Letter to William Allingham, 23 July 1854, manuscript Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1 Digital images courtesy of Pierpont Morgan Library, New York. Letter to William Allingham, 23 July 1854 Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1854 July 21 corrected copy DGR DGR Pierpont Morgan Library Commentary
Introduction

DGR copied the text of two of his poems into this letter of 23 July 1854 to William Allingham (see Fredeman, <hi rend="i">Correspondence</hi> , 54.55). These include the parody of Tennyson's “The Kraken”, “MacCracken” , and “Lost on Both Sides” . The text of the latter varies in notable ways from the text DGR published in 1870 and thereafter.

Textual History: Composition

The parody sonnet was written in November 1853 and sent in a letter to CR at that time (see Fredeman, <hi rend="i">Correspondence</hi> , 53.57); the other, as DGR's letter indicates, on 21 July 1854.

Textual History: Revision

Production History

Reception History

Iconographic

Printing History

Pictorial

Historical

Literary

Translation

Autobiographical

Bibliographic

My original poems are all (or all of the best) in an aboriginal state, being beginnings, though some of them very long beginnings, and not one, I think, fairly copied. Moreover, I am always hoping to finish those I like, and know they would have no chance if shown to you unfinished, as I am sure they would not please you in that state,and then I should feel disgusted with them. This is the sheer truth. Of short pieces I have seldom or never done anything tolerable, except perhaps sonnets, but if I can find any which I think in any sense legible I will send them with the translations. I wish if you wr[?]te write anything you care to show, you would reciprocate, as you may be sure I care to see. As a grand instalment I send you the Mac Crac sonnet: it hangs over him as yet like the sword of Damocles. I dare say you remember Tennyson's sonnet “The Kraken it is in the M.S. book of mine you have by you,—so compare.

Mac Cracken— Getting his pictures, like his supper, cheap Far far away in Belfast by the sea, His scaly, one-eyed, uninvaded sleep Mac Cracken sleepeth. While the PRB Must keep the shady side, he walks a swell Through spungings of perennial growth & height: And far away in Belfast out of sight, By many an open do and secret sell, Fresh daubers he makes shift to scarify And fleece with pliant shears the slumbering green. (10) 2 Numbers added at the top center. There he has lied, though aged, & will lie, Fattening on ill-got pictures in his sleep, Till some Pre-Raphael prove for him too deep. Then once by Hunt & Ruskin to be seen, Insolvent he shall turn & in the Queen's Bench die. --------------

You'll find it very close to the original—as well as to fact.

I'll add my last sonnet, made 2 days ago—though at the risk of seeming trivial after the stern reality of the above.

As when two men have loved a woman well, Each hating each; and all in all, deceit, Since not for either, this straight marriage sheet And the long pauses of this wedding-bell; But o'er her grave, the night & day dispel At last their feud forlorn, with cold & heat; Nor other than dear friends, to death may fleet The two lives left which most of her can tell:— So separate hopes, that in a soul had wood The one same Peace, strove with each other long: And Peace before their faces perished since: So from that soul, in mindful brotherhood, (When silence may not be) sometimes they throng Through high-streets & at many dusty inns. --------------

But my sonnets are not generally finished till I see them again after forgetting them, & this is only 2 days old.