Dante Gabriel Rossetti Criticism
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882) was a pivotal English poet and painter, renowned for his leadership in the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, which aimed to recapture the purity and simplicity of early Renaissance art. Rossetti's work is characterized by its rich, sensuous imagery and mystical themes, prominently featured in poems like "The Blessed Damozel," "Sister Helen," and "The House of Life." His poetic style is known for its vivid details and mastery of ballad and sonnet forms, as discussed in Rossetti's A Last Confession: A Dramatic Monologue. Rossetti's "Jenny" critiques Victorian culture through themes of silence and sexuality, as explored by Daniel Harris.
Rossetti was deeply influenced by medieval romance and literature, which shaped both his artistic and literary endeavors. His early education was enriched by works like Thomas Percy's Reliques and the romances of Sir Walter Scott, which led to his contributions to the Pre-Raphaelite journal The Germ. His personal life, particularly the tragic death of his wife Elizabeth Siddal, had a profound impact on his work, leading to the burial and later exhumation of his early manuscript, which became part of his acclaimed 1870 collection, Poems.
Despite his early success, Rossetti faced harsh criticism, notably from Robert Buchanan, who accused him of valuing sensuality over spirit in his essay "The Fleshly School of Poetry." This critique deeply affected Rossetti, as noted in the analysis by Jerome McGann, focusing on the theme of disillusionment in Rossetti's career. However, later 20th-century scholarship revived interest in his work, recognizing his influence on contemporaries like William Morris and Algernon Swinburne, and his significant impact on the Aesthetic and Decadent movements.
Rossetti's literary works often intertwine with themes of mysticism and love, which are also evident in his paintings. His collection Ballads and Sonnets (1881) continues this exploration, offering a sonnet sequence "The House of Life" that deals primarily with themes of love and is celebrated for its technical skill. His narrative technique and its implications on gender themes are further examined in works like Andrew Leng's study on "The Blessed Damozel." The intertwining of eroticism with darker themes is also a hallmark of his work, as discussed by Jean Wasko. Through his dual role as a painter and poet, Rossetti left a lasting legacy that continues to be dissected and debated in modern literary discussions.
Contents
- Principal Works
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Rossetti, Dante Gabriel (Nineteenth-Century Literary Criticism)
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Rossetti's A Last Confession: A Dramatic Monologue
(summary)
In the following essay, Howard evaluates 'A Last Confession' as a skillfully-crafted dramatic monologue.
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Political Themes in the Work of Dante Gabriel Rossetti
(summary)
In the following essay, Bentley studies the theme of modern indifference to God in Rossetti's political poetry.
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'The Blessed Damozel': A Young Man's Fantasy
(summary)
In the following essay, Bentley interprets 'The Blessed Damozel' as a poem celebratory of 'medieval-Catholic awareness.'
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'The Bitterness of Things Occult': D. G. Rossetti's Search for the Real
(summary)
In the following essay, originally published in Victorian Poetry in 1982, McGowan probes Rossetti's attempts to reconcile art and reality in his poetry.
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D. G. Rossetti's 'Jenny': Sex, Money, and the Interior Monologue
(summary)
In the following essay, Harris focuses on Rossetti's critique of Victorian culture through a poetic representation of silence, sexuality, and economic exchange in 'Jenny.'
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The Web of Eroticism in Rossetti's 'Troy Town,' 'Eden Bower,' and 'Rose Mary'
(summary)
In the following essay, Wasko explores Rossetti's alignment of eroticism with themes of death, destruction, and deceit in three ballads written between 1869 and 1871.
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Dante Gabriel Rossetti and the Betrayal of Truth
(summary)
In the following essay, McGann traces Rossetti's career-spanning concern with disillusionment and the betrayal of artistic ideals.
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Behind 'Golden Barriers': Framing and Taming the Blessed Damozel
(summary)
In the following essay, Leng investigates narrative technique and its relation to gender themes in 'The Blessed Damozel.'
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Dante Rossetti: Parody and Ideology
(summary)
In the following essay, Harrison discusses the parodic nature and self-consciously aesthetic ideology of Rossetti's poetry.
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The Mirror's Secret: Dante Gabriel Rossetti's Double Work of Art
(summary)
In the following essay, Miller offers an analysis of "the double mirroring structure" of Rossetti's poetry.
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Rossetti's 'On the Field of Waterloo': An Intertextual Reading
(summary)
In the following essay, Fontana examines Rossetti's 'On the Field of Waterloo' in relation to William Wordsworth's earlier poem on the same subject.
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Rossetti's A Last Confession: A Dramatic Monologue
(summary)
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Rossetti, Dante Gabriel (Poetry Criticism)
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The Fleshly School of Poetry: Mr. D. G. Rossetti
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Maitland (a pseudonym of Robert Buchanan), negatively critiques the poetry of Rossetti and the Pre-Raphaelites.
