“BODY’S BEAUTY”

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 beauty 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.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Ballads and sonnets(1881), first edition

http://www.rossettiarchive.org/docs/2-1867.s205.raw.html

The poem I am going to talk about is “Body’s beauty” which was titled such as this later because firstly was published with the title “Lilith” (Jerome J. McGann, docs).

According to the title, we can understand that the author talks about a beautiful woman who has a very beautiful body. In this case, she is Lilith, which was the fist wife of Adam according to the Hebrew culture. She was created out of mud like Adam but she got tired of him because she felt that he was higher than her and then she left Heaven (Antonio Tusiet, Lilith).

This poem is a sonnet. It is divided in two stanzas and its rhyme is A-B-B-A-A-B-B-A C-D-C-D-D-C. We can find visual and phonetic rhyme.

The first description of Lilith that we found in the poem is “witch”. Rossetti is comparing her with Eve, which is considered like a present to Adam. This two women are different, the two extremes, the contrast between good and evil: the witch Lilith versus the “gift” Eve.

In this poem, the author personifies the snake in the figure of Lilith. The snake is a symbol of evil and It was who tempted Eve to sin. There is a relation between Lilith and the snake and this is the reason of this personification. The snake has a “sweet tongue” to charm and deceive. This is similar to the beauty of Lilith, which could charm us only watching her.

The author compares her hair with the “first gold”. If we look at the picture of Lilith, we can see that her hair is a very important element which is very brilliant and gives light to it. She has curly hair. This is a metaphor which represents the snake in this form. Also the curly hair is the symbol of the “femme fatale” (Kate Moller, authors). In this Victorian period, all this kind of pictures are considered like invitations to sin, it is something forbidden and it causes scandal (Sochistov, history). In this picture some elements appears that can be also considered as inciting to sin: the woman is showing her left shoulder, it is a lusting element. The woman is also watching herself on the mirror to see her natural beauty and she has a flower’s crown on her lap to affect all she is not: good. The flask of perfume that we can see at the bottom of the picture can be another lustful element. Definitively, Lilith is a symbol of lust with all things that she means.

The author play on words in the 5^th verse: “young while the earth is old”. It means that the earth will go on and will grow old with all it contains, but Lilith will always stay there, like in the picture, sitting and, in beauty forever, keeping out of all. When he speaks about “the bright web she can weave” we can interpret it that she is like a spider, she weaves a web to catch men and we can see a metaphor of this web in the picture: when she is combing her hair, which symbolizes a spider getting the web ready to take men’s life away.

Rossetti introduces two kind of flowers: red roses and poppies. Both are red. This colour is a symbol of virginity (Sochistov, history). She also carries a red ribbon on her wrist to indicate this. According to the Hebrew culture, Lilith left Heaven virgin because she did not have sexual relations with Adam (Jerome J. McGann, docs). We can observe how her lips are also painted in red, but this is more concealed. I can interpret the colour red in another sense: Lilith was considered the Queen of Vampires. She had sex with men and then she fed on their blood. It tells that Lilith lived in the Red Sea (Antonio Tusiet, Lilith). The colour red represents the blood.

There is a rhetorical question in verses 10-11. The question is who will be caught by her scent and her “web”. We find this answer in the 13^th verse. The poet talks about a “youth”. This character can be Adam, and the author uses the past tense and explains how "that youth's eyes burned at thine," indicating the simultaneous lust and anger Adam felt when Lilith refused to lie with him.

In the two last verses, we can see how she acts as if she were the snake, to deceive Adam: “Thy spell through him, and left his straight neck bent”. Finally, her hair rounds the neck of Adam, like a symbol of his dead, she wins and leaves him. According to the Hebrew culture, Lilith was the Queen of “Sucubs”, a kind of feminine demons, and this was her way of killing: strangling men (Antonio Tusiet, Lilith).

Dante Gabriel Rossetti had two loves: Elisabeth and Jane (Glenn Everett, authors). This picture represents the first one, Elisabeth, which would be Lilith, if we understand the author as Adam, because she also was his first wife. It is said that the hair of this Lilith was inspired by Elisabeth’s hair (Jerome J. McGann, docs). Jane would be Eve, the second wife, and she was represented in another of Rossetti’s pictures called Proserpine.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

PICTURE AND POEM:

·Jerome J. McGann, docs: The Complete Writings and Pictures of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. A hypermedia Research Archive. EDITOR: Jerome J. McGAnn

http://www.rossettiarchive.org/docs/2-1867.s205.raw.html (27&28 February)

AUTHOR AND INFORMATION:

·Sochistov, history: The Victorian Web: literature, history and culture in the age of Victoria.

http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dgr/dgrov.html (27&28 February)

http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dgr/dgrseti13.html (27&28 February)

http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dgr/moller12.html (27&28 February)

http://www.victorianweb.org/history/sochistov.html (27&28 February)

LILITH:

·Antonio Tusiet, Lilith: Lilita, la luna negra. EDITOR: Antonio Tusiet

http://www.mundofree.com/seronoser/tausiet/lilith/lilith.htm (27&28 February)

·¿Eres descendiente de Lilith o de Eva? Origen Histórico.

http://marichelo.galeon.com/cvitae908973.html (27&28 February)