Afterwards

Alternately titled: Unburied Death

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

General Description

Date: 1848
Rhyme: abbaabbacdecde
Meter: iambic pentameter
Genre: sonnet

Bibliography

◦ Baum, Manuscripts in the Duke University Library 1931, 14-15, 56-65

◦ Winwar, “Dante Gabriel's or William Michael's?”, March 1933, 312-315

Scholarly Commentary

Introduction

This is one of the group of sonnets that DGR and WMR wrote to rhymes set by each other. The brothers played this verse game between 1847-1849, and principally in 1848. The rule was that the sonnet should be written quickly, in five to ten minutes (see 1911, pages 673-674 ). Eighteen survive, six of which were published by WMR in his edition of 1911, pages 263-267 . Baum published the rest in his Manuscripts in the Duke University Library pages 56-65 , among which was this poem. The only authoritative source text is the Duke Library manuscript.

Printing History

Paull Baum noted a text of this sonnet (titled “Unburied Death”) in the Duke Library manuscript collection and he gave a collation of its variants from the text WMR printed in 1911 (see Baum, 15), where the sonnet was first published.

Electronic Archive Edition: 1
Source File: 14-1848.raw.xml