> <place/> <date/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnscenic> </listcitn> </source> <commentaries> <head>Commentary</head> <section type="intro"> <head>Introduction</head> <p>The subtitle of the sonnet refers to the couch that was in the possession of DGR's brother William (who published his <hi rend="i"> <title level="wrk"> <xref doc="a.">Memoir of Shelley</xref> in 1886). DGR uses that devotional object to focus his sonnet's meditation on a set of key (and related) Shelleyan ideas: sleep, death, and “the veil which those who live/Call life”. DGR's sonnet refers explicitly to a pair of important Shelleyan texts: the sonnet “Lift Not the Painted Veil” and lines 191ff. of Act I of <xref doc="a.">Prometheus Unbound</xref> .

DGR was re-reading Hogg's two-volume life of Shelley, published in 1858, in the summer of 1881, and it may be that he wrote his sonnet at that time. On the other hand, the other sonnets that eventually appeared in 1881 under the heading <xref doc="a.24-1881.raw">Five English Poets</xref> were written in 1880 and the poem may belong to that year.

Textual History: Composition

Four manuscripts survive: a draft copy in the Library of Congress; the British Library fair copy (with corrections in lines 11 and 13); and two copies in the library of the Delaware Art Museum, aanother corrected copy and a final fair copy.

Textual History: Revision

Production History

Reception

Iconographic

Printing History

It was first published in the 1881 <xref doc="a.2-1881.1stedn.rad" workcode="12-1881" from="317">Ballads and Sonnets</xref> as one of the group of sonnets he headed with the title <xref doc="a.2-1881.1stedn.rad" workcode="24-1881" from="313">Five English Poets</xref> . It was collected thereafter but in the 1911 <xref doc="a.pr5240.f11.rad">Works</xref> the five-sonnet grouping is dissolved altogether by WMR and this sonnet, like the four others, is printed separately.

Pictorial

Historical

Literary

Translation

Autobiographical

Bibliographic

The 1881 <hi rend="i">Ballads and Sonnets</hi> first edition text The 1881 <hi rend="i">Ballads and Sonnets</hi> first edition text The Collected Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, vol. 1 (1886) Dante Gabriel Rossetti William Michael Rossetti 1886 0 Percy Bysshe Shelley Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 0 Percy Bysshe Shelley (Inscription for the couch, still preserved, on which he passed the last night of his life) (Delware corrected copy) DGR 1881 0 Percy Bysshe Shelley (Inscription for the couch, still preserved, on which he passed the last night of his life) (Delaware fair copy manuscript) DGR 1881 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), first edition Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 October 17 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), second edition Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1882), fourth edition Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1882 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), (author's proofs, British Library copy) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 April-June 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature X (Delaware Museum, author's first proof, partial copy) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 May 6 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature X (Delaware Museum, author's first revise, partial copy) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 May 10 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature X (Delaware Museum, first revise, complete copy) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 May 10 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature X (Delaware Museum, second revise, copy 2) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 May 18 (circa) 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature X (Delaware Museum, second revise proof, copy 1) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 May 18 (circa) 0 The Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1911) Dante Gabriel Rossetti William Michael Rossetti 1911 0 A Series of Holograph MSS 1849-1880 (Library of Congress) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1849-1880 0 A Series of Holograph MSS 1849-1880 (Library of Congress) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1849-1880 0 Binding Design: The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley (1876) DGR 1876 Pale blue cloth covers with gold stamped lettering and design figures. 1