The Love of Beauty

Ford Madox Brown probably composed this sonnet specifically for The Germ.

In his preface to the 1901 Germ William Michael Rossetti lists this poem, but uncharacteristically offers no comment on it. Nor does it seem to have inspired reaction from reviewers or the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

Rossetti does note in his preface that Ford Madox Brown "sympathized, fully as much as any of these younger men, with some old-world developments of art preceding its ripeness or over- ripeness: but he had no inclination to join any organization for protest and reform, and he followed his own course . . ."