Commentary
Introduction
DGR's inclination toward an extreme artifice of expression
is here sharply realized. His correspondence about the poem with his brother
in August 1869 (see Doughty and Wahl,
Letters
II. 725
, and
WMRsl
217
) underscores
this quality of the verse—especially WMR's “doubt
whether the long line in this poem is quite satisfactory to the ear
”.
WMR goes on immediately to add, however: “They have the great value of
specializing the lyrical rhythm—and, if you advisedly like them, you
are probably right”
. DGR's view was simply: “I like the long
lines myself”
.
Textual History: Composition
According to WMR the poem was composed in
1869 (
1911
). There is
no evidence that confirms or disconfirms that dating
other than the Fitzwilliam Museum manuscript. That manuscript is one of the
Three Poems fair copied
together as a unit under that collective title in 1869. There this
poem was titled
“Bellebuona”.
Textual History: Revision
DGR made minor changes to the poem in his early proofs,
at the suggestion of his brother. The most notable change came in the
proofs
for the second trial book, where the title is changed to “Plighted Promise” from
“The Moon Star”, which was the poem's title in its earliest manuscript
and in all of the earlier proof states. The title seems itself to have been important to DGR since
he later (1871) composed a sonnet with the same title.
Printing History
First printed as part of the pre-publication process
for the 1870
<xref doc="a.1-1870.raw">Poems</xref>
, in the Penkill Proofs, August 1869.
Those proofs have no special organization of the
poetic units. At the next proof stage, the so-called
A Proofs (Sept. 1869),
this poem is placed in a loosely organized section under the heading
<xref doc="a.44-1869.raw">Sonnets and Songs,
Towards a Work to be Called <title level="wrk">The House of Life
. DGR experimented with the order of this section until, in
the final proof stage (realized at the
beginning of March, 1870) this poem and ten others were grouped as
<xref doc="a.44-1869.raw">The House
of Life</xref>
's integral section of
<xref doc="a.44b-1869.raw">Songs</xref>
. In the 1881
<xref doc="a.1-1881.raw" workcode="2-1865">Poems. A New
Edition</xref>
, this section is detached from
<xref doc="a.22-1881.raw">The House of Life</xref>
and placed under the
heading
<xref doc="a.20-1881.raw">Lyrics</xref>
, and two other poems are added to the group.