ABSTRACT
The MS of this poem, now at ABL, was sent to Marguerite Power in Aug. 1857 with the MS of EBB.’s My Heart and I, and subscribed ‘Robert Browning. / Aug 1857 La Villa, Bagni di Lucca. Toscana / Saturday.’ It is uncorrected, so presumably a clean copy. The poems were intended for The Keepsake, which Power edited and to which the Brownings had contributed in previous years (see headnotes to Ben Karshook, p. 659, and May and Death, p. 361). The Brownings were late with their contributions; on 1 Aug., B. wrote to Isa Blagden: ‘I need not tell you I have begun to write poetry again, & shall send Miss Power her portion this very day’ (Dearest Isa 3; see headnote to Lines in Letter to Isa Blagden, p. 703). The letter must have crossed with one sent by Power to the Brownings announcing that The Keepsake had ceased publication, and speculating that they might have been offended at being asked for further contributions; on 9 Aug. EBB. wrote denying this, apologizing for their ‘inexcusable’ delay, and explaining: ‘Robert is the guilty person. He had nothing by him suitable to Keepsakes, and has been so absorbed in Florence by drawing & the study of models that he put off from day to day providing the verses he sent you-put off doing it till his arrival here where we fled from the great heat a week ago. And now the Keepsake is dead. I am sorry. Be so kind as to let us have the verses, supposing you have no use for them, some time or other’ (unpublished letter in Huntington Library, HM 20315).
