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The Blessed Damozel by Edward Burne-Jones. Watercolour and gouache on paper mounted on linen 400 x 203 mm (sight). Bequest­ Grenville L. Winthrop. Reproduced by kind pennission of The Fogg Art Gallery, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138. The Articulate Heart Christina Rossetti, William Morris, D. G. Rossetti and The Pre-Raphaelite Poetry of Love by Shelley O'Reilly, B. A. (Hons) in the Department of English Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Tasmania March, 1995 This thesis contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other higher degree or graduate diploma in any tertiary institution and, to the best of my knowledge and belief, this thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person, except where due reference is made in the text of the thesis or in the footnotes. [iii] This thesis may be made available for loan. Copying of any part of this thesis is prohibited for two years from the date this statement was signed; after that time limited copying is permitted in accordance with the Copyright Act 1968. I(LeJ·~ . jtt 0 [iv] For my parents, James and Raye O'Reilly. [v] Abstract This thesis concerns silence and confession; the warring impulse in the poetry of Christina Rossetti, William Morris, and D. G. Rossetti between the necessity of concealing love and the desire to confess it. Lovers have always been torn between the desire to keep silent and the desire to express love and poets have long veered between guardedness and effusion. Yet in the work of the three poets with whom this study is concerned we find a reticence mixed with an avowal of love which is peculiarly their own and peculiarly informative about how these poets regarded the relationship o~ poetry to love and the relationship of poet to text. The tension . between silence and confession is evident in both the public and personal lyric sequences of the Pre-Raphaelite poets which are 'told' by the poet-singer and their ballads and longer narratives in which the protagonists, usually women, are given their own voices. These women confess much in words but their bodily signs are sometimes even more important than their speech in conveying the sexual and socio­ political quandaries in which they find themselves. In their covert manipulations of the traditional forms, structures and techniques of the ballad, romance and epic, the Pre-Raphaelites found a freedom to transgress the accepted boundaries of what could be said about relationships between men and women and in doing so produced radically suggestive poetry. In the first part of this thesis entitled 'Elegies' I examine first-person lyric seq':lences. Two of these are well known sonnet s_equences: Christina Rossetti's Monna Innominata and D. G. Rossetti's The House of Life. The other sequences have for various reasons long remained hidden from scrutiny. William Morris's 'Seasonal Lyrics' (verses for the months) are hidden within the morass of The Earthly Paradise. Christina Rossetti's 'By Way of Remembrance' quartet is a long overlooked, starker and darker precursor to both Monna Innominata and her striking sequence of Italian poems posthumously published in Italian by William Michael Rossetti as II Rosseggiar dell' Oriente (the first complete English translation of which is included as Appendix A of this thesis) which is perhaps the most personal and obscure of all the poems treated in this thesis. [vi] These sequences along with a body of nominally public lyrics such as those which I have designated Christina Rossetti's 'It' poems, and Morris's fugitive personal lyrics, elegise the death of love whilst celebrating it as the prime human and poetic experience. All three poets experiment with poetry as 'love's last gift'. Christina Rossetti, William Morris, and D. G. Rossetti explore the interconnections between the poet­ lover and the love poem. The love poetry of the Pre-Raphaelites is a sometimes voluble, sometimes 'silent' discourse about the impact of love and the loss of love on the identity. The lyric sequences rehearse the story of love's loss alternating bursts of agonised protest with announcements of stoical acceptance; whilst the riddling personal lyrics probe the causes of the disintegration of self and at the same time try to reintegrate that self through the 'self' protection of silence and privacy. The second part of this thesis is entitled 'Narratives'. I examine how the male Pre-Raphaelite poet constructs the female lover as a legendary character. In Pre-Raphaelite painting the ideal beloved is a silent, beautiful woman 'subtly of herself contemplative'. In Pre-Raphaelite narrative poetry, particularly balladry, the woman is the lover as well as the beloved