5^th June, 1877

Jesus College, Oxford

Dearest Oscar,

You are quite right; travelling, even to a place that might lay claim to the title of home, may at times merely illustrate how far we are from another place that holds our heart. So Oxford seems very dear to me, except when I turn my mind to Ireland, and Dublin may—although that poor city has her <very real> charms, particularly when she has you as an inhabitant—seem poorer when one’s summer might have been spent on the continent. I may make my own visit through France to Italy.

There are many fascinating critics and writers at Sapienza, whose insights into my sonnets might assist me in making it a more harmonious whole. The heat of Rome, about which Hawthorne bleated so interminably, is not such a burden to those of us who have grown up warm when we were very young. At least you may correct that, somewhat, in your new edition. While you have time to work as your own inclination dictates, it is no worse a project than many others. I look forward immensely to reading your conclusion to it. I enclose a few small translations for your amusement.

Yours,

AMT