At Issue

Alternately titled: Through Death to Life

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

General Description

Date: 1848
Rhyme: abbaabbacdeedc
Meter: iambic pentameter
Genre: sonnet

Bibliography

◦ Paull F. Baum, DGR: An Analytical List of Manuscripts in the Duke University Library, 14-16, 56-65

◦ Frances Winwar, “Dante Gabriel's or William Michael's?”, 312-315

Scholarly Commentary

Introduction

The sonnet is one of the group of bouts rimés that WMR and DGR made in 1848. Two texts of this sonnet survive. WMR published the earliest, unrevised version in his 1911 edition, and in 1931 Paull Baum published a manuscript version that carries DGR's revisions. The variances between these two texts indicate that at least one other must have existed.

The reference to “the new life” in line 11 is especially arresting, since it references the translation of Dante's autobiography that DGR was working on at precisely this time.

Electronic Archive Edition: 1
Source File: 22-1848.raw.xml