Untimely Lost (Oliver Madox Brown Born 1855; Died 1874) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1 1874 November
abbaabbacddccd iambic pentameter sonnet
<artist/> <location/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnpictorial> <citnmythic> <name/> <culture/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnmythic> <citnhistorical> <event/> <place/> <date/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnhistorical> <citnautobiographical> <name/> <place/> <date/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnautobiographical> <citnscenic> <place/> <date/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnscenic> </listcitn> </source> <commentaries> <head>Commentary</head> <section type="intro"> <head>Introduction</head> <p>The poem is written on the occasion of the death of Oliver (“Nolly”) Madox Brown, the brilliant son of Ford Madox Brown. The young man of nineteen died of septicaemia on 5 November 1874 and DGR wrote his memorial verses sometime before the funeral on 12 November.</p> <p>The death of his son desolated Brown. In the Texas manuscript the sonnet is titled “Dis Manibus”—an extremely interesting choice since DGR would later use the same Latin allusion as a title for his <xref doc="a.11-1880.raw">epigrammatic lines</xref> on the death of Flaubert. The tag is a common funerary inscription, “to the sacred spirits of the departed”.</p> </section> <section type="texthistcomp"> <head>Textual History: Composition</head> <p>Written around 10 November 1874, DGR must have revised the sonnet shortly thereafter since the <title level="per"> <hi rend="i">The Athenaeum</hi> text differs from the fair copy manuscript. The Texas manuscript is a holograph fair copy that DGR may well have given to his friend Brown as a gift. The other integral manuscript, an untitled fair copy, is in the Bodleian.

Textual History: Revision

Production History

Reception

Iconographic

Printing History

First published in <hi rend="i">The Athenaeum</hi> (no. 2456, 21 November 1874, page 678). Published again in the 1881 <hi rend="i">Ballads and Sonnets</hi> and collected thereafter.

Pictorial

Historical

Literary

Translation

Autobiographical

Bibliographic

Marsh, <hi rend="i">DGR: Painter and Poet</hi> , 485-487

The 1881 <hi rend="i">Ballads and Sonnets</hi> first edition text See WMR's note (1911). The 1881 <hi rend="i">Ballads and Sonnets</hi> first edition text The Collected Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, vol. 1 (1886) Dante Gabriel Rossetti William Michael Rossetti 1886 0 Dis Manibus Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1874 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), first edition Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 October 17 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), second edition Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1882), fourth edition Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1882 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), (author's proofs, British Library copy) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 April-June 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), (author's proofs, British Library copy) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 April-June 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature X (Delaware Museum, author's first proof, partial copy) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 May 6 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature Y (Delaware Museum, first revise proof) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 May 10 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature Y (Delaware Museum, third revise, author's copy) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 May 18 (circa) 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature Y (Delaware Museum, third revise, WMR's copy) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 May 18 (circa) 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature Y (Delaware Museum, three printer's copies) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 May 10 0 Bodleian Notebook II DGR 1870-1880 ? 0 The Athenaeum, 1874, Part II 1874 July - 1874 December 0 The Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1911) Dante Gabriel Rossetti William Michael Rossetti 1911 0 Dante Gabriel Rossetti. His Family-Letters with a Memoir (Volume Two) William Michael Rossetti 1970 0 Dante Gabriel Rossetti. His Family-Letters with a Memoir (Volume Two) William Michael Rossetti 1970 0