ABSTRACT
First publ. B & P vii (DR & L), 6 Nov. 1845; repr. 1849 (when the section numbers were replaced with the subtitles ‘Fame’ and ‘Love’), 1863 (when it was placed in Lyrics: see Appendix A, p. 464), 1868, 1872, 1888. Our text is 1845. On the evidence of her letter to B. of 29 Oct. 1845 (LK 252), EBB. first saw the poem in proof. DeVane (Handbook 176) suggests that the first section was composed after Oct. 1844, when B. visited the graves of Keats and Shelley in Rome. His suggestion that the second section was composed in December (see l. 9) is less persuasive, since the form (love following the course of the seasons) is traditional. For sect. i, cp. Gray’s Elegy and Byron, Churchill’s Grave, esp. 11. 5–7: ‘that neglected turf and quiet stone, / With name no clearer than the names unknown, / Which lay unread around it’, and 11. 41–3: ‘that Old Sexton’s natural homily, / In which there was Obscurity and Fame— / The Glory and the Nothing of a Name’. In B., cp. Bad Dreams iv. See, as the prettiest graves will do in time, Our poet’s wants the freshness of its prime; Spite of the sexton’s browsing horse, the sods Have struggled thro’ its binding osier-rods; 5 Headstone and half-sunk footstone lean awry, Wanting the brick-work promised by and by; How the minute gray lichens, plate o’er plate, Have softened down the crisp-cut name and date! So the year’s done with! 10 (Love me for ever!) All March begun with, April’s endeavour; May-wreathes that bound me June needs must sever! 15 Now snows fall round me, Quenching June’s fever— (Love me for ever!)
