Sonnets of Three Centuries

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 Poems . (See Caine 242ff. DGR first suggested to Caine, “If sonnets of mine remain admissible, I should prefer printing the two “On Cassandra” to “The Monochord” and “Wine of Circe” . Later he actually contributed three unpublished sonnets to Caine's project: “Pride of Youth” , “Raleigh's Cell in the Tower” , and “On Certain Elizabethan Revivals” . DGR withdrew the first of these because it was to be part of the “House of Life” 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 “Stillborn Love” (titled “Still-Born Love” by Caine), “Mary Magdalene at the Door of Simon the Pharisee (For a Drawing)” , and the 3-poem sequence, “True Woman” .