Page:The Poetry of Dante Rossetti by Hall Caine.pdf/1



of Mr. Rossetti's earlier songs, sonnets and ballads appeared first in that little Oxford periodical, which during its brief existence gathered to itself the first flowerage of nearly all the poets of the younger generation. Some of the sonnets, one of the songs, and one of the ballads appeared afterwards anonymously, whether by pillage or by right, in certain American Magazines; from whence they have since been collected, also anonymously, into English compilations of latter-day verse. The first complete edition of Mr. Rossetti's poems appeared in 1870, and the single precious volume which contains all we know of his music and magic, his sweetness and force and subtlety contains poems never before published. "Jenny," "The Last Confession," "Sister Helen," and the greater bulk of the love-sonnets which, wedded together in fusion of high instinct and fine culture, make up "The House of Life," were first published in the edition of 1870. These poems are enough of themselves to determine Mr. Rossetti's final place among poets; but from sheer lack of time, their ardency and harmony, and heat of spiritual life have failed hitherto to take rightful grasp of the popular mind. In two years from the date of publication the poems passed into six editions. Something of Mr. Rossetti's instinct and resolution, of excellence could at once be seen. The refined passion of Shelley; the clearness and radiance of Keats; the severe emotion of William Blake; the weird fervour of Coleridge were mirrored in Rossetti. The august thought and rich affluence of speech in "Lost Days," and "The Burden of Nineveh;" the