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THE BLESSED DAMOZEL 
 
 j^Reprintcd from The Germ 
 
J&THE BLESSED DAMOZEL BY 
 DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTIjgF 
 
 Portland Maine 
 
 Thomas B Moshcr 
 
 Mdccccv 
 
 11 
 
 *NRY MORSE. STEPHENS 
 
PREFACE 
 
 LONE among the 
 higher artists of his 
 age, Mr* Rossetti has 
 felt and given the 
 mere physical charm 
 of Christianity, with 
 no admixture of doc 
 trine or of doubt* 
 Here as in other things he belongs, if to any 
 school at all, to that of the great Venetians* 
 He takes the matter in hand with the thorough 
 comprehension of Tintoretto or Veronese, with 
 their thorough subjection of creed and history 
 to the primary purpose of art and proper bear-* 
 ing of a picture* He works after the manner 
 
 111 
 
 514908 
 
of Titian painting his Assumption with an 
 equal hand whether the girl exalted into god' 
 dess be Mary or Ariadne: but his instinct is 
 too masterly for any confusion or discord of 
 colours; and hence comes the spiritual charm 
 and satisfaction of his sacred art* In this class 
 of his poems the first place and the fairest palm 
 belong to the 4 Blessed Damozel/ This par' 
 adisal poem, ' sweeter than honey or the honey 
 comb/ has found a somewhat further echo than 
 any of its early fellows, and is perhaps known 
 where little else is known of its author's* The 
 sweet intense impression of it must rest for life 
 upon all spirits that ever once received it into 
 their depths, and hold it yet as a thing too dear 
 and fair for praise or price. Itself the flower of 
 a splendid youth, it has the special charm for 
 youth of fresh first work and opening love; 
 'the dew of its birth is of the womb of the 
 morning;' it has the odour and colour of 
 
 iv 
 
cloudless air, the splendour of an hour without 
 spot The divine admixtures of earth which 
 humanize its heavenly passion have the flavour 
 and bloom upon them of a maiden beauty, the 
 fine force of a pure first sunrise* No poem 
 shows more plainly the strength and wealth of 
 the workman's lavish yet studious hand* One 
 sample in witness of this wealth, and in evi' 
 dence of the power of choice and persistent 
 search after perfection which enhance its price, 
 may be cited; though no petal should be 
 plucked out of this mystic rose for proof of its 
 fragrance* The two final lines of the stanza 
 describing the secret shrine of God have been 
 reformed ; and the form first given to the world 
 is too fair to be wholly forgotten : — 
 
 4 Whose lamps tremble continually 
 With prayer sent up to God ; 
 
 And where each need, revealed, expects 
 Its patient period/ 
 
Wonderful though the beauty may be of the 
 new imagination, that the spirits standing there 
 at length will see their 'old prayers, granted, 
 melt each like a little cloud/ there is so sweet 
 a force in the cancelled phrase that some stu' 
 dents might grudge the loss, and feel that, 
 though a diamond may have supplanted it, a 
 ruby has been plucked out of the golden ring* 
 Nevertheless, the complete circlet shines now 
 with a more solid and flawless excellence of jewels 
 and of setting. The sweetness and pathos and 
 gracious radiance of the poem have been praised 
 by those who have not known or noted all the 
 noble care spent on it in rejection and rearrange' 
 ment of whatever was crude or lax in the first 
 cast; but the breadth and sublimity which 
 ennoble its brightness and beauty of fancies are 
 yet worthier of note than these* What higher 
 imagination can be found in modern verse than 
 this? 
 
 vi 
 
'From the fixed place of Heaven she saw 
 
 Time, like a pulse, shake fierce 
 Through all the worlds/ 
 
 This grandeur of scale and sweep of spirit 
 give greatness of style to poetry, as well as 
 sweetness and brightness* These qualities, 
 together with the charm of fluent force and 
 facile power, are apparent in all Mr* Rossetti's 
 work; but its height of pitch and width of scope 
 give them weight and price beyond their own." \ 
 
 .*. See Essays and Studies. By Algernon 
 Charles Swinburne. Crown 8vo. London, 
 1875. Pp. 82^84. The essay on Rossetti was 
 first printed in The Fortnightly Review for 
 May, 1870. 
 
