lyrical poetry - OUDL Home

LYRICALPOETRYIn two of the poems first printed, though laterrevised, The Blessed Damozel and My Sister's Sleep,Rossetti made use of the device in poems aiming atthe two kinds of effect which the group especiallycultivated, whether in poem or painting—the revivalin a sophisticated way of a mediaeval mood and therealistic rendering of a quite modern scene and poignantexperience. In the first, a poem that will always connectitself with Rossetti's name as closely as The AncientMariner with that of Coleridge, written in a simple,six-line ballad measure, this use of vivid, realistic detailis strangely heightened by its combination with touchesof Dantesque sublimity and pictorial decoration:Her robe, ungirt from clasp to hemNo wrought flower did adorn,But a white robe of Mary's gift,For service meetly worn ;The hair that lay along her backWas yellow like ripe corn.It was the rampart of God's houseThat she was standing on ;By God built over the sheer depthThe which is Space begun :So high, that looking downward thenceShe scarce could see the sun.It lies in Heaven, across the floodOf ether, as a bridge.Beneath, the tides of day and nightWith flame and darkness ridgeThe void, as low as where this earthSpins like a fretful midge.Around her, lovers newly met'Mid deathless love's acclaims,Spoke ever more among themselvesTheir heart t-remembered names ;104