The Soul's Sphere

The Soul's Sphere Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1 1873 <artist/> <location/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnpictorial> <citnmythic> <name/> <culture/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnmythic> <citnhistorical> <event/> <place/> <date/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnhistorical> <citnautobiographical> <name/> <place/> <date/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnautobiographical> <citnscenic> <place/> <date/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnscenic> </listcitn> </source> <commentaries> <head>Commentary</head> <section type="intro"> <head>Introduction</head> <p>The images of moon and sun that open the sonnet resonate with key figurations in all of DGR's work. The lines distinctly echo the situation dramatized early in <xref doc="a.1-1847.s244.raw"> <title level="wrk">“The Blessed Damozel” and recovered throughout the “House of Life” sequence in sonnets that depict both Beloved and Innominata as a love-moon and the lover (or the poet) as the sun/son.

Textual History: Composition

DGR worked at the poem in his notebooks. Ashley Library Note Book I has a draft of lines 13-14 and Note Book II has a draft of lines 1-3. The texts drafted in the Duke Library notebooks are: in Note Book II, lines 1-3, 12-14; in Note Book III, lines 12-14; and Note Book IV lines 6-7. The earliest complete text seems to be the Bancroft corrected copy. Two fair copies survive, one in the Fitzwilliam composite “House of Life” sequence, the other in the Library of Congress.

Textual History: Revision

Production History

Reception

Iconographic

Printing History

First published in the 1881 <hi rend="i">Ballads and Sonnets</hi> and collected thereafter.

Pictorial

Historical

Literary

Translation

Autobiographical

Bibliographic

WMR, <hi rend="i">DGR Designer and Writer</hi> , 226-227 Baum, ed., <hi rend="i">House of Life</hi> , 160-161

1881 <hi rend="i">Ballads and Sonnets</hi> first edition text See the “soul's atmosphere” in “He and I” line 6.. 1881 <hi rend="i">Ballads and Sonnets</hi> first edition text 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 (1882), fourth edition Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1882 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), (author's proofs, British Library copy) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 April-June 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature P (Delaware Museum, 4 May author's proof, copy 1) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 May 4 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature P (Delaware Museum, 4 May author's proof, copy 2) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 May 4 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature P (Delaware Museum, 6 May proof, copy 1) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 May 6 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature P (Delaware Museum, 6 May proof, copy 2) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 May 6 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature P (Delaware Museum, 9 May proof, copy 1) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 May 9 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature P (Delaware Museum, 9 May proof, copy 2) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 May 9 0 Small Notebook 1 (British Library) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1871-1879? 0 Small Notebook 2 (British Library) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1871-1879? 0 The Soul's Sphere (Delaware draft manuscript) DGR 1873 0 The House of Life (composite manuscript posthumously arranged, Fitzwilliam Museum) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1845 - 1881 0 Notebook Pages (Note Book III, Duke Library) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 0 Notebook Pages (Duke Library Note Book II) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1847-1848, 1878-1880 0 Notebook Pages (Duke Library Note Book II) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1847-1848, 1878-1880 0 Notebook Pages (Duke Library Note Book II) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1847-1848, 1878-1880 0 Notebook Pages (Note Book IV, Duke Library) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1871, 1880 0 Notebook Page (Rosenbach Library) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1880 0 The Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1911) Dante Gabriel Rossetti William Michael Rossetti 1911 0 Twelve Sonnets and Some Other Poems by Dante G. Rossetti (Library of Congress posthumous MS book) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1848-1881 0 Sonnets and Fragments (Princeton/Troxell bound manuscript volume) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1848-1881 0