 Vll 
 
UCH was the splendid 
 tribute rendered by one 
 great poet to another at 
 a period when contemn 
 porary criticism was 
 singularly barren of 
 results. It came when 
 mostneededbyRossetti, 
 and to this day remains unapproached by any 
 later appraiser of literary values* The concur • 
 rent approval expressed by William Morris 
 though less fervid in phrase is no less satisfying 
 in its absolute sincerity* # \ 
 
 ♦\ " A poem in which wild longing, and the 
 shame of life, and despair of separation, and the 
 worship of love, are wrought into a palpable 
 dream, in which the heaven that exists as if for 
 the sake of the beloved is as real as the earthly 
 things about the lover, while these are scarcely 
 less strange or less pervaded with a sense of his 
 
 vim 
 
For Mr* William Sharp, /. who originally 
 suggested the plan here adopted of printing entire 
 the textual variants of The Blessed Damozel, 
 it doubtless suffices that Mr* Swinburne has 
 recently and still more generally advocated the 
 same idea — has indeed made it a labour of love 
 binding upon any future editor who would do 
 honour to his text* ♦*. 
 
 passion, than the things his imagination has 
 made." (The Academy, May 14, 1870*) 
 
 *\ Dante Gabriel Rossetti: A Record and a 
 Study. By William Sharp. 8vo. London, 
 1882. Pp. 335^340. By textual variants is 
 meant verbal alterations only. To have given 
 Rossetti's changes in punctuation, or similar 
 minutiae, would not have contributed in the 
 remotest degree to our knowledge or enjoyment 
 of the poem. 
 
 ♦\ "My illustrious friend Mr. Swinburne 
 wrote to me some while ago that a better ser* 
 
 IX 
 
The origin of the poem is happily placed 
 beyond conjecture* To Mr. Hall Caine we 
 owe the publication of a verbal statement made 
 to him by Rossetti in the autumn of 188 J upon 
 the occasion of the latter reciting Poe's Ulalume 
 and The Raven : 
 
 44 1 remember that, touching the last'tnentioned 
 vice to the memory of my brother as a poet 
 could hardly be rendered than to print the 
 variants in the successive published forms of 
 his several poems; for (as he said), while the 
 changes introduced were almost invariably for 
 the better, the older readings were often, from 
 the point of view which had prompted them, so 
 felicitous that few persons except Dante Rossetti 
 (with his insatiable passion for the best) would 
 have had the heart to sacrifice them/' (W* M» 
 Rossetti: Introduction to the Blessed Damozel 
 with Decorations by W* B. MacdougalL 4to. 
 London, J 898. P. xiv.) 
 
of these poems, he remarked that out of his love 
 for it while still a boy his own Blessed Damozel 
 originated* 'I saw' he said, 'that Poe had 
 done the utmost it was possible to do with the 
 grief of the lover on earth, and so I determined 
 to reverse the conditions, and give utterance to 
 the yearning of the loved in heaven/ " •*• 
 
 Bearing in mind that The Raven was first 
 published in the New York Evening Mirror for 
 January 29th J 845, the following statement by 
 Mr* W* M* Rossetti may be taken as conclusive : 
 
 "He wrote The Blessed Damozel early in 
 J 847 (if not indeed in 1846), ♦ ♦ . 'in a kind of 
 Gothic manner/ and included it with other 
 poems under the general title Songs of the Art 
 Catholic* Of the first form of the composition, 
 that which appeared in the family magazine 
 
 .% Recollections of Dante Gabriel Rossetti* 
 By T* Hall Caine, 8vo, London, J 882. 
 
