Sister Helen (corrected copy of lines 204-231, Princeton/Troxell collection): Rossetti Archive Document Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1 Used with permission of Princeton University. From the Princeton University Library, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections. All rights reserved. Redistribution or republication in any medium requires express written consent from Princeton University Library. Permissions inquiries should be addressed to Associate University Librarian, Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library. Sister Helen, lines 204-231 Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1879 (circa) draft manuscript DGR DGR Troxell Collection, Princeton U. Library 23281 Library location, CO189 box 4 The photcopy measures 5 3/4 x 3 7/8 inches. Commentary
Introduction

This text is taken from a photocopy in the Troxell Collection at the Princeton University Library. The copy displays the recto and verso of a single leaf of a small notebook bearing DGR's corrected copy of received stanzas 30-33. Like stanzas 35 and 39, these were added to the poem in 1879 as DGR was getting his works ready for the publication that eventually became the two volumes of 1881. The augmented <xref doc="a.2-1851.s220.raw"> <hi rend="i">Sister Helen</hi> </xref> appeared in <xref doc="a.1-1881.1stedn.rad" workcode="2-1851.s220"> <hi rend="i">Poems. A New Edition</hi> </xref> .

Textual History: Composition

In this manuscript stanzas 30-31, 33 were written first in fair copies; these are on the recto, and 31, 33 are written on a small leaf pasted down over a previous text. Stanza 32 was written later and appears on the verso; there is a heavily corrected draft of this stanza as well as a fair copy.

Textual History: Revision

Production History

Reception History

Iconographic

Printing History

Pictorial

Historical

Literary

Translation

Autobiographical

Bibliographic

‘A lady's here, by a dark steed brought, Sister Helen, So darkly clad, I saw her not.’ ‘See her now or never see aught, Little brother!’ (O Mother, Mary Mother, What more to see, between Hell and Heaven?) ‘Her hood falls back, and the moon shines fair, Sister Helen, On the Lady of Ewern's golden hair.’ ‘Blest hour of my power & her despair, Little brother!’ (O Mother, Mary Mother, Hour blest and bann'd, between Hell and Heaven!) ‘Her clasped hands stretch from her bending head, Sister Helen; With the loud wind's wail her sobs are wed.’ ‘What wedding-strains hath her bridal-bed, Little brother?’ (O Mother, Mary Mother, What strain but death's, between Hell & Heaven?) ‘All wild her looks, to their instant glow/ [?] flow/ Pale, pale her cheeks to their bridal-glow/ that [?] show Pale, pale her cheeks, that in pride did glow, Sister Helen, Sister Helen, Of the blush they were three days ago/To their bridal blush 'Neath the bridal-wreath three days ago’ ‘One morn for joy bliss and three days for woe, Little brother!’ (O Mother, Mary Mother, Three days, three nights between Hell and Heaven!) ‘Pale, pale her cheeks, that in pride did glow, Sister Helen, 'Neath the bridal-wreath three days ago.’ ‘One morn for bliss and three days for woe, Little brother!’ (O Mother, Mary Mother, Three days, three nights, between Hell & Heaven!)