Winged Hours Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1 1869
abbaabbacddcee iambic pentameter sonnet
<author/> <city/> <publisher/> <date/> <pages/> </bibl> <note/> </citnliterary> <citntranslationoriginal> <bibl> <title/> <author/> <city/> <publisher/> <date/> <pages/> </bibl> <note/> </citntranslationoriginal> <citnpictorial> <title/> <artist/> <location/> <bibl> <title/> <author/> <city/> <publisher/> <date/> <pages/> </bibl> <note/> </citnpictorial> <citnmythic> <name/> <culture/> <bibl> <title/> <author/> <city/> <publisher/> <date/> <pages/> </bibl> <note/> </citnmythic> <citnhistorical> <event/> <place/> <date/> <bibl> <title/> <author/> <city/> <publisher/> <date/> <pages/> </bibl> <note/> </citnhistorical> <citnautobiographical> <name/> <place/> <date/> <bibl> <title/> <author/> <city/> <publisher/> <date/> <pages/> </bibl> <note/> </citnautobiographical> <citnscenic> <place/> <date/> <bibl> <title/> <author/> <city/> <publisher/> <date/> <pages/> </bibl> <note/> </citnscenic> </listcitn> </source> <commentaries> <head>Commentary</head> <section type="intro"> <head>Introduction</head> <p>This sonnet follows closely the motifs first touched in <title level="wrk"> <xref doc="a.1-1869.raw">“Bridal Birth”</xref> and <xref doc="a.3-1869.raw">“Lovesight”</xref> . Most relevant are the images of the bird of Love and the grove or covert where the drama of Love is intimately played out.

As Baum observes, “The note of foreboding, first sounded in [ <xref doc="a.3-1869.raw">‘Lovesight’</xref> ] . . . returns now clearly” (see <hi rend="i">Poems, Ballads, and Sonnets</hi> 276n ). Because of the intimate relation DGR draws between love and art/poetry—a relation underscored in this sonnet with the wordplay in lines 4 and 11— the threat to love intimated here is equally imagined as a threat to the imagination.

Textual History: Composition

Although we have no certain evidence of the fact, this sonnet was almost certainly written in early 1869—one of the new pieces he composed for publication in the March <xref doc="a.ap4.f7.5.rad" workcode="7-1854" from="270"> <hi rend="i">Fortnightly Review</hi> </xref> . A draft copy is preserved in the Princeton composite “House of Life” manuscript.

Textual History: Revision

The text underwent some revisions between its initial printing in March 1869 and its final authorial constitution in 1881.

Production History

Reception

Iconographic

Printing History

First printed as Sonnet IX in the initial <xref doc="a.ap4.f7.5.rad" workcode="7-1869">Fortnightly Review</xref> sequence of sonnets (March 1869) of <xref doc="a.44-1869.raw">The House of Life</xref> project. It was printed again in the Penkill Proofs in August and kept through all prepublication texts until its publication in the 1870 <xref doc="a.1-1870.1stedn.rad" workcode="7-1869">Poems</xref> . The sonnet is number XXV in <xref doc="a.44-1869.raw">The House of Life</xref> as published in the 1870 volume, and number XXV in the sequence as published in 1881.

Pictorial

Historical

Literary

Recurring to the stil novisti image of the embowered bird (a trope of Love), which figures regularly in the sequence, DGR underscores his attempt to relate his own passage through “the difficult deeps of love” ( <xref doc="a.2-1871.raw">“Heart's Hope”</xref> line 2) to his Italian and specifically Dantean heritage. Also, the tree/leaf/bough images owe a good deal to Petrarch here and throughout the sequence.

Translation

Autobiographical

Baum rightly observes that “Autobiography is unmistakable here, but not unambiguous” (see Baum, <hi rend="i">The House of Life</hi> 101 )—by which he means that the sonnet can be read both in relation to DGR's wife and to Jane Morris.

Bibliographic

Baum, ed., <hi rend="i">The House of Life</hi> 100-102 WMR, <hi rend="i">Dante Gabriel Rossetti as Designer and Writer.</hi> 200-201

