THE BLESSED DAMOZEL

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, 5
And the stars in her hair were seven.

Her robe, ungirt from clasp to hem,

No wrought flowers did adorn,
But a white rose of Mary’s gift,
For service meetly worn; 10
Her hair that lay along her back
Was yellow like ripe corn.

Herseem’d she scarce had been a day

One of God’s choristers;
The wonder was not yet quiet gone 15
From that still look of hers;
Albeit, to them she left, her day
Had counted as ten years.

(To one, it is ten years of years.

…Yet now, and in this place, 20
Surely she lean’d o’er me—her hair
Fell all about my face….
Nothing: the autumn-fall of leaves.
The whole year sets apace.)

It was the rampart of God’s house 25

That she was standing on:
By God built over the sheer depth
The which is Space begun;
So high, that looking downward thence
She scarce could see the sun. 30
 It lies in Heaven, across the flood
Of ether, as a bridge.
Beneath, the tides of day and night
With flame and darkness ridge
The void, as low as where this earth 35
Spins like a fretful midge.

Around her, lovers, newly met

’Mid deathless love’s acclaims,
Spoke evermore among themselves
Their heart-remember’d names; 40
And the souls mounting up to God
Went by her like thin flames.

And still she bow’d herself and stoop’d

Out of the circling charm;
Until her bosom must have made 45
The bar she lean’d on warm,
And the lilies lay as if asleep
Along her bended arm.

From the fix’d place of Heaven she saw

Time like a pulse shake fierce 50
Through all the worlds. Her gaze still
strove
Within the gulf to pierce
Its path; and now she spoke as when
The stars sand in their spheres.

The sun was gone now; the curl’d moon 55

Was like a little feather
Fluttering far down the gulf; and now
She spoke through the still weather.
Her voice was like the voice the stars
Had when they sang together.
60

(Ah sweet! Even now, in that bird’s song,

Strove not her accents there,
 Fain to be hearken’d? When those bells
Possess’d the mid-day air,
Strove not her steps to reach my side 65
Down all the echoing stair?)

“I wish that he were come to me,

For he will come,” she said.
“Have I not pray’d in Heaven?—on earth,
Lord, Lord, has he not pray’d? 70
Are not two prayers a perfect strength?
And shall I feel afraid?

“When round his head the aureole clings,

And he is cloth’d in white,
I ’ll take his hand and go with him 75
To the deep wells of light;
As unto a stream we will step down,
And bathe there in God’s sight.

“We two will lie in’ the shadow of

Occult, withheld, untrod, 80
Whose lamps are stirr’d continually
With prayer sent up to God;
And see our old prayers, granted, melt
Each like a little cloud.

“We two will lie i’ the shadow of 85

That living mystic tree
Within whose secret growth the Dove
Is sometimes felt to be,
While every leaf that His plumes touch
Saith His Name audibly.
90

“And I myself will teach to him,

I myself, lying so,
The songs I sing here; which his voice
Shall pause in, hush’d and slow,
And find some knowledge at each pause, 95
Or some new thing to know.”
 (Alas! we two, we two, thou say’st!
Yea, one wast thou with me
That once of old. But shall God lift
To endless unity 100
The soul whose likeness with thy soul
Was but its love for thee?)

“We two,” she said, “will seek the groves

Where the lady Mary is,
With her five handmaidens, whose names 105
Are five sweet symphonies,
Cecily, Gertrude, Magdalen,
Margaret and Rosalys.

“Circlewise sit they, with bound locks

And foreheads garlanded; 110
Into the fine cloth white like flame
Weaving the golden thread.
To fashion the birth-robes for them
Who are just born, being dead.

He shall fear, haply, and be dumb: 115

Then will I lay my cheek
To his, and tell about our love,
Not once abash’d or weak:
And the dear Mother will approve
My pride, and let me speak.
120

“Herself shall bring us, hand in hand,

To Him round whom all souls
Kneel, the clear-ranged unnumber’d heads
Bow’d with their aureoles:
And angels meeting us shall sing 125
To their citherns and citoles.

“There will I ask of Christ the Lord

Thus much for him and me:—
Only to live as once on earth
With Love,—only to be, 130
 As then awhile, forever now
Together, I and he.”

She gazed and listen’d and then said,

Less sad of speech than mild,—
“All this is when he comes.” She ceas’d. 135
The light thrill’d towards her, fill’d
With angels in strong level flight.
Her eyes pray’d, and she smil’d.

(I saw her smile.) But soon their path

Was vague in distant spheres: 140
And then she cast her arms along
The golden barriers,
And laid her face between her hands,
And wept. (I heard her tears.)

