Selected Poems

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Clive Wilmer

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9781317794110
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

For critics like John Ruskin and Walter Pater, Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1892) was one of the great creative figures of the day, a painter and a poet of major stature. Yeats and the young Pound regarded him as an exemplary figure of solitary dedication to art and beauty.

He called the sonnet 'a moment's monument', and his best short lyrics are instants of oppressed emotion cut free of time. In this, as in the suggestiveness of his imagery, he anticipates the French Symbolists. He can also be regarded as the founder of modern verse translation, not only for the freshness of his versions but also for his choice of poets---Villon, Cavalcanti and the young Dante.

In this selection, Clive Wilmer has made a personal choice, emphasizing the 'pure poetry' of the lyrics at the expense of the more conventionally Victorian monologues and narratives. He has also included a generous selection from the translations, and provided a biographical and critical introduction.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Frontmatter
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• Note on the text
• from The House of Life A Sonnet Sequence
• from Dante and His Circle: with the Italian Poets preceding him (1100–1200–1300) A Collection of Lyrics: translated in the original metres
• Index of Titles and First Lines