 P. 284 
 
 » 
 
 xi 
 
towards 1847, no trace remains, so far as my 
 knowledge extends. .*. The second form is that 
 
 which was printed in The Germ Before 
 
 publishing the poem in The Germ, my brother 
 added four stanzas to it. ♦ ♦ . I think it not 
 unlikely that they may have been stanzas 6, 9, 
 13 and either 14 or 17." 
 
 This, in brief, is the history of The Blessed 
 Damozel as a poem. From an artistic stand' 
 point the subject did not immediately attract 
 Rossetti's attention. His first picture in oils was 
 undertaken at the suggestion of Mr. William 
 Graham, (1873' 1877). It was painted life size 
 with predella, and is the one more generally 
 known. A second painting, (1879), for Mr. 
 F. R. Leyland is similiar but not identical and 
 does not seem to have been reproduced. Four 
 crayon portraits of the principal figure exist, all 
 of them studies from the some model. The 
 
 .\ Nor can the original manuscript be traced. 
 
 XII 
 
one here given as frontispiece is from the picture 
 executed in J 874 for Lord Mount'Temple, but 
 incorrectly named Sancta Lilias* 
 
 Next to that youthful head "beloved of 
 Leonardo " " which Love chooses for its own/' 
 may we not place this later and even lovelier 
 presentment of Alexa Wilding, whose glorious 
 beauty thus transfigured became in Rossetti's 
 solemn trance and vision the Blessed Damozel 
 we know and worship evermore ? 
 
 "Lo! it is done* Above the enthroning throat 
 The mouth's mould testifies of voice and kiss, 
 The shadowed eyes remember and foresee* 
 Her face is made her shrine. Let all men note 
 That in all years (O Love, thy gift is this !) 
 They that would look on her must come to me/' 
 
 Xlil 
 
THE BLESSED DAMOZEL 
 
 
jfiFTHE BLESSED DAMOZEL BY 
 DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTIjfiF 
 
 A Reprint of the original text taken 
 from The Germ, mdcccl, including all 
 variants from The Oxford and Cam' 
 bridge Magazine, mdccclvi; Poems, 
 mdccclxx, and the Collected Works, 
 mdccclxxxvi. 
 
 

 HE BLESSED 
 DAMOZEL 
 LEANED OUT 
 From the gold bar 
 of Heaven : 
 Her blue grave eyes 
 were deeper much 
 Than a deep water, 
 She had three lilies in her hand, [even* 
 
 And the stars in her hair were seven* 
 
 1856: 
 
 Her eyes knew more of rest and shade 
 
 Than waters still'd at even ; 
 
 1870: 1886: 
 
 Her eyes were deeper than the depth 
 
 Of waters stilled at even ; 
 
II 
 
 jtfFHcr robe, ungirt from clasp to hem, 
 
 No wrought flowers did adorn, 
 
 But a white rose of Mary's gift 
 
 On the neck meetly worn ; 
 
 And her hair, lying down her back, 
 
 Was yellow like ripe corn* 
 
 1856: 1870: 1886: 
 
 For service meetly worn ; 
 
 1870: 1886: 
 
 Her hair that lay along her back 
 
m 
 
 jtfFHerseemed she scarce had been a day- 
 One of God's choristers ; 
 The wonder was not yet quite gone 
 From that still look of her's ; 
 Albeit to them she left, her day 
 Had counted as ten years. 
 
IV 
 
 O ONE it is ten 
 years of years : 
 ♦ ♦ . Yet now, 
 here in this place, 
 Surely she leaned o'er 
 me, — her hair 
 Fell all about my 
 face* 
 
 Nothing : the Autumn^fall of leaves* 
 
 The whole year sets apace*) 
 
 ♦ ♦ ♦ 
 
 J856: J870: 1886: 
 
 . . . Yet now, and in this place, 
 
T WAS the terrace 
 of God's house 
 That she was 
 standing on,— 
 By God built over 
 the sheer depth 
 In which Space is 
 begun ; 
 tgn, tnat looKing downward thence, 
 She could scarce see the sun. 
 
