1891 first collected edition of Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s Complete Poems with a mystery signature/envelope and a handwritten poem!
I picked this up not fully knowing what I had. Once I started researching it turned out to be the first time DGR’s poetry was ever collected into a single volume, edited by his brother William Michael Rossetti as a memorial to both his brother and their recently deceased mother. The dedication page is so amazing! The frontispiece is a photograph of Mrs. Rossetti with her children (Dante Gabriel, Christina, and William) taken in 1863. Inside the book someone had tucked an envelope labeled “Rossetti” containing a small collection of research paper clippings from a scholarly guide to 19th century authors, a bookseller catalog entry for The Germ (the original Pre-Raphaelite journal from 1850), and a library reading list on the Rossetti family. Someone may have been seriously studying this man and they kept their notes inside his book. I have no idea who did this which is fascinating! And then in the back, which is honestly my favorite part of this whole discovery, there is this poem. Handwritten in pencil and who knows who wrote this but it is truly SO BEAUTIFUL and melancholic.
It reads (I tried my best to translate it correctly lol):
Last night turns you that willed
That I should live, sweetheart,
So near my voice was stilled
Almost was I a part
Of the immortal throng,
Lovers of old, long dead
Yet I forbore to end the song
For one sweet word you said.
Last night I found your lips
In one sweet ecstasy
A kiss that saved my soul’s eclipse
You held the life of me
For knew that subtle death
Had all but come between
Our lips and sealed the living breath
And left you Sorrowing indeed
Last night to you I turned
I wish I knew who wrote this!!! Had to share this incredible find and I literally found it in an antique shop! I would love to hear your thoughts or theories about this! I’m still trying to figure it out but WOW this is crazy!!!