Passion and Worship Love and Worship Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1 1870
abbaabbacddccd iambic pentameter sonnet
<author/> <city/> <publisher/> <date/> <pages/> </bibl> <note/> </citnliterary> <citntranslationoriginal> <bibl> <title/> <author/> <city/> <publisher/> <date/> <pages/> </bibl> <note/> </citntranslationoriginal> <citnpictorial> <title/> <artist/> <location/> <bibl> <title/> <author/> <city/> <publisher/> <date/> <pages/> </bibl> <note/> </citnpictorial> <citnmythic> <name/> <culture/> <bibl> <title/> <author/> <city/> <publisher/> <date/> <pages/> </bibl> <note/> </citnmythic> <citnhistorical> <event/> <place/> <date/> <bibl> <title/> <author/> <city/> <publisher/> <date/> <pages/> </bibl> <note/> </citnhistorical> <citnautobiographical> <name/> <place/> <date/> <bibl> <title/> <author/> <city/> <publisher/> <date/> <pages/> </bibl> <note/> </citnautobiographical> <citnscenic> <place/> <date/> <bibl> <title/> <author/> <city/> <publisher/> <date/> <pages/> </bibl> <note/> </citnscenic> </listcitn> </source> <commentaries> <head>Commentary</head> <section type="intro"> <head>Introduction</head> <p>The sonnet functions in <title level="wrk"> <xref doc="a.44-1869.raw"> The House of Life</xref> sequence as an important transitional device. The manifest iconographical structure of the sonnet is here focused on the subject that has dominated the sequence to this point: Love. But the artifice of this work is so extreme that another crucial motif gets introduced obliquely: the subject of Art, and (implicitly) the relation of Art to Love. The next sonnet in the sequence, <xref doc="a.1-1868.s212.raw">“The Portrait”</xref> , will open this topic in an explicit way. DGR will elaborate the topic more thoroughly in the 1881 version of <xref doc="a.22-1881.raw">The House of Life</xref> , which contains the <xref doc="a.2-1849.s102.raw">Old and New Art</xref> sonnets.

Textual History: Composition

Various dates have been suggested: “Before April 1870” (see Peattie, Letters of William Michael Rossetti 6 ); “?1868-1870” (Baum, The House of Life , 78 ; following Tisdel); 1870 (Fredeman, “Rossetti's ‘In Memoriam’” ). The poem must have been written before early October 1869 since it appears in the First Trial Book (early October 1869). It was probably written expressly for the evolving sequence of <xref doc="a.44-1869.raw">The House of Life</xref> , and so may be assigned to August-September 1869. The only surviving manuscript is the draft in the Fitzwilliam composite “House of Life” manuscript.

Textual History: Revision

Except for the changed title, the poem undergoes no important revisions after it appears in print in the First Trial Book in October 1869.

Production History

Reception

Iconographic

The allegorical form of this sonnet grounds its iconographical structure. DGR gains an especially startling effect, however, because the sonnet focuses on musical ideas. The interaction of these two schema establishes a synaesthesia at a remarkably abstract level.

Printing History

First printed in the First Trial Book (early October 1869) and kept through the remainder of the proofs for the 1870 <xref doc="a.1-1870.1stedn.rad" workcode="3-1870">Poems</xref> , where it was first published, and retained in the corpus thereafter. It is <xref doc="a.44-1869.raw">The House of Life</xref> Sonnet VIII in the 1870 volume, and Sonnet IX in 1881.

Pictorial

Historical

Literary

Like <xref doc="a.6-1869.raw">Love's Lovers</xref> , this poem is a highly mannered act of homage to stil novisti and Petrarchan verse.

