Dante Gabriel Rossetti

 

Lady Lilith

 

 

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 body and life are in its hold.

The rose and poppy are her flower; 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.

 (Collected Works, 216)

 

Source:

http://feminism.eserver.org/theory/papers/lilith/bodybeau.html

 

Lady Lilith

 

http://es.geocities.com/corte_de_lucifer/Imagenes/Cuadros/LILIROSSETTI.JPG

 

Source:

http://www.victorianweb.org/painting/dgr/paintings/4.html

        

 

First of all, I want to explain what this paper is going to be about. I am going to analyze one poem written by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and which was written in relation with a painting, which will be analyzed in this paper, too. The poem is “Body’s Beauty”, and the painting “Lady Lilith”, in order to understand what the poem is about, we should have a look at the Lilith myth.

         We find Lilith in the Bible, as the first lady of the Human history, and who had the honour of being the first woman who belonged to Adam, before Eve was officially his partner. Lilith’s myth shows her as a good-looking woman, enigmatic and so evil, wicked and impulsive, jealous of her independence, and very self-confident. She went against the role given to her gender, and she left the Paradise to take refuge in the deepest abysses, being hid and hiding her secret.

         Lilith belongs to the Jewish tradition, although, for some people she has been borrowed from the Mesopotamic tradition, where it is possible to find her between the branches of a tree.

         The name “Lilith” derives from the Hebrew Lil, which means night, so Lilith would mean “the nocturne”, a word that transmits the idea of darkness, the absence of light and which is related with her other characteristics and her actions.

         Resemblance has been found to Lilith with the “Xanas astures” and the “Lamisas” from Basque folklore, beings like Fairies, Nymphs, servants and representatives sometimes of Mother Earth, who punish or award humans; they inhabit in mountains, caves, springs and fountains; and they usually appear spinning or brushing their long hair.

     Lilith is represented as a seductive woman, without any dress, only her own skin, with an abundant curly, red hair, and sit down on a half moon, as usual. http://www.nueva-acropolis.es/FondoCultural/simbolismo/Simbolismo7.htm

         If we concentrate our attention on the poem, we see that this poem follows the structure of sonnets. Divided into two stanzas, the first one having eight verses, and the second one, six verses. All of them have ten syllables, except the eighth verse, which has eleven syllables. Its rhyme is ABBA-ABBA-CDC-DDC. We can find visual rhyme, in the first stanza: told-gold-old-hold; Eve-deceive-contemplative-weave; and in the second stanza: where-snare-hair; scent-went-bent.

         This poem was firstly entitled “Lilith” to accompany the painting “Lady Lilith”, but then Rossetti renamed it “Body’s Beauty”, in order to highlight the contrast between it and “Soul’s Beauty”. http://feminism.eserver.org/theory/papers/lilith/ladylil.html.

         This poem is describing Lilith as the first woman who belonged to Adam, and Rossetti refers to her as a witch, while Eve was a gift to him. The first stanza is a description of Lilith, and there the poet is saying that she was first a woman, and later she became the snake, as we can see in verses two and three:

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

That, ere the snake’s, her sweet tongue could deceive,”

The poet describes a very beautiful woman, very self-confident, and who has control over her life. She is represented as a sexual beauty.

         The second stanza is more difficult to understand, because it is not clear whom the poet is referring to here; in the twelfth verse we find “youth”, probably referring here to Adam. In this stanza the poet talks about men, men that she bewitched and seems that, at the end, the last verse refers to a death, or like a sentimental death, or that Lilith gave death to somebody:

“Thy spell through him, and left his straight neck bent

And round his heart one strangling golden hair.”

         It is obviously necessary to know about Lilith’s myth to understand this poem. If not, the poem would be understood as the description of a very good-looking woman who enchants men and other people because of her beauty.

          If we pay attention to the picture, we will see a woman who dresses a simple white dress, without corset, and who is absorbed in her thoughts. If we see, she is combing her hair with a comb in her right hand, and looking at her face in a little hand-mirror, which she has in the other hand.

         As the myth says, Rossetti painted Lilith as a very beautiful woman, with her lips painted in red (a whore or prostitute symbol in Rossetti’s time), and a woman who has long curly red hair. In the picture she is rounded by some flowers, probably her representative roses or poppies, as the poem says in verse nine. 

Another important element, I think, is the band that she is wearing in her left wrist. An element to call the attention of the person who is observing this picture, because of the contrast of colours, the contrast between the white of the dress and the red of the band.

         I think that the myth and, in this occasion Rossetti as a painter, uses the contrast of colours as Lilith’s personality, because she is so sweet as white colour, but, at the same time, she could be evil and wicked, as red colour, the bright red of her lips and her hair.

 

 

 

 

 

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Bibliography:

 

http://feminism.eserver.org/theory/papers/lilith/ladylil.html

 

http://victorianweb.org/victorian/painting/dgr/paintings/4.html

 

http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/humm/topics/lilith/rosse10.html

 

http://victorianweb.org/victorian/painting/dgr/paintings/may4.html

 

http://www.nueva-acropolis.es/FondoCultural/simbolismo/Simbolismo7.htm