Dante Gabriel Rossetti was an English poet and artist who is remembered as one of the leaders of the Pre-Raphaelite movement. His collections include Poems, Ballads and Sonnets, and Sonnets and Lyrical Poems. His art and writing influenced the European Symbolists and was an important precursor to Aestheticism.
In ‘On a handful of French Money,’ Rossetti’s coins embody France’s diverse history, reflecting change, monarchy’s badge, and a soaring spirit with marred images.
These coins that jostle on my hand do own
No single image; each name here & date
Denoting in man's consciousness & state
New change. In some, the face is clearly known,
‘Autumn Song’ by Dante Gabriel Rossetti describes the pains experienced by nature at the end of autumn and how these pains are translated to humankind.
Know’st thou not at the fall of the leaf
How the heart feels a languid grief
Laid on it for a covering,
‘Sonnet LXXVII’ by Dante Gabriel Rossetti concerns aestheticism, or the manifestations of Beauty, as a form of religious obsession.
Under the arch of Life, where love and death,
Terror and mystery, guard her shrine, I saw
Beauty enthroned; and though her gaze struck awe,
I drew it in as simply as my breath.
‘Sudden Light’ by Dante Gabriel Rossetti describes a speaker’s moments of recollection when faced with an emotional scene involving someone he loves.
I have been here before,
But when or how I cannot tell:
I know the grass beyond the door,
The sweet keen smell,
‘The Blessed Damozel’ by Dante Gabriel Rossetti is a ballad that is dedicated to the love between a woman trapped in heaven and a man stuck on Earth.
The blessed Damozel lean'd out
From the gold bar of Heaven:
Her blue grave eyes were deeper much
Than a deep water, even.
‘The House of Life: 19. Silent Noon’ describes an “inarticulate” moment of peace that two lovers spend within the grass of a pasture.
Your hands lie open in the long fresh grass,—
The finger-points look through like rosy blooms:
Your eyes smile peace. The pasture gleams and glooms
'Neath billowing skies that scatter and amass.
‘The Staircase of Notre Dame, Paris’ links Notre Dame’s staircase to France’s 1848 upheaval, hinting at hope beyond the turmoil.
As one who, groping in a narrow stair,
Hath a strong sound of bells upon his ears,
Which, being at a distance off, appears
Quite close to him because of the pent air:
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