A Soul Singing

William Michael Rossetti

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

General Description

Date: 1848
Rhyme: abbaabbacdecde
Meter: iambic pentameter
Genre: sonnet

Bibliography

◦ Paull F. Baum, Dante Gabriel Rossetti: An Analytical List of Manuscripts (1931), 14-16, 56-65

◦ Frances Winwar, “Dante Gabriel's or William Michael's? ” (March 1933), 312-315

Scholarly Commentary

Introduction

This is one of the group of sonnets that DGR wrote to rhymes set by WMR. The brothers played this verse game with each other between 1847-1849, and principally in 1848. The rule was that the sonnet should be written quickly, in five to ten minutes (see 1911, pages 673-674 ). Twenty-six survive, fourteen of which were published by WMR in his edition of 1911, pages 263-267 . Paull Franklin Baum published the rest in his Analytical List of Manuscripts in the Duke University Library, 56-65 among which was this poem.

Although all of the sonnets first published by Baum are in DGR's autograph, Frances Winwar has argued that a number of them are not DGR's but WMR's. This is one of the nine that Winwar correctly assigns to WMR.

Textual History: Composition

Written by WMR, the poem is transcribed by DGR, and the heavy set of revisions is also in his hand.

Printing History

First published in 1931 by Baum in his Analytical List of Manuscripts in the Duke University Library, 63 .

Electronic Archive Edition: 1
Source File: 37-1848.raw.xml