A Half-Way Pause

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

General Description

Date: 1849 October
Rhyme: abbaccadeedeed
Meter: iambic tetrameter
Genre: sonnet (irregular)

Scholarly Commentary

Introduction

Because DGR did not compose many irregular sonnets, these verses stand out. The style is distinctly in the early PRB mode of realistic treatment of small and what might appear to be trivial details.

Textual History: Composition

Composed in mid-October 1849. It is one of the poems that comprised part of DGR's letter to his brother of 18 October 1849, sent from Paris on his trip to the continent with Holman Hunt. WMR later gathered the set of verses written during the trip into an integral sequence.

Printing History

First published by WMR under the title “Near Brussels—A Half-Way Pause” in 1886 (I. 262) and collected thereafter.

Electronic Archive Edition: 1
Source File: 26-1849.raw.xml