Rossetti Archive Textual Transcription

Document Title: Raleigh's Cell in the Tower (Delaware corrected copy
Author: Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Date of Composition: 1881
Type of Manuscript: draft manuscript
Scribe: DGR

The full Rossetti Archive record for this transcribed document is available.

Image of page [1] page: [1]
Manuscript Addition: autograph of D. G. Rossetti c. 1880
Editorial Description: note scripted at the very top of the manuscript
Manuscript Addition: 178+
Editorial Description: Number written at extreme upper right
Manuscript Addition: 27b II.69
Editorial Description: Numbers written at upper left
Raleigh's Cell in the Tower.

  • Here writ was the World's History by his hand
  • Whose steps knew all the earth; albeit his world
  • In these few piteous cubits paces then was furl'd.
  • Here daily, hourly, have his proud feet spann'd
  • This smaller speck than the receding land
  • Had ever shown his ships; what time he hurl'd
  • Abroad o'er new-found regions spiced & pearl'd
  • His country's high dominion & command
  • Here dwelt two spheres. The vast terrestrial zone
  • 10His spirit traversed; and that spirit was
  • Itself the zone celestial, round whose birth
  • The planets played within the zodiac's girth;
  • Till hence through an unjust death unfeared, did pass
  • His spirit to the only land unknown.

Electronic Archive Edition:
Source File: 13-1881.delms2.rad.xml