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The Stealthy School of Criticism
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Rossetti rebukes the criticism aimed at him by Thomas Maitland (Robert Buchanan) in “The Fleshly School of Poetry.”
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Style In ‘The House of Life’
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Boos discusses love and sexuality in Rossetti's The House of Life, exploring how Rossetti's view of love serves as a metaphor for the best aspects of life, while considering the impact of death and error on personal experience.
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Dante Gabriel Rossetti: Caught Between Two Centuries
(summary)
In the following essay, Fuchs considers Rossetti's place in literature, contending that his attempt to push against the limitations of his art reveal that he was caught between the nineteenth century and the stirrings of modernism.
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Dante Gabriel Rossetti: The Moment of the Picture
(summary)
In the following essay, Thornton investigates the relationship between Rossetti's art and poetry.
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Rossetti's Intellegenza Nova: Perception, Poetry and Vision in Dante at Verona
(summary)
In the following essay, Cooksey determines the influence of Dante Alighieri on Rossetti's Dante at Verona.
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The Reader as Whoremonger: A Phenomenological Approach to Rossetti's ‘Jenny’
(summary)
In the following essay, Cohen explores Rossetti's poetic strategies in “Jenny,” focusing on the poet's combination of religious and art imagery.
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D. G. Rossetti's ‘The Stream's Secret’ and the Epithalamion
(summary)
In the following essay, O'Donnell compares and contrasts Rossetti's “The Stream's Secret” and the conventions of the epithalamion poetic form.
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Dante Gabriel Rossetti and the Betrayal of the Truth
(summary)
In the following essay, McGann traces the thematic development of Rossetti's poetry, asserting that his work repeats “Dante's journey in the opposite direction, descending from various illusory heavens through a purgatory of unveilings to the nightmares and hells of his greatest work, the unwilled revelations arrived at in ‘The House of Life.’”
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Rossetti's ‘Ave’
(summary)
In the following essay, Cervo reads “Ave” in light of Il mister dell' amor platonico del medio evo, by Gabriele Rossetti (D. G. Rossetti's father.)
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Petrarch's Cervo and Cerva: The Secret of D. G. Rossetti's ‘The Stream's Secret’
(summary)
In the following essay, Cervo maintains that “The Stream's Secret” is concerned with the reconciliation of animus and anima.
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Benjamin, Baudelaire, Rossetti and the Discovery of Error
(summary)
In the following essay, Bullock applies Walter Benjamin's reading of Charles Baudelaire to Rossetti, and delineates the “differences of style and stature” between the two poets.
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‘Dower in Love's High Retinue’: The Transforming Power of Anima in D. G. Rossetti's ‘A Sonnet is a Moment's Monument’
(summary)
In the following essay, Cervo considers the function of “The House of Life”'s introductory sonnet.
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‘Devious Symbols’: Dante Gabriel Rossetti's Purgatorio
(summary)
In the following essay, Maxwell elucidates the religious elements of “The Woodspurge.”
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Dante Gabriel Rossetti's Virtual Bodies
(summary)
In the following essay, Danahay explores the commodification of women's bodies in Rossetti's paintings and poetry.
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Rossetti's ‘The Portrait’
(summary)
In the following essay, Markley investigates the function of the monologue in “The Portrait.” In his poem “The Portrait” (1870), Dante Gabriel Rossetti focuses on the attachment of a grieving artist to a portrait of his dead lover and provides a complex exploration of the idea of artistic expression as an act of self-reflection. Rossetti's exploration of this relationship is strengthened by his subtle references throughout the poem to the Greek myth of Narcissus and Echo, an ancient story that fully explores the implications of self-love in its themes of the reflection of image and the echoing of sound. In addition, the poet alludes to contemporary dramatic monologues that also explore the relationship between a viewer and an object of art. Once he presents his readers with a familiar situation in which a speaker gazes at a portrait of woman while describing that woman to an auditor, he varies that situation dramatically.
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Rossetti's ‘A Last Confession’
(summary)
In the following essay, Cervo contends that Rossetti works within two conflicting contexts in his poem “A Last Confession”: alchemy and Roman Catholicism.
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Rossetti's ‘Jenny’: Aestheticizing the Whore
(summary)
In the following essay, Starzyk traces the aestheticization of Rossetti's “Jenny,” and underscores “how the painterly hand of Rossetti influenced the verbal articulation of the muted image of this Victorian whore.”
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He and I’: Dante Rossetti's Other Man
(summary)
In the following essay, Bristow examines the sonnet “He and I” within the context of the sonnet sequence “The House of Life,” focusing on Rossetti's portrayal of sexuality in the poem.
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The Fleshly School of Poetry: Mr. D. G. Rossetti
(summary)
- Further Reading