The Song-Throe Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1 1880 April 12
abbaaccadeedff 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>This sonnet elaborates on the Horatian theme of <hi rend="i"> <foreign lang="latin">“si vis me flere”</foreign> </hi> that was announced in <xref doc="a.2-1873.raw">the sonnet</xref> preceding this one in the 1881 <title level="wrk">“House of Life” sequence. This argument for poetic sincerity, however, incorporates an imperative for “fundamental brainwork” as well. The most striking illustration of DGR's position comes in line 9 where he works out the brilliant wordplay with “Song-god” and “Sun-god”. This is far more than a reference to Apollo. The wordplay calls up the important “child theme” and connects it to the god of poetry, who now gets explicitly revealed as the child-god of love, Cupid, who is, like Apollo, a bow-hunter as well.

Textual History: Composition

Written 12 April 1880, the sonnet descends to us in three integral manuscripts. The earliest is probably the corrected copy in the Fitzwilliam composite “House of Life” sequence (where a fair copy by DGR is also located). Another fair copy is in the Library of Congress, and in Note Book IV in the Ashley Library DGR has copied out texts of lines 1 and 9-12 (pages 39v and 39r).

Textual History: Revision

Production History

Reception

Iconographic

Printing History

First published in the 1881 <hi rend="i">Ballads and Sonnets</hi> and collected thereafter.

Pictorial

Historical

Literary

Translation

Autobiographical

Bibliographic

WMR, <hi rend="i">DGR Designer and Writer</hi> , 225-226 Baum, ed., <hi rend="i">House of Life</hi> 158-159

1881 <hi rend="i">Ballads and Sonnets</hi> first edition text See WMR's note (1911) amulet: see “The One Hope” line 8 soulless: the word is carfully chosen to make a link with DGR's key aesthetic manifesto “St. Luke the Painter” , written in 1849 but placed as sonnet LXXIV in the 1881 “House of Life” sequence. quivered: a clear instance of DGR's “worked” language, suggesting as it does a hand quivering with emotion. The word connects to (and contrasts with) the “feathery jet” of line 5: the latter “air-flung”, this an image of an emotional “throe”. 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 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), proof Signature P (Delaware Museum, 4 May author's proof, copy 1) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 May 4 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature P (Delaware Museum, 4 May author's proof, copy 2) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 May 4 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature P (Delaware Museum, 6 May proof, copy 1) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 May 6 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature P (Delaware Museum, 6 May proof, copy 2) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 May 6 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature P (Delaware Museum, 9 May proof, copy 1) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 May 9 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature P (Delaware Museum, 9 May proof, copy 2) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 May 9 0 Small Notebook 4 (British Library) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1879-1880 0 Small Notebook 4 (British Library) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1879-1880 0 The House of Life (composite manuscript posthumously arranged, Fitzwilliam Museum) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1845 - 1881 0 The House of Life (composite manuscript posthumously arranged, Fitzwilliam Museum) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1845 - 1881 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 One) William Michael Rossetti 1895 0 Twelve Sonnets and Some Other Poems by Dante G. Rossetti (Library of Congress posthumous MS book) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1848-1881 0