Autumn Song (Ashley Library fair copy, three stanza version)Dante Gabriel Rossetti1By permission of the British LibraryAutumn SongDante Gabriel Rossetti1848fair copy1 small leafBritish Library, Ashley Collection Ashley B1417one of ruled cream laid paper22 x 17.2 cm
Commentary
Introduction
This is an early holograph manuscript copy of the sonnet, with only
accidental variants from the received print text—though one of
these, in line 10, is important. This mansucript, like the one in the Getty manuscript book, represents the three stanza version of the poem.
Textual History: Composition
Textual History: Revision
Production History
Reception History
Iconographic
Printing History
Pictorial
Historical
Literary
Translation
Autobiographical
Bibliographic
Autumn SongKnow'st thou not at the fall of the leaf How the heart feels a languid grief Laid on it for a covering, And how sleep seems a goodly thing In autumn at the fall of the leaf?And how the swift beat of the brain Falters because it is in vain In autumn at the fall of the leaf, Knowest thou not? and how the chief Of joys seems not to suffer pain.Know'st thou not at the fall of the leaf How the soul feels like a dried sheaf Bound up at length for harvesting, And how death seems a comely thing In autumn at the fall of the leaf?