A Sonnet is a moment's monument,—
Memorial from the soul's eternity
To one dead deathless hour. Look that it be,
Whether for lustral rite or dire portent,
Of its own intricate fulness reverent:
Carve it in ivory or in ebony,
As Day or Night prevail; and let Time see
It's flowering crest impearled and orient.
A Sonnet is a coin: its face reveals
The soul,—its converse, to what Power 'tis due:—
Whether for tribute to the august appeals
Of Life, or dower in Love's high retinue,
It serve; or, 'mid the dark wharf's cavernous breath,
In Charon's palm it pay the toll to Death.

The drawing is contained in a volume of David Main's^[1] Treasury of English Sonnets inscribed by Frances Maria Lavinia Rossetti and her surviving children Christina, William Michael and Dante Gabriel Rossetti with a handwritten sonnet by Christina Rossetti.

'27th April 1880, My dearest Mother, It was sweet indeed to me to receive this day, and written in so firm a hand, the reappearance of what was the first thing I learned to know in this world – my mother's love. I wish the little offering had been worthier of such a shrine. I liked Christina's sonnet extremely, – it is lovely in its heartfelt affection. I have no doubt that your discerning eyes plucked out the heart of the mystery in the little design. In it the soul is instituting the "memorial to one dead deathless hour", – a memory easily effected by placing a winged hourglass in a rosebush, at the same time that she touches the fourteen-stringed harp of the sonnet hanging around her neck. On the rose-branches trailing over in the opposite corner is seen hanging the coin which is the second symbol used for the sonnet; its "face" bears the soul, expressed in the butterfly, – its converse the Serpent of Eternity enclosing the Alpha and Omega. All this I doubt not you had seen for yourself. I shall soon be letting you have the ballad of The White Ship, which William on Sunday pronounced one of my very best things. I hope you will think so too. I have made great progress with the Vanna Primavera picture since you saw it. The figure is now full-length and looks very well. Your most loving son Gabriel'.

1. ↑ https://archive.org/search?query=creator%3A%22Main%2C+David%22