‘Jenny’
‘Jenny’,a poem by D. G. Rossetti , first published 1870 , although he had been working on it for many years, and was further to revise it. It was one of the poems buried with his wife Lizzie in 1862 . The poet describes a night spent in the chamber of a prostitute, golden-haired Jenny; she falls asleep against his knees and at dawn he leaves her, after much meditation on her thoughtless gaiety, shame, and beauty, and on the toad Lust which has ruined her. Fallen women and prostitutes were favourite subjects with the Pre-Raphael-ites: e.g. Rossetti's painting Found and H. Hunt 's The Awakening Conscience. This poem roused the indignation of those like R. W. Buchanan who thought Rossetti's work too sensual, and Ruskin greatly disliked it.
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