Fragment (from “On Mary's Portrait Which I Painted Six Years Ago”)Dante Gabriel Rossetti1By permission of the Special Collections Library, Duke University[untitled]Dante Gabriel Rossetti1847draft1 pageone small manuscript leafDGRDGRDuke University LibraryRossetti Writings III. Fragmentwhite unruled3 x 4 7/8 in.
Commentary
Introduction
This is the only known text of these verses, which are clearly a rejected text
once intended for “On Mary's Portrait Which I Painted Six Years Ago”.
Textual History: Composition
The 1849 composition date is conjectural.
Textual History: Revision
Production History
Reception History
Iconographic
Printing History
Pictorial
Historical
Literary
Translation
Autobiographical
Bibliographic
42Unknown notation in upper right corner, possibly by WMRMid these,Of its own voice the responses,I felt my breathless spirit swoonAnd once, when in theAnd often as this foreign tunePerplext her, and I must impartThe sense, those English words of loveQuaked like a flame about my heartBut when, now silent—I saw glideAlong the awakened meadow side,As 'twere an angel that did pass—The rapture of the windy grass—I kissed her, & she did not chide.