THE BLESSED DAMOZEL

INTRODUCTION Life and Poetry of Rossetti

Dante Gabriel Rossetti (baptised Gabriel Charles Dante), elder son of Gabriel Rossetti was born in London, on I2th May 1828, and in 1846 entered the antique school of rhea Royal Academy. With Millias Holman Hunt and Woolmer he founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Whose aim was to exhibit true and high ideas through the medium of true and rightly-elaborated details. Rossetti’s earliest oil-picture was ‘The Girlhood of Mary Virgin, (1849); his next (1850), now in the National Gallery, was The Annunciation’.

After this, his art developed through other phases, in which the sense of human beauty, intensity of abstract expression, and richness of colom: were leading elements. He produced numerous water-colors of a legendary or romantic cast. . Among his principal pictures are the Xriptych for Llandaff Cathedral of the ‘Infant Christ adored by a Shepherd and a King’. ‘The Beloved’ (the Bride of the Canticles), ‘Dante’s Dream’ (now in the Walker Gallery, Liverpool), ‘Beata Beatrix’ (National Gallery), ‘Pandora’, ‘Proserpine’, The Blessed Damozel’ (from one of his own poems), ‘The Roman widow’,’La Ghirlandate’ ‘Venus Astrate* and ‘The Day-dream’.

Besides some juvenile work and some translations from the German, he published The Early Italian Poets (1861) and Dante and His Circle (1874;. Of his original poems, The Portrait and The Blessed Damozel were written in his nineteenth year. These and many others were about to be published when, on 11th February, 1862, his wife Elizabeth

Eleanor Siddal, whom he had married in 1860, and who lives in so many of his pictures, died of an overdose of laudanum. He buried his manuscripts in her coffin, but in 1869 recovered them, and issued Poems (1870.).

The volume was reviewed with great admiration by leading critics; but in 1871 Robert Buchanan in the Contemporary pseudonymously assailed it and republishcd his article, The Fleshly School of Poetry, as a pamphlet. Rossetti already in a depressed state of health, a slave of chloral, was much disturbed by this, and replied to it in his Stealthy School of Criticism. He later became morbidly sensitive and gloomy, and very recluse in his habits. In 1881 he published Ballads and Sonnets (containing ‘Rose Mary’ ‘The White Ship’, ‘The King’s Tragedy’ and the completed sonnet sequence, ‘The House of Life’) and reissued with changes, the Poems of 1870. He died at Birchington near Margate, on 9th April, 1882, and was buried there.

SPECIAL INTRODUCTION

The Blessed Damozel was first published in the Germs of which only four issues appeared, the first in December, 1849, and the last in April 1850. A revised version of the poem appeared in the Oxford and Cambridge Magazine in 185J6. The process of revision continued and the poem found its final shape in Poems by D. G. Rossetti published in 1876.

The poem is said to have been written as early as 1846, when Rossetti was only 18 years old. In 1884 it was sent over with other original poems and some translations from the Italian to Leigh Hunt for his opinion.

The sources of the poem have been much debated. Rossetti owned only an oblique debt to Poe’s The Raven. He told Hall Caine : “I saw that Poe had done the utmost it was possible lo do with the grief of the lover en earth, and so I determined to reverse the condition and give utterance to the yearning of the loved, one in heaven.

Leigh Hunt found an obvious source of inspiration in Dante and admired the ‘Dantesque’ Heaven of the poem. Rossetti, however, claimed that the poem was written in the Gothic manner. There can be no denying, however, a general indebtedness to Dante in the broad conception of the poem. “The Blessed Damozel” could easily have been inspired by B2atrice. But it is true that Dante’s vision of love and Heaven was mystical, while Rossetti’s was a curious blend of the mystical, and the physical.

A C. Benson found a trace of Coleridge’s influence in the poem In the description of the moon in the tenth stanza, he discovered a distant echo of Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner. Mr. Routh has suggested that the lines,

And the souls mounting up to God Went by her like thin flames.

might have been inspired by Coleridge’s

And every soul, passes me by Like the whizz of my cross-bow.

The Blessed Damozel probably owes more to Keats than to Coleridge. Mr. Hill Shine has compared

Until her bosom must have made The bar she jrarned on warm,

with Madeline in The Eve of St. Agnes unclasping her “warmed jewels” one by one. An echo of St. Mark^ls Eve has been seen in—

The wonder was not yet quite gone From that still look of hers.

