Included Text
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A Sonnet is a moment's monument,—
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Memorial from the soul's eternity
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To one dead deathless hour. Look that it be,
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Whether for lustral rite or dire portent,
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Of its own intricate fulness reverent:
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Carve it in ivory or in ebony,
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As Day or Night prevail; and let Time see
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It's flowering crest impearled and orient.
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A Sonnet is a coin: its face reveals
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The soul,—its converse, to what Power 'tis due:—
10
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Whether for tribute to the august appeals
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Of Life, or dower in Love's high retinue,
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It serve; or, 'mid the dark wharf's cavernous breath,
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In Charon's palm it pay the toll to Death.
DG Rossetti pro Matre fecit Apr:27.1880
Scholarly Commentary
Introduction
This is the original illuminated text drawing that DGR made for his mother's birthday. The drawing was laid into the front of a copy of David Main's Treasury of English Sonnets (1881), which had laid into the back a birthday poem by CR. Brother and sister then presented the book to their mother.
Production History
DGR executed this illuminated work in March and April 1880. It was first published in 1882 as the frontispiece to William Sharp's DGR: A Record and a Study. Several interesting proof copies survive.
Bibliography