Summary of the Blessed Damozel by D. G. Rossetti
The Blessed Damozel was first published in 1850. It is a dramatic lyric poem consisting of 24 stanzas of six lines each. The tone of the poem is romantic yet depressing. After reading Poem's The Raven about a person who mourns the passing of his beloved, a woman named Lenore and going through Dante's Divine Comedy in which the writer's first romantic endeavour takes him all through purgatory and also heaven during his imaginary course through the realm, Rossetti conceived the idea for his poem.
The theme of the poem is undying love. Even though the death of one woman has separated her from the man she loves, the love between them as well as the hope that one day they will reunite in heaven lives on. “ Damozel is an archaic word and the poetic version of' damsel which refers to a young unmarried lady.
The woman in the poem feels that since she cannot reach her lover, her lover needs to reach her. She says that she has prayed for their union and then stops for a while and worries that her lover has not prayed yet. She asks God and wants to learn whether it is true that the strength of two lovers is perfect. If it is true, then she feels afraid that
something terrible has haappened to her lover, or that her lover has forgotten her or is no longer in love with her.
The Blessed Damozel presents the expression of an ancient and well-known theme; the desire of an isolated separated lover to achieve unity with the beloved. Rossetti has framed this vision as a a reverie reverie,, a daydream, a wish-fulfilling dream in the mind of a lover. The heart of the poem is ironic conflict between the earthly bodily desire poem and the tradition that heaven is a place of disembodied souls, comforted and joyful in the presence of God. This irony is emphasised by the poem's religious framework.