Mr. George H. Ford has argued a case for Keats’ Isabella having influenced Rossetti in this poem. There are striking parallels between the murdered lover and the beautified damsel.

Summing up certain other early influences on Rossetti, Mr. Megroz says: “The Blessed Damozel showed that in his earliest mood which was romantic rather than Dantesque, he was quickly ready to absorb a fundamental idea from to early Italian poetry, the idea of love spiritualised by longing and of spiritual states made concrete in plastic imagery. But he arrived at this stage from a youthful admiration of the cruder romance, not merely of Scott and Byron, but of M. G. Lewis and Charles Maturin and Mrs. Wilde.”

Apart from these possible sources, it may not be entirely fanciful to find in the poem a mysterious anticipation of Rossetti’s love for Elizabeth Siddal and her premature death “By some inexplicable sense”, writes Mr. Francis Winwar, “ he felt he was fated to love and to be robbed by death. Always the motive of loss recurred, a tolling bell beneath the surface of his consciousness.” The Blessed Damozel must have been for him a dream girl he was destined to love and lose. Be this as it may, the poem though written early, must have been wrought up, as Saints-bury suggested, “by touches both of love for his wife while living and of his regret for her when dead”.

It is curious that Mrs. Rossetti gradually identified herself with her, and wrote as if from her. She declares.

For 1 am but a startled thing, Nor can I ever be

Aught save a bird Whose broken wimj Must fly away from thee, Again,

Then sit down meekly at my side

And watch my young life flee:

Then solemn peace of holy death

Come quickly unto thee

But, true love seek me in the throng

Of spirits floating past ;

And I will take thee by the hands

And know thee mine at last.

It may be of interest to note that Rossetti painted two picture of the Blessed Damozel. One of them shows in” the background a number of reunited pairs of lovers. There is a predella showing the lover on the earth. In the’ Second, the Damozel is shown alone with two cherubs over her head. Below the golden bar stand a pair of girl-like figures probably meant to be angels. She is dressed in “ a riot of film drapery “ . The hair falls on the forehead. The lips and neck are exaggerated in the characteristic manner of Rossetti.

THE STORY OF “The Blessed Damozel”

The blessed damozel, evidently a maiden who had attained Heaven after death, stood leaning out from the gold bar of Heaven Her eyes were deep and tranquil as waters in the evening In her hand were three lilies and in her hair were seven stars The robe she wore was loose at one end, and it was plain with no flowers to adorn it, except a white rose which was a gift to her from Virgin Mary as a token of her service. Her hair which lay on her back was yellow like ripe corn.

It seemed to the blessed damozel that she had taken up her new duties in Heaven as one of God’s choristers for scarcely a day. The novelty had not yet worn off from her new surrounding ; and there was still a look of wonder in her eyes. But those on earth had missed her not for one day, but for ten years.

The burden of all this long time lay heavy on her lover on earth. Standing at the same spot where he was wont to meet his love, he lost himself in a reverie and felt that his beloved still learned over him so that her hair fell all over his face. But on waking up from the reverie he found that it was not her hair that fell over his face but the falling leaves of autumn.

Meantime the blessed damozel stood in the rampart of God’s house which has been built over “the sheer depth” so that it stands as a bridge across the flood of ether. The house stood so high that the sun was scarcely visible to her. The blessed damozel could see some of her new friends disporting themselves in loving games and calling each other by their chaste names. The damozel could also see the souls ascending from earth like flames to God.

The damozel still continued to bow down and lean on the golden bar so that the bar must have received the warmth of her bosom. Gazing down she caught sight of time, which vibrated through all the world like a pulse. The sun was gone by this time. The crescent moon was slowly fluttering in the gulf of space like a little feather. The weather was still, and the damozel spoke with the voice which the stars had when they sang together in chorus a praise of God.

