Barren Spring

<author/> <city/> <publisher/> <date/> <pages/> </bibl> <note/> </citnliterary> <citntranslationoriginal> <bibl> <title/> <author/> <city/> <publisher/> <date/> <pages/> </bibl> <note/> </citntranslationoriginal> <citnpictorial> <title/> <artist/> <location/> <bibl> <title/> <author/> <city/> <publisher/> <date/> <pages/> </bibl> <note/> </citnpictorial> <citnmythic> <name/> <culture/> <bibl> <title/> <author/> <city/> <publisher/> <date/> <pages/> </bibl> <note/> </citnmythic> <citnhistorical> <event/> <place/> <date/> <bibl> <title/> <author/> <city/> <publisher/> <date/> <pages/> </bibl> <note/> </citnhistorical> <citnautobiographical> <name/> <place/> <date/> <bibl> <title/> <author/> <city/> <publisher/> <date/> <pages/> </bibl> <note/> </citnautobiographical> <citnscenic> <place/> <date/> <bibl> <title/> <author/> <city/> <publisher/> <date/> <pages/> </bibl> <note/> </citnscenic> </listcitn> </source> <commentaries> <head>Commentary</head> <section type="intro"> <head>Introduction</head> <p>In the 1870 sequence of <title level="wrk"> <xref doc="a.44-1869.raw"> <hi rend="i">The House of Life</hi> </xref> , where the sonnet is first published, its literal subject matter links it closely with the previous three ( <xref doc="a.3-1854.raw">“The Landmark”</xref> , <xref doc="a.1-1855.raw">“A Dark Day”</xref> , <xref doc="a.2-1853.raw">“The Hill Summit”</xref> ).

Textual History: Composition

Before April 1870 ( WMR, <hi rend="i">DGR: Classified Lists</hi> , 6 ). It was in fact written in March 1870—one of the sonnets that formed part of the “sheet” of work he had written at Scalands (see DGR's letter to Alice Boyd, 22 March 1870: Fredeman, <hi rend="i">Correspondence</hi> , 70.63 ). By “sheet” DGR means the set of proofs he had pulled on 15 March.

The only manuscript is the Charles Fairfax Murray copy in the Fitzwilliam composite “House of Life” sequence.

Textual History: Revision

The major revision of this sonnet involves its repositioning in 1881. In the 1870 text the sonnet is number XXXIV and it follows directly on the sequence <xref doc="a.3-1854.raw">“The Landmark”</xref> , <xref doc="a.1-1855.raw">“A Dark Day”</xref> , and <xref doc="a.2-1853.raw">“The Hill Summit”</xref> ). In 1881, however, it is sonnet number LXXXIII and is separated from that sequence by twelve intervening sonnets, coming in just before <xref doc="a.16-1869.raw">“Farewell to the Glen”</xref> . The effect of this alteration is significant.

DGR also made a pair of small textual alterations by hand in his annotated copy of the second edition. These changes (in lines 5 and 12) first appeared in the fifth edition of the 1870 volume.

Production History

Reception

Iconographic

Printing History

This is one of the last sonnets added to the sequence for the 1870 <xref doc="a.1-1870.1stedn.rad" workcode="13-1870"> <hi rend="i">Poems</hi> </xref> volume. It was printed in a separate proof along with some other sonnets ( <xref doc="a.4-1870.raw">“The Love-Letter”</xref> , <xref doc="a.24-1869.raw">“For <title level="pic"> <hi rend="i">The Wine of Circe</hi> , by Edward Burne Jones ”, and <xref doc="a.11-1870.raw">“The Monochord”</xref> ) and <xref doc="a.21-1869.raw">“The Stream's Secret”</xref> . It is <xref doc="a.44-1869.raw"> <hi rend="i">The House of Life</hi> </xref> Sonnet XXXIV in the 1870 volume, and Sonnet LXXXIII in 1881.

Pictorial

Historical

Literary

Translation

Autobiographical

In terms of its date of composition, the sonnet reflects upon the spring of 1870, on whose threshhold it was written. Its emotional gloom is very deep, but this fact need not be read in personal terms since the sequence constructs this gloom as part of its developing argument.

Bibliographic

WMR, <hi rend="i">DGR as Designer and Writer</hi> , 245. Baum, <hi rend="i">House of Life</hi> , 194-195. Lewis, <hi rend="i">Trial Book Fallacy</hi> , 191.

1881 <hi rend="i">Ballads and Sonnets</hi> first edition text Baum comments: “Two images in one: the flower is like a flame; it withers as a flame dies down” ( <hi rend="i">Poems, Ballads and Sonnets</hi> , 313n ).