"The Blessed Damozel," penned by Dante Gabriel Rossetti at the tender age of eighteen, is a testament to the enduring allure of love that transcends earthly boundaries. This poem underwent four iterations between 1847 and 1881, with its evolution marking a journey of artistic refinement. Rossetti's work, inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven," reverses the narrative by exploring the longing of a lover in heaven for one left behind on earth.

The Origins and Evolution of "The Blessed Damozel"

The poem's journey began in 1850 when it first appeared in The Germ, followed by publications in The Oxford and Cambridge Magazine in 1856, and later in Rossetti's collections in 1870 and 1881. Each version presented subtle enhancements that enriched its depth and emotion. Rossetti's admiration for Poe's exploration of grief in "The Raven" fueled his creative impulse to craft a narrative in "The Blessed Damozel" that speaks to the reversal of earthly longing.

Pre-Raphaelitism and Rossetti's Vision

Rossetti, alongside Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais, founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848. This movement sought to resurrect the purity and spiritual depth of art predating the renowned Renaissance artist Raphael. Embracing medieval influences, the Pre-Raphaelites infused their work with supernatural elements, intricate detail, and rich symbolism, shunning the neoclassical conventions of their era. "The Blessed Damozel" serves as a quintessential example of this artistic philosophy, encapsulating the period's aesthetic ideals and themes.

A Poetic and Artistic Masterpiece

The poem's title, “The Blessed Damozel,” employs an archaic spelling for "damsel," emphasizing its medieval milieu. The narrative unfolds through the perspective of an earthly lover, who envisions his beloved leaning out from heaven's golden bar. Rossetti later complemented his poem with a commissioned painting in 1871, culminating in a visual predella in 1879, portraying the lover lying beneath a forest tree, ensconced in his dream-like reverie. The painting vividly captures the essence of the poem, where the vividly imagined autumn leaves become the damozel's hair caressing his face.

The Lament of Eternal Love

In the ethereal world he envisions, the damozel's gaze penetrates the chasm separating heaven from earth. She yearns for their reunion in paradise, where love could flourish as it did on earth, but eternally. The lover, in his yearning, perceives her presence in the songs of birds and the whispers of the wind. Her desire is for them to be reunited, to lie together in eternal bliss, and for her to teach him the heavenly songs. As the damozel sees a procession of angels, she rests her head on heaven's golden barrier and weeps—a poignant moment the lover believes he can hear, even from afar.

The narrative lyric poem, once preserved through the oral tradition, finds its roots in the ballad meter of England, a derivative of the septenarius. This ancient Latin hymn meter comprises seven feet or accents, often forming lines of fourteen syllables known as "fourteeners." However, these lengthy lines evolved into a more compact form, split into alternating iambic tetrameter and trimeter, a style that lends itself to the alternating unrhymed lines characteristic of the English ballad.

Ballad Structure in Rossetti's Work

Dante Gabriel Rossetti's "The Blessed Damozel" exemplifies this transformation by breaking long septenarian lines into six shorter ones with alternating tetrameter and trimeter. This restructuring results in the second, fourth, and sixth lines of each stanza rhyming, as seen in the rhyme scheme of stanza 2: "adorn," "worn," and "corn." The ballad's medieval origins resonate with the Pre-Raphaelite movement's fascination with medievalism, a period that Rossetti and his contemporaries sought to revive through their artistic endeavors.

Painterly Style and Vivid Imagery

Rossetti's "painterly" approach is a defining characteristic of his poetry,...