Death-in-Love (holograph fair copy, U. of British Columbia Library) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1 ŠThe University of British Columbia Library, Norman Colbeck Collection Death-in-Love Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 fair copy manuscript, no corrections DGR DGR U. of British Columbia Library, Norman Colbeck Collection The manuscript is in the Norman Colbeck MS file, Rossetti Family Album Folder. 17.9 x 11.3cm The leaf is a half sheet. On the verso is a fair copy of the sonnet <xref doc="a.18-1869.raw">“The Sun's Shame I”</xref> . Commentary
Introduction

This must be the earliest extant manuscript. The poem was apparently written on 1 May 1869. The text here does not vary from the first printing of the poem in the Penkill Proofs for the 1870 <xref doc="a.1-1870.1stedn.rad" workcode="13-1869"> <hi rend="i">Poems</hi> </xref> , in August 1869.

Textual History: Composition

Textual History: Revision

Production History

Reception History

Iconographic

Printing History

Pictorial

Historical

Literary

Translation

Autobiographical

Bibliographic

<hi rend="u">Death—in—Love—</hi> There came an Image in Life's retinue That had Love's wings and bore his gonfalon: Fair was the web, and nobly wrought thereon, O soul-sequestered face, thy form and hue! Bewildering sounds, such as Spring wakens to, Shook in its folds; and through my soul heart its power Sped trackless as the immemorable hour When birth's dark portal groaned and all was new. But a veiled woman followed, and she caught The banner round its staff, to furl and cling,— Then plucked a feather from the bearer's wing, And held it to his lips that stirred it not, And said to me, “Behold, there is no breath: I and this Love are one, and I am Death.” ----