 1856: 1870: 1886: 
 It was the rampart of God's house 
 The which is Space begun ; 
 She scarce could see the sun* 
 
VI 
 
 jflFIt lies from Heaven across the flood 
 Of ether, as a bridge* 
 Beneath, the tides of day and night 
 With flame and blackness ridge 
 The void, as low as where this earth 
 Spins like a fretful midge* 
 
 1856: J870: 1886: 
 
 It lies in Heaven, across the flood 
 
 1870: 1886: 
 
 With flame and darkness ridge 
 
 8 
 
vn 
 
 jgFBut in those tracts, with her, it was 
 
 The peace of utter light 
 
 And silence* For no breeze may stir 
 
 Along the steady flight 
 
 Of seraphim ; no echo there, 
 
 Beyond all depth or height 
 
 This stanza is not in the later editions* 
 
vm 
 
 j^FHeard hardly, some of her new friends, 
 
 Playing at holy games, 
 
 Spake, gentle^mouthed, among themselves, 
 
 Their virginal chaste names ; 
 
 And the souls, mounting up to God, 
 
 Went by her like thin flames* 
 
 1856: 
 
 She scarcely heard her sweet new friends : 
 
 Softly they spake among themselves 
 
 J 870: 
 
 Amid their loving games 
 
 Spake evermore among themselves 
 
 1886: 
 
 Around her, lovers, newly met 
 
 'Mid deathless love's acclaims, 
 
 Spoke evermore among themselves 
 
 Their heart'remembered names ; 
 
 10 
 
IX 
 
 j(g?And still she bowed herself, and stooped 
 
 Into the vast waste calm ; 
 
 Till her bosom's pressure must have made 
 
 The bar she leaned on warm, 
 
 And the lilies lay as if asleep 
 
 Along her bended arm. 
 
 1856: 
 
 And still she bow'd above the vast 
 
 Waste sea of worlds that swarm ; 
 
 1856: 1870: 1886: 
 
 Until her bosom must have made 
 
 1870: 1886: 
 
 Out of the circling charm ; 
 
 U 
 
X 
 
 jj^From the fixt lull of heaven, she saw 
 
 Time, like a pulse, shake fierce 
 
 Through all the worlds* Her gaze still strove, 
 
 In that steep gulph, to pierce 
 
 The swarm : and then she spake, as when 
 
 The stars sang in their spheres. 
 
 1856: J870: 1886: 
 
 From the fix'd place of Heaven, she saw 
 
 Within the gulf to pierce 
 
 Its path ; and now she spoke, as when 
 
 1856: 
 
 The stars sung in their spheres. 
 
 12 
 
[X 
 
 J^FThe sun was gone now* The curPd moon 
 
 Was like a little feather 
 
 Fluttering far down the gulf* And now 
 
 She spoke through the still weather* 
 
 Her voice was like the voice the stars 
 
 Had when they sung together*] 
 
 Between stanzas X and XI this stanza was 
 introduced in the 1856 text* and retained* with 
 slight changes in punctuation, in the 1870 and 
 1886 versions. 
 
 1870: 1886: 
 
 Had when they sang together* 
 
 13 
 
[XI 
 
 J§F(Ah sweet ! Even now, in that bird's song, 
 
 Strove not her accents there, 
 
 Fain to be hearkened ? When those bells 
 
 Possessed the mid'day air, 
 
 Strove not her steps to reach my side 
 
 Down all the echoing stair?)] 
 
 In 1870 this stanza was included as XI. It 
 first appeared in the 1856 text as XVI, with 
 these variations : 
 
 Ah sweet ! Just now, in that bird song, 
 Was she not stepping to my side 
 Down all the trembling stair ? 
 
 14 
 
XI 
 
 u 
 
 X 
 
 WISH that he were 
 
 come to me, 
 
 For he will come/' 
 
 she said* 
 
 44 Have I not prayed 
 
 in solemn heaven? 
 
 On earth, has he not 
 
 prayed ? 
 
 Are not two prayers a perfect strength ? 
 
 And shall I feel afraid ? 
 