and she often articulates her love with passionate precision. In Chapter Four I analyse the psychological studies of women in love found in William Morris's tales of Cupid and Psyche and The Lovers of Gudrun, and I compare the characters of Guenevere as created by William Morris and Alfred Tennyson and Iseult as created by A. C. Swinburne, Tennyson, and Matthew Arnold. In the last chapter of this thesis I deal with Pre-Raphaelite sexual fantasy and gender politics in ballads and longer narrative poems. The Pre-Raphaelites gave themselves great poetic latitude by setting their ballads in faery lands forlorn; using the conventions of fantasy, dream and medievalism they wrote poems concerning nuns and maidens, knights and ladies, and sirens and sorcerers which deliver a rare erotic charge. These poems combine a strangled cry of desire with a sometimes brutal modernity of overt symbol- another type of silence and confession at the heart of the articulation of love in Pre-Raphaelite love poetry. [vii] Acknowledgments To my thesis supervisors: Mr J. L. Winter supervised me during the first year of my research. Dr J. A. Dando assisted me during the interim stages of this study. Dr J. S. Livett had confidence in the project and helped me bring it to completion. With thanks to Ms Trish Clennett and Mrs Cherrill Vertigan of the Morris Miller Library for, on several occasions, rescuing William Morris from the great deep. Thanks also to the Inter-Library Loan staff of the Morris Miller Library. Grateful thanks to Margaret Stewart for her prompt and sensitive translation of II Rosseggiar dell' Oriente. Thanks are alsp due to: The Commonwealth of Australia for a Post-Graduate Research Award for three and a half years. The Fogg Art Gallery, Harvard University, for permission to reproduce Edward Burne-Jones's The Blessed Damozel (1857-61) which is used as the frontispiece to this work. The Society of Antiquaries of London for permission to reproduce the unpublished lyrics of William Morris. To Rolf Loudon, deus ex machina, for his unavailing electronic fervour. To Kerry de Fluck, for an idea in Chapter One and his proof-reading. To Tina Ruusula, for her proof-reading and editorial advice. To Kerry Dunbabin, & to C. A. Cranston, for encouragement. To the subscribers to 'Victoria: The Electronic Conference for Victorian Studies' for their suggestions, advice, and kindness. (Available via Internet e-mail: [email protected]) And not least: the many scholars who have been working so fruitfully in the field of Pre-Raphaelite studies over the past twenty years, particularly R. W. Crump, for her edition of the poems of Christina Rossetti. Note: The drop cap initials in this thesis were adapted from William Morris designs by Dave Nalle, The Scriptorium Library, Post Office Box 140333, Austin, Texas, 78714. [viii] Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................. vi Acknowledgments viii Preface ................................................................................................................ 1 Part One : Elegies Chapter One Silence & Confession ..................................................... 16 The Poetry of Christina Rossetti I: Silence: The 'It' Poems II: Confession: Monna Innominata III: 'Behind a Veil': 'By Way of Remembrance', Monna Innominata and II Rosseggiar dell' Oriente Chapter Two The Abhorred '/' .............................................................. 74 Introspection and Deflection in the Love Lyrics of William Morris I: ·'Love's Calendar': The Seasonal Lyrics II: 'Half-Heard Melody': The Fugitive Lyrics (i) Poems by the Way: The Public Lover (ii) Sonnet and Songs: The Private Lover (iii) 'Poet's Unrealities': The Hidden Lover Chapter Three Love's Last Gift ......................................................... 122 D. G. Rossetti's House of Grief Part Two: Narratives Chapter Four Beloved Queens .............................................................. 152 Pre-Raphaelite Women in Love I: The Earthly Paradise (i) Psyche: Passivity and Imprisonment (ii) Gudrun: Frustration and Cruelty II: The Arthurians (i) Guenevere: Adultery and Queenliness (ii) Iseult of Ireland: Passion and Union Chapter Five Erotic Histories .............................................................. 212 The Fantasy of Pre-Raphaelite Passion I: Nuns and Maidens: Christina Rossetti II: Knights and Ladies: William Morris III: Sorcerers and Sirens: D. G. Rossetti Envoi ............................................................................................................... 300 Bibliography 302 Appendix A .................................................................................................. 345 The Rosy Blush of Dawn

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