Rossetti's devotional commentary includes bits of poetry interspersed among a primarily prose text. The title page of Rossetti's Verses, published in 1893, includes the following note, "Reprinted from 'Called to be Saints,' 'Time Flies,' and 'The Face of the Deep.'" Most of the poems in the opening sonnet sequence of Verses, "Out of the Deep Have I Called Unto Thee," are from The Face of the Deep. Examining poems from Verses, such as “A Vain Shadow," in their original contexts in The Face of the Deep can open up new ways of reading them. The attached picture shows "A Vain Shadow" in its context in Rossetti's commentary.

To read a related blog post, click here: http://blogs.baylor.edu/19crs/2020/01/15/creation-in-cont…face-of-the-deep/