Rossetti

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Lady Lilith

Of Adam's first wife, Lilith, it is told

(The witch he loved before the gift of Eve,)

That, ere the snake's, her sweet tongue could deceive,

And her enchanted hair was the first gold.

And still she sits, young while the earth is old,

And, subtly of herself contemplative,

Draws men to watch the bright web she can weave,

Till heart and body and life are in its hold.

The rose and poppy are her flowers; for where

Is he not found, O Lilith, whom shed scent

And soft-shed kisses and soft sleep shall snare?

Lo! as that youth's eyes burned at thine, so went

Thy spell through him, and left his straight neck bent

And round his heart one strangling golden hair.

My work is about Rossetti’s poem and picture “Lady Lilith”. As we can see in the title, the author in the poem talks about a woman. This woman in Hebrew mithology was the first wife of Adam, who was the first man created by God.

The poem is divided into two stanzas: the first stanza talks about her evil. The author says that she is a witch and he compares her with the second wife of Adam, who was a gift. She attracts the men to be evil with them. But there are positive connotations too: her enchainted hair. In the third verse, the author says “ere the snake’s, her sweet tongue could deceive”, that can be related with the belief that Lilith was converted into a snake when she went out of Paradise, and could be the snake who tempted Eve to eat the apple (that is an image which is represented in many pictures, but each religion believes in different temptations: Satan, Samel...) (geocities)

In the second stanza the author begins saying her flowers, and he calls her in the second and fourth verse. Rossetti talks about how Lilith wins the heart of Adam, and he talks about the hair.

If we look at the picture, we can observe that it has a well-balanced composition: if we divide the image into two parts, we can observe a mirror and the hand with the comb in the left one and on the other part we can see the head and the flowers.

Although she is not in the center of the picture, she attracts our attention because her pale skin contrasts with the dark background.The woman has light and deep eyes and a lost look. This can have a sensual meaning, as the uncovered shoulder and the neck . She is combing her hair, (as the poet says: “herself contemplative”) as the goddess Afrodite several pictures of different authors, maybe the author wanted to represent her such as goddess who dares to say the real name of God (www.revistanumero.com)

She has a garland for her hair, maybe because she is still in Paradise, as we can see in the back mirror. Her hair, is like gold as the author says in the poem, but it is a reddish gold, which contrasts with the skin, but there are other elements that attract our attention: the flower in the lower right side of the picture, the bracelet and the lips...all red, they are sensual elements, “she is concious of her beauty as a form of strength” (www.victorianweb.org)

The woman’s dress looks like a nightdress because it is not adjusted, and in the scene seems that she is getting ready, with the perfume near her which is of the author’s time, like the candle and the mirror. This mirror reflects the candle and trees, a forest or, maybe, the Paradise, but not a wall. The woman is in a sort of cave or the door is opened as a sign of freedom, because in the myth, Lilith left Paradise because she wanted her own freedom.

If we compare the picture with the poem of the same author, we can see common elements. The writer tells in the poem who is the main character of the poem: “Adam’s first wife”, and in parenthesis the author explains that she was a bad woman, a “witch”, a “femme fatale”.

Rossetti describes Lilith as an impressive and beautiful woman...But a very bad one, who can charm a man with lies and play with his life and kill his heart.

She is sitting as in the poem, looking at the Earth (because it seems that there isn’t a wall) but with “herself contemplative”.Rossetti says in the poem which are Lilith’s flowers, the same that are in the picture at her back: rose and poppy. That’s another reason to think that she isn’t in a house and that she is in a cave of Paradise.

Lilith became a devil when she went out of Paradise, but a very feminine devil, who attracts men with her beauty. I think that in the poem, Rossetti tells us who she is and what she makes with men, and in the picture she is getting ready...

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