After the German Subjugation of France (Duke University corrected fair copy)Dante Gabriel Rossetti1By permission of the Special Collections Library, Duke UniversityAfter the German Subjugation of France 1871Dante Gabriel Rossetti1871corrected fair copy1 page1 half sheetDGRDuke University LibraryRossetti Writings. XXII. After the German Subjugation of Francewhite laid7 x 4 1/2 in.
Commentary
Introduction
This is one of two manuscripts of the sonnet that come down to us; the other is in the Ashley Library.
Textual History: Composition
Textual History: Revision
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The horizontal line at the bottom indicates that the last two lines of the manuscript are corrections of the deleted lines.After the German Subjugation of France<lb/> 1871Lo, the twelfth year;—the wedding-feast come round With years for months!—and lo, the babe new born! Out of the womb's rank furnace cast forlorn And with contagious effluence seamed & crowned. LoTo hail this birth what fiery tongues surround Hell's Pentecost; what clamour of all cries, That swell, from Absalom's scoff to Shimei's TOne scornful gamut of tumultuous sound?For lo!now the harlot's heart on a new sleeve Is prankt; and her heart's lord of yesterday eyes that yet shall grieve Spurned from her bed, whose purple gauds o'erlayThis hour exult to watch his babe at playSuch fretwork as the busy worm can weaveTakes in his ears the vanished world's last yell, And in his flesh the shutting teeth of Hell.-----------------------------------------------------------whose worm-spun silks o'erlaySuch fretwork as that other worm can weaveLotsWritten on the left lower corner perpendicular to the poem's text.