The Poetry of Dante Rossetti.
By T. H. Hall Caine.
A Lecture read at the Liverpool Free Library,
January 28th, 1879.
Some 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