 1856: 1870: 1886: 
 
 Have I not pray'd in Heaven ? — on earth, 
 
 Lord, Lord, has he not pray'd ? 
 
 15 
 
xn 
 
 j0f u Whcn round his head the aureole clings, 
 
 And he is clothed in white, 
 
 Fll take his hand, and go with him 
 
 To the deep wells of light, 
 
 And we will step down as to a stream 
 
 And bathe there in God's sight. 
 
 J870: 
 
 We will step down as to a stream, 
 
 1886: 
 
 As unto a stream we will step down, 
 
 \6 
 
xm 
 
 jfiF"We two will stand beside that shrine, 
 
 Occult, withheld, untrod, 
 
 Whose lamps tremble continually 
 
 With prayer sent up to God ; 
 
 And where each need, revealed, expects 
 
 Its patient period. 
 
 1856: 
 
 With prayers sent up to God ; 
 
 1856: 1870: 1886: 
 
 Whose lamps are stirr'd continually 
 
 And see our old prayers, granted, melt 
 
 Each like a little cloud* 
 
 17 
 
XIV 
 
 J&f"W£ two will lie i f the shadow of 
 
 That living mystic tree 
 
 Within whose secret growth the Dove 
 
 Sometimes is felt to be, 
 
 While every leaf that His plumes touch 
 
 Saith His name audibly* 
 
 1856: 1870: 1886: 
 Is sometimes felt to be, 
 
 18 
 
XV 
 
 "And I myself will teach to him — 
 I myself , lying so, — 
 The songs I sing here ; which his mouth 
 Shall pause in, hushed and slow, 
 Finding some knowledge at each pause 
 And some new thing to know/' 
 
 1856: 1870: 1886: 
 
 The songs I sing here ; which his voice 
 And find some knowledge at each pause, 
 Or some new thing to know* 
 
 19 
 
XVI 
 
 LAS! to her wise 
 simple mind 
 These things were all 
 but known 
 Before : they trembled 
 on her sense, — 
 Her voice had caught 
 I their tone* 
 
 Alas for lonely Heaven ! Alas 
 
 For life wrung out alone ! 
 
 In the texts of 1870 and 1886, for these two 
 parenthetical stanzas, XVI and XVII, a single 
 one was substituted : 
 
 
 20 
 
xvn 
 
 Alas, and though the end were reached ? . ♦ ♦ 
 Was thy part understood 
 Or borne in trust ? And for her sake 
 Shall this too be found good ? — 
 May the close lips that knew not prayer 
 Praise ever, though they would ?) 
 
 J870: 1886: 
 
 (Alas ! We two, we two, thou say'st ! 
 
 Yea, one wast thou with me 
 
 That once of old* But shall God lift 
 
 To endless unity 
 
 The soul whose likeness with thy soul 
 
 Was but its love for thee?) 
 
 2J 
 
xvm 
 
 E TWO/' she 
 
 said, " will seek the 
 
 groves 
 
 Where the lady 
 
 Mary is, 
 
 With her five 
 
 handmaidens, 
 
 whose names 
 
 Are five sweet symphonies : — 
 Cecily, Gertrude, Magdalen, 
 Margaret and Rosalys. 
 
 22 
 
XIX 
 
 jgP'Circle'wise sit they, with bound locks 
 
 And bosoms covered ; 
 
 Into the fine cloth, white like flame, 
 
 Weaving the golden thread, 
 
 To fashion the birtlvrobes for them 
 
 Who are just born, being dead* 
 
 1856: 1870: 1886: 
 And foreheads garlanded ; 
 
 23 
 
XX 
 
 J§F"He shall fear haply, and be dumb* 
 Then I will lay my cheek 
 To his, and tell about our love, 
 Not once abashed or weak : 
 And the dear Mother will approve 
 My pride, and let me speak* 
 
 24 
 
XXI 
 
 JjpPHerself shall bring us, hand in hand, 
 
 To Him round whom all souls 
 
 Kneel — the unnumbered solemn heads 
 
 Bowed with their aureoles : 
 
