It was not my wish or intention to offer these sonnets to the public, but since they have been published in America without my permission, and some of them have appeared in collections of poetry in this country, and have been mentioned in professional criticism, I have thought it wise to come to their rescue, and include them in this edition of my poems; to which end I have, while this volume was in the press, revised them; cutting out ten, and amending the worst places in others where I could. As they now stand they still make an imperfect poem, but one for which I need not further apologize.
Note on Sonnet XIX.—The octett forms part of my ‘Purcell Commemoration Ode,’ published as No. 2 of Elkin Mathews’ ‘Shilling Garland,’ 1896, and set to music by Dr. Hubert Parry.
XXXV. The argument is partly from Michael Angelo’s Madrigal xix.
LXIII. Partly from the anonymous sonnet No. 3793 in the Libro reale, ‘Io vivo di speranza.’
LXIV. The first quatrain from Michael Angelo’s Madrigal, ‘Beati voi.’
LXVII. ‘The sunsets of five years ago,’ which happen to be described on [p. 83] of this volume.
R. B.
1898.
Transcriber's Notes
Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations in hyphenation spelling and punctuation remains unchanged.