Guido Guinicelli. “Sonnet. Concerning Lucy.”

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

General Description

Date: 1848?; 1861
Rhyme: abbaabbacdeedc
Meter: iambic pentameter
Genre: sonnet

Bibliography

“Table of Poets” in Early Italian Poets vol. 1, xxv.

◦ Valeriani and Lampredi, Poeti del primo secolo vol. 1, 100.

◦ Contini, Poeti de duecento vol. 1, 479.

Scholarly Commentary

Introduction

DGR's translation of this well known and much admired Guinezelli sonnet is quite free—more than is usual for him. Even the rhyme scheme varies considerably from the original.

DGR's source is the text in Poeti del Primo Secolo (I. 100).

Textual History: Composition

As with most of DGR's translations, this one cannot be exactly fixed. It is probably a fairly early work, however—done in the late 1840s.

Printing History

The translation was first published in 1861 in The Early Italian Poets; it was reprinted in 1874 in Dante and his Circle.

Electronic Archive Edition: 1
Source File: 155d-1861.raw.xml