Venus Verticordia (corrected copy with alternate readings, British Library)

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Rossetti Archive Textual Transcription

Document Title: Venus Verticordia (corrected copy with alternate readings, British Library)

Author: Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Date of Composition: 1868 or 1869

Type of Manuscript: Fair copy with some corrections and alternate readings.

Scribe: DGR

The full Rossetti Archive record for this transcribed document is available.

page: [endpaper]

Note: Bookplate with standing female angel blowing trumpet and seated female angel. Between the two figures is a flowing banner on which is inscribed the owner's name. Below the figures and the ower's name is an inscribed poem.

Manuscript Addition: Ashley 3845

Editorial Description: British Library catalog number.

THOMAS

JAMES WISE

HIS BOOK

BOOKS BRING ME FRIENDS
WHERE'ER ON EARTH I BE.
SOLACE OF SOLITUDE&
BONDS OF SOCIETY!

page: [1]

Note: The textual alternates are written at the foot of the manuscript.

Venus Verticordia

She hath it in her hand to give it thee,
Also within her heart to hold it back;
She muses, with her eyes upon the track
Of some dazed moth or honey seeking bee—
Haply, “He is as one of these”, saith she;
‘Now the sweet apple for his lips, alack!
But brings the dart to turn his midday black,
And The With wandering [?] for his feet perpetually!”

A little space her glance is sad & coy;
10 But if she give the fruit that works her spell,
These Those eyes shall flame as for her Phrygian boy.
Then shall her bird's strained throat the woe foretell,
And her far seas moan as a single shell,
And through her dark grove strike the light of Troy.

Added Text

Alas! the apple for his lips, the dart
Which follows its brief sweetness to his heart,
The wandering of his feet perpetually!”
And bids his feet wander perpetually.

And wandering for &c.

page: [1v]

Note: [blank page]

Electronic Archive Edition: 1

Source File: 4-1868.blms.rad.xml