I need a little guidance on this poem. Here is the poem and I will address my questions below:

One face looks out from all his canvasses,
One selfsame figure sits or walks or leans;
We found her hidden just behind those screens,
That mirror gave back all her loveliness.
A queen in opal or in ruby dress,
A nameless girl in freshest summer greens,
A saint, an angel - every canvass means
The same one meaning, neither more nor less.
He feeds upon her face by day and night,
And she with true kind eyes looks back on him
Fair as the moon and joyful as the light;
Not wan with waiting, not with sorrow dim;
Not as she is, but was when hope shone bright;
Not as she is, but as she fills his dream.

I understand this poem is about an artist who constantly is drawing the face of the lady he loves over and over in all of his works. I am wondering how the poem is resolved. "And she with true kind eyes looks back on him " Does this mean that she is just as fond about him, as the artist is about her? After that I am confused. It says, "as she fills his dream" i think this means the begin a relationship or get married, but I'm wondering how they reach that point. Does the lady pursue the artist, is it the other way around, do they both pursue a relationship or am I totally missing the point?

Thanks!

andrew-


I think you're reading too much into it.
This... longing, is strictly a one-way street.
Her point of view is never mentioned.
The last two lines IMPLY it, but she may not even really exist.


Unrequited love?
Imaginary perfection?


Jack

Well, this is about the male gaze.

This man has done a kinda of Dorian Gray thing to this desired woman
whom he apparently can't have. He has immortalized her
on canvas so that she can never reject him nor grow old.

In this way, he maintains power and control,
never realizing or finding fulfillment of his fantasy---
but to him, that seems enough here.

Is that at all helpful?

Lisa

Thanks, that is just what I needed to get the ball rolling.

Christina Rossetti's brother was the painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti, one of the founders of the Pre Raphelite Brotherhood. Lizzie Siddal was the model in many of the Pre Raphelite Brotherhood's paintings.

Dante Rossetti met her in 1850, began a relationship with her in 1852, married her in 1860, and in 1862 came home to find her dead of an overdose of laudanum.

Here is Lizzie Siddal:

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Those works don't look exactly like the queen in Christina's poem, but the guess could very well be right on the money. I wonder how Siddal was pronounced - like Dodgson's Alice Liddell? I remember the Rossetti's were friends with CLD.

Here is a photograph of Christina taken by Dodgson:

[catlin.clas.virginia.edu]

While a number of critics think this poem alludes to the romance of Christina's brother, there are also critics who totally reject this idea. There is no explicit evidence in this poem to back up this idea, so this is very much an open question. I would think the "queen in opal or in ruby dress" is a real figure, otherwise the contrast between "is" and "was" in the second last line would not be valid. This poem nevertheless focussed on how the male artist perceived his love, rather than the girl's attitude.

Interesting - thanks for the note!