As with poems like A New-Year's Burden,
“Even So” is as much an experiment in verse technique as anything
else. Consequently, the poem arrests one with its abstract qualities—an arrest
all the more effective because of the apparent subject (failed love), which
come in at such an oblique angle. The poem's self-display of technical
precision and deliberateness becomes an objective correlative for an
immobilized emotional condition.
Textual History: Composition
The poem is dated by WMR 1859 (in the table of
contents to
1911
); no evidence for this date is offered. The close correspondence
of the central stanza to a passage in a letter of 26 June 1854
(see
Fredeman, Correspondence, 54. 51
) suggests that the poem may have been begun, if
not written, at that time. The only extant manuscript, a fair copy, dates from 1869.
Printing History
The poem was first printed as part of the
prepublication texts that DGR put together in 1869, as a prelude
to the publication of the 1870 Poems. It was printed in August in the
Penkill Proofs, where it
formed part of the section of The
House of Life poems. DGR moved the poem to the opening
Poems section as the
prepublication text of the 1870 volume moved into the
proofs for the first
edition in early March (see
Fredeman, Correspondence, 70. 45
, letter to Swinburne
of 7 March 1870). The poem was first published in the first edition
of the 1870 Poems.
This collection contains 41 texts and images, including:
1881 Poems First Edition Text
Scholarly Commentary
Introduction
As with poems like A New-Year's Burden, “Even So” is as much an experiment in verse technique as anything else. Consequently, the poem arrests one with its abstract qualities—an arrest all the more effective because of the apparent subject (failed love), which come in at such an oblique angle. The poem's self-display of technical precision and deliberateness becomes an objective correlative for an immobilized emotional condition.
Textual History: Composition
The poem is dated by WMR 1859 (in the table of contents to 1911 ); no evidence for this date is offered. The close correspondence of the central stanza to a passage in a letter of 26 June 1854 (see Fredeman, Correspondence, 54. 51 ) suggests that the poem may have been begun, if not written, at that time. The only extant manuscript, a fair copy, dates from 1869.
Printing History
The poem was first printed as part of the prepublication texts that DGR put together in 1869, as a prelude to the publication of the 1870 Poems. It was printed in August in the Penkill Proofs, where it formed part of the section of The House of Life poems. DGR moved the poem to the opening Poems section as the prepublication text of the 1870 volume moved into the proofs for the first edition in early March (see Fredeman, Correspondence, 70. 45 , letter to Swinburne of 7 March 1870). The poem was first published in the first edition of the 1870 Poems.