On Refusal of Aid between Nations

Alternately titled: Moribund Men

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

General Description

Date: 1849 August 26
Rhyme: abbaaccadefdef
Meter: iambic pentameter
Genre: sonnet

Bibliography

◦ Bentley, “Political Themes” (1979), 164-166

Annotations

Editorial glosses and textual notes are available in a pop-up window. Line numbering reflects the structure of the 1881 Poems First Edition text.

Scholarly Commentary

Introduction

The fact that DGR recovered this 1849 sonnet for his 1870 Poems shows that he felt its argument remained valid—indeed, that the argument was strengthened by the historical record of the intervening years. In the context of the 1870 volume, the sonnet connects directly with other works with an explicit contemporary reference, and with that group it carries forward the (Blakean) argument that immediate history recapitulates both ancient and mythological history.

Baum says of this sonnet, quite justly, that “It is a good illustration of his interest in public affairs during his earlier years; and it will bear comparison with Wordsworth's political sonnets, and even some of Milton's” (Baum, Poems, Ballads, and Sonnets, 173n ). In DGR's case, however, and as the sestet of the sonnet most clearly shows, the politics is imagined in highly personal terms: the image of selfish behavior as a general cultural malaise is powerfully realized.

It is interesting to recall that the printer's copy manuscript for the Penkill Proofs originally contained “After the French Liberation of Italy”, but DGR removed it just before sending it to the printer (see Fredeman, Correspondence, 69. 130 , letter to WMR of 21 August 1869).

Textual History: Composition

Composed 26 August 1849 (see Fredeman, The P.R.B. Journal, 13 ). DGR's early fair copy of the poem is in the library of the State Historical Society of Iowa. The manuscript in the Fitzwilliam Museum is a copy made from the Iowa manuscript in the spring-summer of 1869; the title in this later text is “Moribund Men”. Another copy is among the Stephens Papers in the Bodleian (MS.don.e. 75, ff. 1-3) where it is titled “For the things of these years and more particularly for the general oppression of the better by the worse cause in the Autumn of 1849”. The latter title indicates that the sonnet was originally intended for publication in The Germ (see commentary on “For the Things of these Days”).

Textual History: Revision

DGR revised the poem substantially in making the 1869 manuscript. Except for the change in title, only minor revisions were made during the proof process toward the 1870 Poems text, and one further revision was made for the 1881 Poems. A New Edition.

Printing History

The sonnet was first published in the 1870 Poems; it was first printed in August 1869 in the Penkill Proofs, and kept thereafter.

Historical

This sonnet refers to the apathy with which other countries witnessed the national struggles of Italy and Hungary against Austria in 1848-49 (see 1911 664n ). In recovering the sonnet from its original historical context for printing in 1870, DGR asked WMR if he thought it might better be titled “On the Refusal of Aid to Hungary 1849, to Poland 1861, to Crete 1867”. WMR replied that the original title was better (see Fredeman, Correspondence, 69. 137 , letter to WMR of 26 August 1869) and Peattie, Letters of William Michael Rossetti 223 ).

The sonnet's placement in the 1870 Poems extends its political significance: it closes the group that includes “Cassandra”, “Venus”, and “Pandora”. Although the literal content of the latter is mythic, DGR read the Matter of Troy, like Tennyson before him, as a prophetic allegory with ominous contemporary political meanings.

Literary

Notable in the poem is the contrast between the biblical style of the octave and the stil novisti style of the sestet. Indeed, it is tempting to think that DGR was well aware of how aptly the sonnet connects the previous “Cassandra” group to the pair of Dantean sonnets that follow this one in the 1870 volume.

Electronic Archive Edition: 1
Source File: 6-1849.raw.xml