Translation

Autobiographical

Bibliographic

Baum, ed., <hi rend="i">The House of Life</hi> , 78-79 WMR, <hi rend="i">DGR as Designer and Writer</hi> , 190-191

Poems 1870 First Edition text See WMR's note (1911) hautboy: an oboe. DGR treats this subject with specific reference to Art in <xref doc="a.2-1881.1stedn.rad" from="236" workcode="2-1849">“St Luke the Painter”</xref> , which would eventually come into <xref doc="a.22-1881.raw">The House of Life</xref> (from the <xref doc="a.8a-1850.raw">“Sonnets for Pictures”</xref> section in the 1870 volume) as part of the <xref doc="a.2-1849.s102.raw">“Old and New Art”</xref> group. Baum's comments are worth considering: “Besides the simple contrast of sunlit sea and moonlit grove, there is the union of an auditory image (the music) and a visual image (music personified), which together stand for the power of Passion in the lovers' bright and happy hours. The visual image of the next lines stands for an emotional state (their quiet hours together). In the last line, along with the association of a voluntary with the church service, is the combination of the name as an auditory image (first literally and then as music) and the name as an abstract symbol of the lady herself. It all means that she approves both the overmastering power of his passion and the quiet gift of his worship. Any one or two of these substitutions would cause no one any trouble, but from the concentrated massing of them the difficulties increase in geometric ratio.” (Baum, Poems, Ballads, and Sonnets xlv-xlvi ) voluntary: A musical piece or movement performed spontaneously. . . esp. by way of prelude to a more elaborate piece (OED C.1.b) Poems 1870 First Edition text Poems (1870): Proofs for first edition, British Library copy, (Ashley 1405) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1870 March 1-7 0 Poems (1870): Proofs for first edition, Fitzwilliam Museum (Copy 1) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1870 March 1 (and 22 March for additional material) 0 Poems (1870): Proofs for first edition, Princeton/Troxell Copy Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1870 March 1-7 0 Poems (1870): Mixed Proofs 1869-1870, Fitzwilliam Museum Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 October - 1970 March 0 Poems (1870): First Edition Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1870 April 26 0 Poems (1870): Second Edition (DGR's corrected copy) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1870 May 0 Poems (1870): Second Edition Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1870 May 0 Poems (1870): Third Edition (copy 1) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1870 June 0 Poems (1870): Third Edition (copy 2) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1870 June 0 Poems (1870): Fourth Edition Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1870 July (or early August) 0 Poems (1870): Fifth Edition Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1871 0 Poems (1870): Sixth Edition Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1872 0 Poems by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1873): the Tauchnitz Edition 1873 November 15 (late November or early December) 0 Poems by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1873): the Tauchnitz Edition, with author's corrections (Yale copy) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1873 November 15 (late November or early December) 0 Poems. (Privately Printed).: First Trial Book, British Library copy (Ashley 1393) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 October 3 0 Poems. (Privately Printed).: First Trial Book (Fitzwilliam Museum copy) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 October 3 0 Poems. (Privately Printed.), First Trial Book (Huntington Library copy DGR 1869 October 3 0 Poems. (Privately Printed).: First Trial Book, Princeton/Troxell (Losh copy) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 October 3 0 Poems. (Privately Printed.): First Trial Book (partial), Princeton/Troxell (copy 1) 1869 October 3 0 Poems. (Privately Printed.): First Trial Book (partial), Princeton/Troxell (copy 1) 1869 October 3 0 Poems. (Privately Printed.): Second Trial Book, British Library, (Ashley 1400) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 November 30 (25 November - 6 December) 0 Poems. (Privately Printed).: Second Trial Book (Fitzwilliam Museum copy) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 November 25 0 Poems, Privately Printed: Second Trial Book, Alice Boyd/Lasner copy. Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 November 25 0 Poems. (Privately Printed.): Proofs for the Second Trial Book (partial), Princeton/Troxell. Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 November 25-26 0 Poems. (Privately Printed.): Second Trial Book, Princeton/Troxell. Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 November 25 0 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 (1881), (author's proofs, British Library copy) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 April-June 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature M (Delaware Museum, first author's proof, copy 2, revise) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 April 28 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature N (Delaware Museum, first proof, copy 1) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 April 25 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature N (Delaware Museum, first proof, copy 2) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 April 25 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