At this moment the lover on earth fancied that he haerd the voice of his beloved in the song of a bird. He even imagined that he heard her steps coming down from Heaven in the sound of midday bells rung in churches. ■’

The blessed domozel speaking from Heaven wished that her lover would come to her. She felt sure that he would come, for they had been both praying for their reunion, and two prayers were “a perfect strength”. The damozel said that when her lover was raised to Heaven and an aureole surrounded his head as mark of his beatification, she would take him by the hand and lead him to the deep wells of light and bathe in them in God’s sight. She would a^o take him to the mysterious shrine whose lamps are stirred by prayers offered to God. Then they would see how the lamps, lit up by their prayers would melt into clouds since their prayers would have been answeied by that time.

The damozel would also take her lover to the shadow of that mystic tree ia which the Dove sometimes resides, inspiring each leaf to’ utter the name of God. The Damozel would then teach her lover the songs she had learnt in Heaven. The lover who had been listening to the words of his beloved so far was here struck with her repeated saying “we two, we two”. He remembered the time when they were both one. He felt his own misgiving whether his love for her, which was his only affinity with her, would be a sufficient force to reunite him to her.

But the blessed danfozel was harassed by no such doubts in Heaven She went on to say that she and her lover would go to the groves where Lady Mary would be Found with her five hand-maidens. These hand-maidens sat circle-wise weaving birthrobes for those who had just come to Heaven The damozel would make her lover feel at home by laying her cheek against his and talking to him about her love. Mother Mary would then lead them both to the presence of Christ. The damozel would beg Christ to allow her to live for ever in love with her lover.

Having spoken so far, the blessed damozel ceased. The ight trilled towards her, full of angels. The damozel stood smiling engaged in prayer. Then the lover on earth saw her throwing her arms along the bars’ and weeping. He heard her tears,

TEXTUAL AND GENERAL ESSAYS Mysticism in “The Blessed Damozel’’

Mysticism is quite the most distinctive feature of The Blessed Damozel. The very story is based on an idea which is highly mystical—the love of a spirit in Heaven for a man on earth. The blessed damozel who has died and gone to Heaven, had become one of God’s choristers. But her love for her earthly lover has not been extinguished. Ever and anon she goes to the margin of Heaven and looks down to the earth, filled with a longing to be reunited with her lover. Her one prayer to God is that she may be united for ever with her lover.

Apart from the central idea of the poem, there are several details which are also full of mystic significance. There are the three lilies in the damozel’s hand and seven stars in her hair. The numbers here chosen are mystical symbols. Then there is the look of wonder in her eyes which, we are to suppose, has been caused by the splendour of the new surroundings in Heaven to which she has been recently elevated.

The reference to the souls which are mounting up to God hke thin flames is aho part of the mystic atmosphere of the poem. Then the fancy of the lover who, standing on earth, imagines that he hears the voice of his beloved in a bird’s song, and the sound of her steps in the midday bells is again highly suggestive and mystical. Equally occult is the idea of the damozel being heard by the lover on earth,

The speech of the damozel furnishes some of the most mystical touches to the poem. There is the reference to the deep wells of light in which the damozel proposes to bathe with her lover. There is next the reference to the shrine “occult, withheld, untrod’’ where the lamps are lit by prayers sent up to God. There is also mention made of the living mystic tree which is said to bs sometimes the haunt of the Dove, which inspires the leaves of the tree to chant the? Name of God audibly It is this detail which is perhaps more enchantingly baffling and mysterious than anything else in the poem.

The poem ends on a highly mystical note We are told that the lover who has heard every word that his beloved uttered in Heaven, noted her smiling and praying when she had finished speaking. Then he saw her mood change. We are told that he heard her tears.

Some things may be noted about the way in which Rossetti has handled this exceedingly difficult subject, full as it is of elements of mysticism. There is one trick which Rossetti repeatedly makes use of, for the purpose of conveying to us some idea of things which are not earthly and which therefore baffle the understanding. This trick is to speak of the unknown in terms of the known. As examples of this, we may refer to the description of the still look in the eyes of the damozel, which is compared to the stillness of waters in the evening or even better to the description of time as seen by the damozel to whom it appeared like a pulse shaking fiercely through all the worlds. This device of explaining unknown things in terms of the known is often untrustworthy. For it tends to lower the dignity and dispel the mystery which attaches to unknown things. But it must be said to the credit of Rossetti than in his hand the device is managed with masterly skill so that the mystic images and symbols do not degenerate into coarseness or vulgarity.