The Blessed Damozel, I Stanza

Spic Seminar Hall13th July 2011II HourIII BA LiteratureThe Blessed DamozelbyS. Nehru

THE BLESSED DAMOZEL

D. G. ROSSETTI

D. G. ROSSETTILIFE AND WORKS

D. G. ROSSETTI

• Rossetti was born in London• 12th May 1828• Son of Gabrielle Rosetti• Three Siblings• All were artistic• His sister Christina became a poet• His brother William Michael was art critic• His sister Maria Francesca published a

commentary on Dante

D. G. ROSSETTI

• Rossetti's name was Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti

• But he changed the order of his name to stress his Italian antecedents and his relationship to Dante

• From the start Rossetti divided his time between painting and literature

D. G. ROSSETTI

• He showed an early talent for poetry winning acclaim for The Blessed Damozel at eighteen

• He was an admirer of William Blake and succeeded in buying one of Blake's sketchbooks with ten shillings borrowed from his brother

D. G. ROSSETTI

• After studying at Sass's drawing academy for four years, in 1846 Rossetti was enrolled at the Royal Academy Schools

• However, he was impatient with the painstaking methods of the Academy and abandoned his studies there to work under Ford Madox Brown

• In 1848 he met Holman Hunt, and they shared a studio together for a time

D. G. ROSSETTI

• In 1848 he, William Holman Hunt, and John Everett Millais began to call themselves the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

• Rosetti's range of talents and interests, combined with his energy and enthusiasm, made him a central figure in the the group

• A commission to cover the walls of the Oxford Debating Union with Arthurian murals introduced Rossetti to William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones, and A.C. Swinburne in 1856

D. G. ROSSETTI

• Rosetti attracted the young Burne-Jones and William Morris to the Pre-Raphaelites

• He exhibited his first major oil painting, The Girlhood of the Virgin Mary at the Free Exhibition in March 1849

• In September and October of that year he visited Paris and Flanders with Holman Hunt

D. G. ROSSETTI

• He also met his future wife and frequent model Elizabeth Siddall late in 1849 and they married in 1860

• In 1862 she died from an overdose of laudanum and Rosetti buried his poems in her grave

• He was largely responsible for the Pre-Raphaelite magazine The Germ, published in 1850

D. G. ROSSETTI

• In April 1850 he exhibited Ecce Ancilla Domini! at the National Institution

• From 1854 he became friendly with John Ruskin who helped bring the Pre-Raphaelites to public attention, and in 1855 with the poet Robert Browning

• In 1856 he was a contributor to Morris's Oxford and Cambridge Magazine

D. G. Rossetti

• In 1857 he met Jane Burden who married William Morris but she and Rossetti had an intimate relationship over a long period

• In 1858 Rossetti founded the Hogarth Club, an exhibiting and social club, with Madox Brown and others

• Around this time Fanny Cornforth became his primary model and mistress for the next decade

D. G. Rossetti

• Rossetti's translation of The Early Italian Poets was published in 1861

• From 1861 Rossetti was also involved with Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. in their attempts to return to medieval craftesmanship

•  Stained-glass windows became by far their most important product

D. G. Rossetti

• However, the firm was always in financial difficulties and was often subsidized by Morris

• Rosetti's design for Christ Church Southgate is in the South West corner of the church on the West wall

• The left hand figure of St James is the work of Burne Jones

• The right hand figure of St Jude carrying a halberd is the work of Rosetti

D. G. Rossetti

• Both figures are surmounted by angels carrying shields 

• From the mid-1860s Rosetti began suffering from eye trouble and insomnia, and showed signs of paranoia

• In October 1869 he exhumed his wife's coffin to retrieve his Poems, which were published in 1870

D. G. Rossetti

• The book was a success but caused a controversy when it was reviewed in 1871 by Robert Buchanan in an essay called "The Fleshly School of Poetry"

• Buchanan argued that Rosetti's book was full of indecencies and this started a series of further attacks, defenses and counterattacks

• Rossetti wrote an essay of self- defense called "The Stealthy School of Criticism"

D. G. Rossetti

• Rosetti's health broke down in 1872 and he abandoned many of his old friendships

• A new edition of Poems was published in 1881 together with Ballads and Sonnets

• He died at Birchington-on-Sea, Kent on 9th April 1882

The blessed damozel lean'd out From the gold bar of Heaven; Her eyes were deeper than the depth Of waters still'd at even; She had three lilies in her hand, And the stars in her hair were seven.

The blessed Damozel

• Blessed- heavenly, holy, sacred, bliss, happiness, joy, gifted, favoured with blessings, favoured by God

• Damozel- a young unmarried woman or girl, maiden

Why is she blessed?

• She is favoured by God. So she is in heaven. Thus she is blessed

• She is lucky to be in heaven

• She is gifted with heaven

Gold bar of heaven

• It is balustrade or parapet wall

• In the top there is a bar

• The wall of the heaven is made of gold

• So it is referred as gold bar

• She is resting herself in the gold bar

Eyes deeper than the depth

• Deep eyes refer to sorrow

• The intensity of the sorrow is presented in these lines

• The figure of speech employed is hyperbole

Of waters stilled at even

• Her eyes deeper than the depth of still water

• In the both eyes water is stilled [staying in the eyes]

She had three lilies in her hand

• Three lilies refers to purity and nearness to God

• Lily signifying purity

• The number three refers to triune [trinity: God as three persons- Father, Son and Holy Spirit]

And the stars in her hair were seven

• Refers to seven stars of heaven• In Greek mythology Atlas and Pleione had

seven daughters• Those young girls were transformed into

heavenly stars after their death• They are: Alcyone,Celaeno, Electra,

Maia,Merope,Sterope and Taygette• They attended the Goddess of virginity,

Artemis

More Details

• Why did she leaned out?

• It suggests that her mind is not in heaven

• Melancholy is suggested through the expression of deep eyes

• Is she really blessed?

• There is a conflict between joy and sorrow

More Details

• The expression leaned out is more vital to the first stanza. It sets the texture of the poem

• It is more suggestive

• She is not in heaven mentally

Her robe, ungirt from clasp to hem, No wrought flowers did adorn, But a white rose of Mary's gift, For service meetly worn; Her hair that lay along her back Was yellow like ripe corn.