The Blessed Damozel

     

        

            "The Blessed Damozel" is perhaps the best known poem by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. It was first published in 1850 in the Pre-Raphaelite journal The Germ. Rossetti subsequently revised the poem twice and republished it in 1856, 1870 and 1873. He also used the same title for some of his best known paintings^. The poem was partially inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Raven", with its depiction of a lover grieving on Earth over the death of his loved one. Rossetti chose to represent the situation in reverse. The poem describes the damozel observing her lover from heaven, and her unfulfilled yearning for their reunion in heaven.

 Poem:

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,
  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;
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 quite gone
  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,
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
  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.

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
  Spins like a fretful midge.

Around her, lovers, newly met
  'Mid deathless love's acclaims,
Spoke evermore among themselves
  Their heart-remember'd names;
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
  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
Through all the worlds. Her gaze still strove
  Within the gulf to pierce
Its path; and now she spoke as when
  The stars sang in their spheres.

The sun was gone now; the curl'd moon
  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.

(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
  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?
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
  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 i' the shadow of
  Occult, withheld, untrod,
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
  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.

"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,
  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
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
  Are five sweet symphonies,
Cecily, Gertrude, Magdalen,
  Margaret and Rosalys.

"Circlewise sit they, with bound locks
  And foreheads garlanded;
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:
  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.

"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
  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,
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.
  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:
And then she cast her arms along
  The golden barriers,
And laid her face between her hands,
  And wept. (I heard her tears.)

Analysis:

                     In this poem Damozel is no more and her love is still a live. This poem is about "un dieing love". First two line of the poem suggest that the Damozel is dead and she is now in heaven. 

                               The blessed damozel lean'd out
                                From the gold bar of Heaven; 

               This two line suggest Damozel is leaning out as if she is locking something from the 'golden bar of heaven'.

                When the writer portrait image of Damozel we see Damozel standing of golden bar of haven with three lilies in her hand. Her eyes were 'deeper than depth' and there were seven stars in her hair.

                With the first two line reader Assume that Damozel is locking for something. Then in the next stanza the poet says that Damozel's hair were "yellow like rip-con" and her robe was white as a white rose.

               then in the next stanza we see how the lover is feeling about his beloved. The lover, who is on the earth imagines that;

                                Surely she lean'd o'er me—her hair
                                           Fell all about my face…. 

              In this lines we can assume that the lover also still loves his beloved and it's being almost ten years. the lover has not forget his beloved and he is still true and loyal for his beloved and there for even after ten years of his beloveds death he is not able to forget his beloved. 

            Then the poet expresses how the damozel is feeling when 'newly met lover' gathered around her. When Damozel sees this lover hugging each other she feel depress and again starts messing her lover even more this newly met souls.

                                   Went by her like thin flames.

            When she sees this soul she control over her emotion because she knew that she still has to remain away from her lover.

            Then in anther stanza the Damozel again expresses her hope that one day both the lovers will reunite. 

                               I wish that he were come to me for he will come.

            This line suggest that, that bright hope is still there in the Damozel's heart. She still wishes that her lover one day will sourly come to her for the Damozel she is in passionately waiting for her lover in the heaven.

           Then the Damozel ask god 'Have I not pray'd in Heaven?'- on earth she ask that she has enough prey to god for her lover and doubt there and wasn't that prayer was enough here in heaven. Damozel was praying for there reunion after such a long period and again question god "Are not to prayers a perfect strength?". This line suggest that Damozel things that in both the prayer there are enough strength that can bee the cause of their reunion. 

         Then the Damozel imagine her lover coming there in heaven then there is a dicription of what would Damozel and her lover would do if they both reunite in heaven. She says that if her lover would arive there in heaven she would be in white cloths.  

                         "I'll take his hand and go with him". 

 She would go with him in to a ‘stream and bathe in gods light’. And they would ‘see their old prayers granted’ and these prayers would be melt like “little cloud”. 

            Then Damozel says that when her lover would arrive there in heaven. She use to sing the same song which she use to sing in heaven for her lover when he was on the earth by singing song and rooming around they both will ‘find some knowledge and some knew thing know’. She would also tell her lover about their love and “I lay cheek to his’.

         All this the Damozel has imagine then after a few time she stop imagining further and expresses her disappointment by saying that ‘all this is when he comes’. All this would become reality only when her lover would arrive.

           The last stanza is not of Damozel but of her love who is on the earth and expresses his sorrow as if he could see her standing at golden bar. He says that there are same still barrier between their love but they soon been will overcome he sees his beloved. Hiding her face in to her hands and started weeping lastly the lover says “I heard her tears”. Which suggest that though the lover is on the earth he could feel the pan and disappointment of the Damozel.