WorkWilliam Wordsworth
The White Doe of Rylstone; or, The Fate of the Nortons (1815) Inferred
William Wordsworth (1770–1850) · 1815
InferredThe quotation marks around "White Doe" suggest Fuller is invoking William Wordsworth's The White Doe of Rylstone (1815) in her concluding verse, which appears to be her own composition. The allusion to Wordsworth's poem likely serves as a symbol of spiritual endurance and hope.
AnalyzedReadMentioned
Documented 1840–1845
Letters • Books • Manuscripts
Selected engagements, in chronological order.
Reprints, Memoirs passages, and repeat notes within a single manuscript are shown but never counted twice. Evidence for this work is selective, not exhaustive. Methodology →
“I wandered like his white doe.”
Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. II. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1984.
Fuller describes identifying with the solitary white doe who watches over Emily Norton's grave after all else is lost — a deeply felt identification with the poem's consoling figure.
“Let the White Doe of angel hopes be / always kept in view.”
Fuller, Margaret. "Brook Farm, New Year's Eve." Boston Public Library Archives & Special Collections; MS Am. 1450; Box: 3, Folder: 135.
Inferred The phrase 'Let the White Doe of angel hopes be always kept in view' is a direct allusion to Wordsworth's long narrative poem The White Doe of Rylstone (1815). The White Doe is a uniquely Wordsworthian image. Fuller's phrase 'the White Doe of angel hopes' is a direct allusion to Wordsworth's The White Doe of Rylstone; or, The Fate of the Nortons (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1815).
“Let the "White Doe" of angel hopes be always kept in view.”
Fuller, Margaret. Life Without and Life Within; or, Reviews, Narratives, Essays, and Poems. Edited by Arthur B. Fuller. Boston: Brown, Taggard and Chase, 1860.
Inferred The quotation marks around "White Doe" suggest Fuller is invoking William Wordsworth's The White Doe of Rylstone (1815) in her concluding verse, which appears to be her own composition. The allusion to Wordsworth's poem likely serves as a symbol of spiritual endurance and hope.