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

The Blessed Damozel (The painting with predella) . (It is also a painting.)
Oil on canvas
Painted by Dante Gabriel Rosetti (Rosetti is both a poet and a painter)
Date of Production: 1871-1878
Current Location: Fogg Museum of Art, Harvard University

Rossetti was a poet as well as an artist. His poem “The Blessed Damozel” was first composed
in 1847, when he was nineteen, and he continued to revise it until just before his death.
William Graham, one of the artist’s most faithful patrons, commissioned a painting of its
subject in 1871. Rossetti often wrote poems to accompany his pictures, but this was the only
time he worked the other way around. The composition is based on Rossetti's most famous
poem, in which the Blessed Damozel in heaven longs for her lover still on earth. The lover is
depicted in the lower painting.

The poem uses archaic language to describe the damozel, or damsel, leaning out of heaven —
“the rampart of God’s house”— to behold her earthbound lover.

Emparadised Damozel gazing downward. “Behind the Damozel, beneath spreading branches,
groups of lovers embrace against a pink sky; below her a pink flame outlines three angel
heads. In the predella the earthly lover rests beside a river in a wooded landscape”.

The painting takes the form of a Renaissance altarpiece, with the damozel as a surrogate for
the Virgin Mary. Graham, an avid collector of early Renaissance paintings, suggested that he
add the predella (the panel or step traditionally found below the main part of an altarpiece)
with the reclining lover in a terrestrial landscape. The two-part frame, designed by the artist,
emphasizes the separation between heaven and earth — the “gold bar” described in the poem.

The model for the Damozel was Alexa Wilding.

“The Blessed Damozel” (1847)

Commentary:

“The Blessed Damozel” is a poem written by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. “Damozel” means
“damsel” which means the unmarried, chaste and pure lady. The girl in the poem is a pure one
who has died before marrying her young lover years ago. She is in Heaven now because she is
chaste and is looking at the Earth from Heaven and sees her lover who is still living in the
world. In the poem we hear the speaker’s voice, he is just like a narrator. He describes the girl
and narrates her action in Heaven. The speaker also sees the male lover living on the Earth.
The parts given in the quotations are the damsel’s speeches, the parts in parentheses are the
lover’s speeches. The other parts contain the narrator’s speeches. In this respect, the poem is
different from the other poems. That is to say, we hear the three person’s voices in the poem,
which is a quality that cannot be seen in other poems.

The main subject matter in the poem is the damsel’s missing her lover and waiting for her
lover’s coming to Heaven. Although she is in Heaven now, she is so unhappy and waits for
her lover’s coming to Heaven. The only way his coming to Heaven is his dying. In this sense,
the poem is a typical Victorian poem because though Dante reflects a conventional theme in
the poem (death is a conventional theme), he deals with the theme of death in a different,
original way. Death is reflected in this poem not as something that separates from the lover
but a way that will unite the lovers. The only way for the unity of the lovers is the male
lover’s death. If he dies he can see his lover, who is in Heaven now and they can unite there.
It is seen that the damsel has prayed to God for their unity and wonders whether her lover
prays to God or not. In order to have unity, to love each other in Heaven death is essential.
Time is another element which is reflected in the poem. The girl’s lover thinks about the girl
years after. The speaker tells us that ten years have passed after the girl’s death. This duration
of time is perceived by the girl as a short time because the concept of time is perceived
differently in Heaven.

The description of Heaven is made by making use of some aspects of the world. In other
words, the poet has made use of the elements taken from the Earth to portray the Heaven in
the poem; for this reason, the images portraying Heaven are all familiar to us. For example,
“the golden bars”. Gold is a precious metal, the poet imagines Heaven as a place having the
golden bars. Heaven is also penetrated as a place over the world. It is in the heavens. Thus the
girl can see the things in the universe containing the world. The girl is living among the
angels there, which is another familiar image of heaven. It is believed that the innocent babies
and children who die without living on the Earth are all in Heaven. This concept is reflected
in the poem.

The damsel is reflected with lilies in her hand. Lily is a traditional symbol referring to
chastity. Because the girl is pure, because she died before marriage, she is portrayed as a
symbol of purity. While in Heaven, the girl imagines the time when her lover would come
there and they would have a happy unity and life there. According to her, they will see Virgin
Mary, who is the embodiment of purity. It is known that purity, chastity, innocence is
associated with Virgin Mary in Christianity because she gave birth to Christ while she was a
virgin. For this reason, in Christianity virginity is appreciated. This appreciation is reflected in
the poem as well, so it can be said that by the effect of Christianity, Rossetti produced this
poem. But it is obvious that the poem includes more than this. The poem can be considered to
be original by means of its approach to death (because death is not an element of separation
but an element of unity in the poem) and its dealing with the concept of unity of lovers
(because only by means of the male lover’s death, the lovers can unite). The poem is also
original in respect of its inclusion of the three voices – that of the speaker, that of the damsel
and that of the lover.