An Analysis of Lilith (Bodys Beauty) :: Lilith Essays

An Analysis of Lilith  (Bodys Beauty)   First create in 1868 in Swinburnes pamphlet-review, Notes on the Royal honorary society Exhibition, the sonnet entitled Lilith was written to accompany the painting Lady Lilith. The poem and picture appeared alongside Rossettis painting Sibylla Palmifera and the sonnet Souls Beauty, which was written for it. In 1870, both of these poems were published among the Sonnets for Pictures section of Rossettis Poems.   In 1881, however, it occurred to Rossetti to contrast the two as representatives of fleshly and spiritual beauty, and thus he transferred them to The House of Life (Baum 181). The Lilith sonnet was then renamed Bodys Beauty in order to highlight the contrast between it and Souls Beauty, and the two were placed sequentially in The House of Life (sonnets number 77 and 78). Because Rossetti originally named the sonnet Lilith and nonwithstanding changed the name to highlight the contrast between it and Souls Beauty, this stu dy will refer to it by its original name. Lilith reads as follows   Of Adams first wife, Lilith, it is told (The witch he loved beforehand the gift of Eve,) That, ere the snakes, her sweet tongue could deceive, And her enchanted hair was the first gold. And still she sits, young while the earth is old, And, subtly of herself contemplative, Draws men to watch the bright web she can weave, Till heart and body and life are in its hold. The rose and poppy are her flower for where Is he not found, O Lilith, whom shed spirit And soft-shed kisses and soft sleep shall snare? Lo as that youths eyes burned at thine, so went Thy spell through him, and left his straight neck bent And tour his heart one strangling golden hair. (Collected Works, 216).   Much like Lady Lilith, Lilith celebrates the pleasures of physicality. As an enchantress, she draws men to watch the bright web she can weave, but she does not invite them to be mere voyeurs of her charms (line 7). Instead, she inv ites them to her and then ensnares them in her web of physical beauty, ultimately causing their death (line 8).   Subtly of herself contemplative, a phrase echoing Paters celebrated description of the Mona Lisa, highlights Liliths attitude of voluptuous self applause, an attitude which was so visually apparent in Rossettis painting (Baum 185).