 And Angels, meeting us, shall sing 
 
 To their citherns and citoles* 
 
 1856: 
 
 Kneel, the unnumbered ransom'd heads 
 
 1870: 1886: 
 
 Kneel, the clear^ranged unnumbered heads 
 
 25 
 
xxn 
 
 J§F"There will I ask of Christ the Lord 
 
 Thus much for him and me : — 
 
 To have more blessing than on earth 
 
 In nowise ; but to be 
 
 As then we were, — being as then 
 
 At peace* Yea, verily* 
 
 1856: 1870: 1886: 
 
 Only to live as once on earth 
 
 1856: 
 
 At peace — only to be 
 
 1870: 1886: 
 
 With Love, — only to be, 
 
 1856: 1870: 1886: 
 
 As then awhile, for ever now 
 
 Together, I and he* 
 
 26 
 
xxm 
 
 : "Yea t verily; when he is come 
 We will do thus and thus : 
 Till this my vigil seem quite strange 
 And almost fabulous ; 
 We two will live at once, one life ; 
 And peace shall be with us/' 
 
 This stanza was cancelled in the later texts* 
 
 27 
 
XXIV 
 
 HE gazed, and listened, 
 
 and then said, 
 
 Less sad of speech than 
 
 mild; 
 
 "All this is when he 
 
 comes," She ceased : 
 
 The light thrilled past 
 
 her, filled 
 
 With Angels, in strong level lapse* 
 
 Her eyes prayed, and she smiled* 
 
 1870: 1886: 
 
 The light thrilled towards her, filTd 
 
 With angels in strong level flight* 
 
 28 
 
XXV 
 
 (I saw her smile*) But soon their flight 
 Was vague 'mid the poised spheres. 
 And then she cast her arms along 
 The golden barriers, 
 And laid her face between her hands, 
 And wept. (I heard her tears.) 
 
 1870: 1886: 
 
 (I saw her smile.) But soon their path 
 
 1856: 1870: 1886: 
 
 Was vague in distant spheres ; 
 
 1856: 
 
 And then she laid her arms along 
 
 29 
 
NOTES 
 I 
 
 TANZA viii gave 
 Rossetti much trouble* 
 In one or more reis' 
 sues of the mdccclxx 
 volume of Poems, lines 
 ii and iv have addi' 
 tional variants as fol' 
 lows: 
 
 In joy no sorrow claims, 
 Their rapturous new names ; 
 
 A microscopic examination of these intermediate 
 editions before the Collected Works were finally 
 put forth by Mr, W. M. Rossetti (mdccclxxxvi) 
 might reveal still further minor changes. It 
 is evident that improvement was impossible. 
 The poem had already crystallized into perfect 
 speech. Beyond this not even Rossetti could go. 
 
 31 
 
n 
 
 " The final verse was to the last a thorn of 
 indecision to the author, he never quite agreeing 
 as to whether "she cast her arms along the 
 golden barriers," or " she laid her arms, etc.," 
 was the better, ultimately choosing, ere the 
 proofs were returned, the earlier reading* Also 
 in this verse he thought of altering in the 1 88 J 
 edition the last four words, " I heard her tears " 
 to " I felt her tears," but refrained on the ground 
 that where there might be an apparent realistic 
 gain there was spiritual loss/' — William Sharp, 
 
 32 
 
Here ends The Blessed Damozel a faith' 
 ful reprint of the poem by Dante Gabriel 
 Rossetti as it originally appeared in The 
 Germ for February mdcccl, together with 
 the textual variants taken from The Ox' 
 ford and Cambridge Magazine mdccclvi, the 
 Poems of mdccclxx, and the final version 
 in the Collected Works of mdccclxxxvi* 
 
Of this third edition Four hundred 
 and fifty copies have been printed on 
 Kelmscott hand^made paper, and the 
 type distributed. 
 
 Published by Thomas B* Mosher 
 
 at xlv Exchange Street, 
 
 Portland, Maine. 
 
 Mdccccv* 
 
-iX\i* 
 
 
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