Criticism

The Sonnet and the Sequence

Submitted by Kate Holterhoff on

Rossetti's “Sonnet on the Sonnet” served not only as a gift for his mother's birthday and a reflection on a favorite poetic form. Placed at the head of The House of Life, a sonnet sequence on which Rossetti had been working for more than a dozen years, it also introduced the best known and most complete version of that work when it was published in 1881.

General Introduction

Submitted by David Rettenmaier on

Dante Gabriel Rossetti's poem, "The Sonnet," is a testament to the ideals of the aesthetic movement; wedding form and content, it makes a statement about the idealizing purposes of art while illustrating the best way to achieve that purpose in the very stylistic features of a poem. The poem also betrays a number of concerns about the relation of a given aesthetic production to its reader. Is this poem a personal gift (pro Matre fecit) made for the occasion of DGR’s mother’s eightieth birthday?

Trial and Success: A Non-DH Savvy Professor Adopts COVE

Submitted by Laura Rotunno on

I came to COVE for multiple reasons but being technologically savvy was not one of them. While I had always used the online course management systems that my university provided, I didn’t do so in innovative ways. I posted assignments, and I had students post responses to excerpts. In other words, I used the online course management systems in ways that saved my students and myself a few paper copies, not in ways that intellectually enhanced our classroom experience.

Introduction to the Omnibus Critical Edition of Christina Rossetti’s “In an Artist’s Studio”

Submitted by David Rettenmaier on

Introduction

Omnibus Critical Edition of Christina Rossetti’s “In an Artist’s Studio”

Dino Franco Felluga, A Momentous Edition
Kenneth Crowell, Sonnet: Genre and Intertext
Herbert F. Tucker, Sonnet: Structure and Inner Form

A Momentous Edition

Dino Franco Felluga

Two Rossetti Sonnets Commemorating a Momentous Occasion

Submitted by David Rettenmaier on

Two Rossetti Sonnets Commemorating a Momentous Occasion

Lorraine Janzen Kooistra

A Sonnet is a moment's monument,—

Memorial from the soul's eternity

To one dead deathless hour. Look that it be,

Whether for lustral rite or dire portent,

Of its own intricate fulness reverent:

Carve it in ivory or in ebony,

As Day or Night prevail; and let Time see

Its flowering crest impearled and orient.

Magazine and Book Illustrations for The Were-Wolf

Submitted by David Rettenmaier on

Magazine and Book Illustrations for The Were-Wolf

Clemence Housman published The Were-Wolf twice in her lifetime: first as a story in a popular magazine and then as a book. Each time the novella was accompanied by a unique set of illustrations that shaped its reception. This essay examines the contrasting meanings for The Were-Wolf created by their accompanying illustrations, modes of production, and publication venues. 

Pages

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