DGR wrote the poem on 12 March 1870 and sent a copy the next day to Burne-Jones (with some alternative readings) and another copy shortly afterwards to Barbara Bodichon (which differs slightly from the copy he sent to Burne-Jones): see DGR's letters of 13 and 15 March 1870, Fredeman, , 70. 52, 53 . Both of these manuscript texts differ substantially from the received text.

The original MS text was considerably revised as DGR moved the poem into the collection of the 1870 . The changes were made before the text passed into the revise proofs, which were initially pulled on 15 March 1870. The 1870 text was not revised for later printings.

Burne-Jones's painting was begun in 1863 and completed in 1869, when it was exhibited at the Old Water-Colour Society. Originally comissioned by Ruskin, the painting was a conscious attempt by Burne-Jones to execute a painting that would represent Ruskin's ideas about art and the prophetic office of the artist. On its completion it was bought by Frederick Leyland. The painting's present location is in a private collection. It has been reproduced several times (always in monochrome): in Malcolm Bell's , page 92 ; in , page 304 ; and in David Cecil's , pl. 66.

First published in DGR's 1870 , where it was included as one of the last additions to the volume—in March, 1870. DGR had special revise proofs pulled to make changes to the sonnet and then have it placed in his new book, which was published in April. Sets of these proofs are in the British Library (two copies), the Huntington Library, the Fitzwilliam, and the Princeton-Troxell collection.

When DGR saw the painting in July 1869 he called it “the greatest picture of the year in my opinion” (see DGR's letter to Alicia Losh of 16 July 1869, Fredeman, , 69. 85 ). His sonnet clearly reads the painting (and the myth of Circe) somewhat more darkly than Ruskin had done in (which came out in articles in in 1862-63). Ruskin contrasts Circe (“pure Animal life . . . full vital pleasure”) with the Sirens, who represent avarice. DGR's view is close to this, but his sense of the intimate relation between Soul's Beauty and Body's Beauty clearly leads him to a darker sense of Circe's enchanting powers (and hence to a darker view of the power of art than Ruskin had).

Keats's was a favorite text for DGR, and this sonnet is yet another Rossettian treatment of the Keatsian theme. In DGR's version, however, the fatal woman is mature and experienced (a representation not at all emphasized in Keats), as here, and of course in the various texts and pictures.

In the 1870 the sonnet recalls perhaps most particularly, but it connects as well with themes relentlessly pursued through , , and generally.

Boos, 228-230