For the Wine of Circe- Edward Burne-jones

Dusk-haired and gold-robed o'er the golden wine
She stoops, wherein, distilled of death and shame,
Sink the black drops; while, lit with fragrant flame,
Round her spread board the golden sunflowers shine.
Doth Helios here with Hecatè combine
(O Circe, thou their votaress!) to proclaim
For these thy guests all rapture in Love's name,
Till pitiless Night give Day the countersign?

Lords of their hour, they come. And by her knee
Those cowering beasts, their equals heretofore,
Wait; who with them in new equality
To-night shall echo back the sea's dull roar
With a vain wail from passion's tide-strown shore
Where the dishevelled seaweed hates the sea.

Source: http://www.rossettiarchive.org/

This poem and this painting are about the myth of Circe, a mythological magician who was the daughter of Helios and Perseis. She lived in the island of Aiaia, and here she waited for lost sailors to come to her palace wandering for help; in those cases she did not treat these sailors as guests, she drugged them and transformed them into beasts, and then she locked these beasts in the dungeons of her palace. This is the situation that is reflected in the picture and in the poem, Circe with her poisons, which she mixes with the wine, transforms the sailors into beasts, which are under the influence of Circe´s will. (Greek Mythology)

The picture and the poem pertain to the prerraphaelist movement, in this movement it is very common that painting and literature were together, but in my opinion, this case is a bit special because we have a picture that is based on a literary source, and this picture allows the existence of a poem which is based on it.

This poem is a sonnet, the verses are iambic pentameters, and the rhyme is abba abba cdc dcd. During the first quatrain, Rossetti describes the principal action of the picture, Circe is mixing the poison and the wine to transform the men into beasts. In these verses, the poet reflects the colour of the painting: “dusk-haired”, “gold-robed”, “golden-wine”, “ black drops”, “golden sunflowers”, the adjectives are all referred to the colour of the objects, so it gives us the possibility of imagine the colour of the painting reading the sonnet[1].

In the second quatrain and in the following three verses, the poet gives us details about the beasts that appear in the picture, which are now under the power of Circe. The second quatrain is a direct question to Circe; during the sonnet, the poet writes in third person, he is describing the painting, but in the second quatrain the poet uses his voice to question Circe about her action.

In the last three verses, the author expresses with a metaphor the future of these beasts; they are condemned because they will not return to their human condition and they will not have human feelings again. To express this idea, Rossetti constructs his

metaphor with sea elements and language: “ sea, tide, seaweed, sea´s dull roar,…”. Rossetti uses this metaphor because the sea appears at the background of the picture, so with this metaphor he is talking about a part of the painting in an indirect way because he is reflecting the way how you see this part of the painting.

Rossetti´s verses indicate the structure of the painting, the way in which the objects are structured. We should remember that the structure is very important in this age because these painters have new ideas about the structure, they want to demonstrate that new structures are possibly. First of all, he talks about Circe, the principal figure of the picture; Circe is painted in a curved position, and if we follow the line that Circe´s body makes, we see the sunflowers and the table, which are mentioned in the sonnet after Circe´s action. Under the flowers and the table are the beasts, that are mentioned in the poem afterwards. These elements compose the principal group of the picture. And in the top-right of the picture, there is a window where we can see the see; it is not an important element of the painting, and it is not in the principal group of the picture, so Rossetti talks about it in the last three verses and in an indirect way.

In Conclusion, we have seen a very good example of the union between the picture and the poetry in the Pre-Raphaelite age. The picture contains the principal Pre-Raphaelite´s characteristics: a realism with many symbols (Circe´s myth is a metaphor about the dangers of sensuality and the pleasures of the life, which could transform us into beasts). The poem reflects the main characteristics of the picture: colour, structure, and gives us more details about the situation of the picture.

Bibliography:

· Greek Mythology

Michael Stewart. Visited 26-February-2006. http://messgenet.com/myths/bios/circe.html

·Rossettiarchive

Jerome McGann. Visited 26- February-2006.

http://www.rossettiarchive.org/

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[1] The original painting was a watercolour on paper, but all the reproductions that are available on the internet are in black and white.