1870 Poems First Edition text The passage glances at one of DGR's favorite images, which he takes from stil novisti poetry, and in particular from Guinizelli (see the opening lines of his canzone <xref doc="a.153d-1861.raw">“Al cor gentil ripara sempre Amore”</xref> and Dante, <xref doc="a.dante002.2.rad" link="dead"> <hi rend="i">Paradiso</hi> </xref> XXIII.1. See also <xref doc="a.50-1869.raw">“The Portrait”</xref> line 54. Here and in line 11 it is difficult not to take the words “leaves” and “unleaved” as coded textual references: the bird of Love sings in the leaves of the poet's manuscripts. That DGR is thinking of manuscript (as opposed to printed) leaves is clear from what we know of the evolution of <xref doc="a.44-1869.raw">The House of Life</xref> sequence in particular, and the 1870 <xref doc="a.1-1870.raw">Poems</xref> in general: both works evolve out of the manuscript volume of poetry DGR buried with his wife in 1862. Each version of this line suggests that the immediate “joys” (or “kisses”) are cut across by a “strain . . . unheard”: in autobiographical terms, that the love of DGR and Jane Morris is haunted (or perhaps glossed) by the earlier love of DGR and Elizabeth Siddal. Compare <xref doc="a.3-1859.raw">“A Little While”</xref> line 12; both texts recall Shakespeare's Sonnet 73. unleaved . . . scattered: the images here recollect Petrarch's <xref doc="a.petrarch006.rad" link="dead"> <hi rend="i">Rime sparse</hi> </xref> (see especially CXLII. 22-23). “She” may refer either to the poet's first love or to the Innominata (i.e, autobiographically, either to DGR's wife Elizabeth or to Jane Morris). 1870 Poems First Edition text Poems (1870): Proofs for first edition, British Library copy, (Ashley 1405) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1870 March 1-7 0 Poems (1870): Proofs for first edition, Fitzwilliam Museum (Copy 1) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1870 March 1 (and 22 March for additional material) 0 Poems (1870): Proofs for first edition, Princeton/Troxell Copy Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1870 March 1-7 0 Poems (1870): Mixed Proofs 1869-1870, Fitzwilliam Museum Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 October - 1970 March 0 Poems (1870): Mixed Proofs 1869-1870, 1881, Princeton/Troxell Copy Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 November - 1870 March 0 Poems (1870): First Edition Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1870 April 26 0 Poems (1870): Second Edition (DGR's corrected copy) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1870 May 0 Poems (1870): Second Edition Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1870 May 0 Poems (1870): Third Edition (copy 1) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1870 June 0 Poems (1870): Third Edition (copy 2) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1870 June 0 Poems (1870): Fourth Edition Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1870 July (or early August) 0 Poems (1870): Fifth Edition Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1871 0 Poems (1870): Sixth Edition Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1872 0 Poems. (Privately Printed.): A Proof, Lasner Copy Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 September 13 0 Poems. (Privately Printed).: the A2 Proofs, Fitzwilliam Museum Copy Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 September 20 0 Poems. (Privately Printed).: Penkill Proofs, Princeton/Troxell (copy 1) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 August 18 0 Poems. (Privately Printed.): Penkill Proofs, Princeton/Troxell (copy 2) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 August 18 0 Poems by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1873): the Tauchnitz Edition 1873 November 15 (late November or early December) 0 Poems by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1873): the Tauchnitz Edition, with author's corrections (Yale copy) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1873 November 15 (late November or early December) 0 Poems. (Privately Printed).: First Trial Book, British Library copy (Ashley 1393) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 October 3 0 Poems. (Privately Printed).: First Trial Book (Fitzwilliam Museum copy) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 October 3 0 Poems. (Privately Printed.), First Trial Book (Huntington Library copy DGR 1869 October 3 0 Poems. (Privately Printed).: First Trial Book, Princeton/Troxell (Losh copy) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 October 3 0 Poems. (Privately Printed.): Second Trial Book, British Library, (Ashley 1400) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 November 30 (25 November - 6 December) 0 Poems. (Privately Printed).: Second Trial Book (Fitzwilliam Museum copy) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 November 25 0 Poems, Privately Printed: Second Trial Book, Alice Boyd/Lasner copy. Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 November 25 0 Poems, Privately Printed: Second Trial Book, Alice Boyd/Lasner copy. Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 November 25 0 Poems. (Privately Printed.): Proofs for the Second Trial Book (partial), Princeton/Troxell. Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 November 25-26 0 Poems. (Privately Printed.): Second Trial Book, Princeton/Troxell. Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 November 25 0 Poems. (Privately Printed.): Second Trial Book (partial), author's working copy, Princeton/Troxell. Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 November 25 0 The Collected Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, vol. 1 (1886) Dante Gabriel Rossetti William Michael Rossetti 1886 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), first edition Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 October 17 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), second edition Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1882), fourth edition Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1882 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), (author's proofs, British Library copy) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 April-June 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature N (Delaware Museum, first revise, copy 1) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 April 28 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature N (Delaware Museum, first revise, copy 2) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 April 28 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature N (Delaware Museum, second revise, copy 1) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 May 3 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature N (Delaware Museum, second revise, copy 2) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 May 3 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature N (Delaware Museum, third revise, author's copy) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 May 4 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature N (Delaware Museum, third revise, duplicate copy 1) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 May 4 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature N (Delaware Museum, third revise, duplicate copy 2) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 May 4 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature N (Delaware Museum, fourth revise, copy 1) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 May 6 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature N (Delaware Museum, fourth revise, copy 2, corrected) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 May 6 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature N (Delaware Museum, fourth revise, copy 3, corrected) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 May 6 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature N (Delaware Museum, final proof, WMR's copy) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 May 18 - 1881 June 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature N (Delaware Museum, final proof, DGR's copy) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 May 18 - 1881 June 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature N (Delaware Museum, final proof, partial and uncorrected copy) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 May- 1881 June 0 Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature N (Delaware Museum, final proof, uncorrected copy 2) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1881 May 18 -1881 June 0 The House of Life (composite manuscript posthumously arranged, Fitzwilliam Museum) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1845 - 1881 0 The House of Life (composite manuscript posthumously arranged, Fitzwilliam Museum) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1845 - 1881 0 The Fortnightly Review, Volume 5 1869 January - 1869 June 0 The Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1911) Dante Gabriel Rossetti William Michael Rossetti 1911 0 Dante Gabriel Rossetti. His Family-Letters with a Memoir (Volume One) William Michael Rossetti 1895 0