Sonnets of Three Centuries T. Hall Caine, editor 1 This electronic document is a partial reconstruction of the original edition. Only the material relevant to DGR is gathered into this work. The complete document is scheduled for transcription later. Sonnets of Three Centuries: A Selection, Including Many Examples Hitherto Unpublished T. Hall Caine Elliot Stock, 62 Paternoster Row London 1882 pr1195.s5.c3 Commentary
Introduction

Of this anthology, Caine writes, “My first idea was simply to write a survey of the art and history of the sonnet” (Caine 242). DGR was enthusiastic about the idea, and exchanged letters with Caine about the project as he was preparing his 1881 <xref doc="a.1-1881.raw"> <hi rend="i">Poems</hi> </xref> . (See Caine 242ff. DGR first suggested to Caine, “If sonnets of mine remain admissible, I should prefer printing the two <xref doc="a.27-1869.s127.raw">“On Cassandra”</xref> to <xref doc="a.11-1870.raw">“The Monochord”</xref> and <xref doc="a.24-1869.raw">“Wine of Circe”</xref> . Later he actually contributed three unpublished sonnets to Caine's project: <xref doc="a.10-1871.raw">“Pride of Youth”</xref> , <xref doc="a.13-1881.raw">“Raleigh's Cell in the Tower”</xref> , and <xref doc="a.2-1860.raw">“On Certain Elizabethan Revivals”</xref> . DGR withdrew the first of these because it was to be part of the <xref doc="a.22-1881.raw">“House of Life”</xref> sequence, and Caine did not include the last because of its being out of harmony with the sonnets selected to accompany it (Caine 256). Other poems by DGR included in Caine's anthology were <xref doc="a.10-1870.raw">“Stillborn Love”</xref> (titled “Still-Born Love” by Caine), <xref doc="a.28-1869.s109.raw">“Mary Magdalene at the Door of Simon the Pharisee (For a Drawing)”</xref> , and the 3-poem sequence, <xref doc="a.3-1881.raw">“True Woman”</xref> .

Textual History: Composition

Textual History: Revision

Printing History

Pictorial

Historical

Literary

Translation

Autobiographical

Bibliographic

Caine, <xref doc="a.pr5246.c3.rad" from="242">Recollections</xref> , 242. Fennell, <hi rend="i">An Annotated Bibliography</hi> .

<hi rend="sc">RALEIGH'S CELL IN THE TOWER.</hi> First letter of the first stanza is an ornate block-H HERE writ was the World's History by his hand Whose steps knew all the earth; albeit his world In these few piteous paces then was furled. Here daily, hourly, have his proud feet spanned This smaller speck than the receding land Had ever shown his ships; what time he hurled Abroad o'er new-found regions spiced and pearled His country's high dominion and command. Here dwelt two spheres. The vast terrestrial zone His spirit traversed; and that spirit was Itself the zone celestial, round whose birth The planets played within the zodiac's girth; Till hence, through unjust death unfeared, did pass His spirit to the only land unknown.