SOURCE: Cooksey, Thomas L. “Rossetti's Intellegenza Nova: Perception, Poetry and Vision in Dante at Verona.” Victorian Newsletter no. 66 (fall 1984): 10-13.

In the following essay, Cooksey determines the influence of Dante Alighieri on Rossetti's Dante at Verona.

According to his brother William Michael, Dante Gabriel Rossetti began work on Dante at Verona soon after finishing the initial version of “The Blessed Damozel.”¹ Although it went through substantial expansion and revision before it was finally published, it shares a number of similarities with “The Blessed Damozel” and might be seen as a companion piece, treating the living lover's side of the separation. However, as the title piece of his first book of poetry (1870), Dante at Verona carries a heavier responsibility to Rossetti's “poetic vision.” It also represents Rossetti's most explicit use of Dante aside from his translations of the Vita Nuova. In places it seems little more than a pastiche...