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.
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
Written around 10 November 1874, DGR must have revised the sonnet shortly thereafter since the
First published in The Athenaeum
Ballads and Sonnets
DGR: Painter and Poet