{"id":454,"date":"2023-04-17T04:41:34","date_gmt":"2023-04-17T04:41:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/?p=454"},"modified":"2023-04-17T04:41:34","modified_gmt":"2023-04-17T04:41:34","slug":"the-problem-with-long-distance-relationships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/2023\/04\/17\/the-problem-with-long-distance-relationships\/","title":{"rendered":"The Problem with Long-Distance Relationships"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dante Gabriel Rossetti\u2019s \u201cThe Blessed Damozel\u201d is a poem about star-crossed lovers \u2013 literally. The titular damsel pines for her lover, waiting for the day he will join her in heaven so they can enter paradise together. Throughout the poem, the damsel is characterized as both spiritual and earthly, which emphasizes the divide between her place in heaven and her still-living lover’s place on Earth. She is described as holding three lilies, which represent purity and the Holy Trinity, and in her unbound hair are seven stars, which are\u00a0a direct biblical reference. The only adornment on her dress is a white rose, which the Virgin Mary gifted to her (page 458). Each of these details establishes the damsel\u2019s purity and innocence, as well as her unearthly nature. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The poem has three distinct voices: the omniscient narrator, who describes the damsel; the damsel herself, who speaks out to her lover from heaven; the damsel\u2019s lover, whose brief remarks occur within parentheses. In a way, this poem is a conversation between the heavenly damsel and her Earth-bound lover. Her lover\u2019s parenthetical responses indicate how far removed he is from her, though their imagined communication emphasizes the extent of their love. When the damsel calls down to her lover, it is doubly emphasized that her voice \u201cwas like the voice the stars \/ Had when they sang together\u201d (page 459). She is no longer an Earthly creature, but a celestial being. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, her lover imagines that he can hear her voice: \u201cEven now, in that bird\u2019s song, \/ Strove not her accents there, \/ Fain to be hearkened?\u201d (page 460). He imagines feeling her presence as well, saying \u201cSurely she leaned o\u2019er me \u2013 her hair \/ Fell all about my face… \/ Nothing: the autumn-fall of leaves\u201d (page 458).\u00a0The lover\u2019s imagination of the damsel in the natural world contrasts with her celestial description and highlights the distance between them. He is incapable of imagining her as something he doesn\u2019t know \u2013 something unearthly. The only remaining Earthly trait of the damsel\u2019s is her hair, which is \u201cyellow like ripe corn\u201d (page 458). This agricultural comparison is inextricably linked to Earth, and it contrasts with the other celestial descriptions, potentially representing her remaining tie to the Earth. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When the lover\u2019s responses are read separately from the narration or the damsel\u2019s speech, the poem becomes about grief as well as star-crossed love. The damsel, having seen heaven, knows that they will eventually be reunited, though she wishes she didn\u2019t have to wait. Her lover, however, has no such certainty. Ten years have passed since the damsel died, and while she still feels as though she just arrived in heaven, time has been passing as usual on Earth. Her lover has spent ten years mourning her death, and he still imagines her presence, which highlights the extent of their love and gives hope that their relationship will survive death. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dante Gabriel Rossetti\u2019s \u201cThe Blessed Damozel\u201d is a poem about star-crossed lovers \u2013 literally. The titular damsel pines for her lover, waiting for the day he will join her in heaven so they can enter paradise together. Throughout the poem, the damsel is characterized as both spiritual and earthly, which emphasizes the divide between her … Continue reading The Problem with Long-Distance Relationships<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4998,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spring-2023"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4998"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}