A Gift from the coffin!

Dante Gabriel Rossetti watched his wife die on a night in February in 1862.

He was overcome by grief and a feeling of guilt that he had been working on his manuscript, while his

wife lay suffering from consumption.

He placed the only manuscript of his lyrical poems in her coffin. They had been married for less than

two years. But she had been his model and inspiration for a much longer period!

Seven years after her death, his wife Lizzie visited him in the form of Chaffinch. She told him to

reclaim his poems from her coffin.

On 4 th October 1869, his poems were retrieved from her coffin.

The poem was published in 1870. The first edition sold out in less than two weeks. Six more editions

appeared during that year, earning the poet a handsome royalty!

Truly a Gift from the coffin!