Abstract
Although Elizabeth Siddall is the face of Pre-Raphaelitism, her voice is rarely heard. She wrote her poems in secret, and when they were published after her death, they were edited by William Michael Rossetti. In this chapter, Serena Trowbridge examines Siddall’s poetics in the light of the subjects and forms deployed by her contemporaries, including the Brontës, Dora Greenwell, Adelaide Proctor and, of course, Christina Rossetti. Even as Siddall’s poetry focuses on natural imagery, through which she explores love, loss, and the passing of time, ultimately she imbues these details with a meaning not historical but utterly contemporary, offering critiques of the role of the model, the place of women in relationships, and the sympathy between nature and the grieving woman.
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Notes
- 1.
For example, Lucinda Hawksley, Lizzie Siddal: The Tragedy of a Pre-Raphaelite Supermodel (London: André Deutsch, 2004), 61–62.
- 2.
Examples of biographies include J. B. Bullen, Rossetti, Painter and Poet (London: Frances Lincoln, 2011); Hawksley; Violet Hunt, The Wife of Rossetti: Her Life and Death, etc. (London: John Lane, 1932); Jan Marsh, Dante Gabriel Rossetti: Painter and Poet: A Biography (London: Orion, 1999); Jan Marsh, The Legend of Elizabeth Siddal (London: Quartet Books, 1989); Dinah Roe, The Rossettis in Wonderland (London: Haus Publishing, 2011).
- 3.
David Latham, “A ‘World of Its Own Creation’: Pre-Raphaelite Poetry and the New Paradigm for Art,” in Twenty-First Century Perspectives on Victorian Literature, ed. Laurence W. Mazzeno (Plymouth: Rowman & Littlefield, 2014), 127–150, 141.
- 4.
Deborah Cherry, “Elizabeth Eleanor Siddall,” in The Cambridge Companion to the Pre-Raphaelites, ed. Elizabeth Prettejohn (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 127–150, 185.
- 5.
Jan Marsh, Elizabeth Siddal 1829–1862: Pre-Raphaelite Artist (Sheffield: Ruskin Gallery, Collection of the Guild of St George/Sheffield Arts Department, 1991), 30.
- 6.
These were: Dante Gabriel Rossetti His Family-Letters with a Memoir (1895); Ruskin, Rossetti, Pre Raphaelitism (1895); ‘Dante Rossetti and Elizabeth Siddal,’ The Burlington Magazine; Some Reminiscences (1903).
- 7.
However, I use the commonly used titles in this chapter to minimize confusion. All references to Siddall’s poetry are taken from Serena Trowbridge, ed., My Ladys Soul: The Poetry of Elizabeth Eleanor Siddall (Brighton: Victorian Secrets, 2018). Errors of punctuation in the quotations are taken from the MSS.
- 8.
More attention has been paid to her artistic work than to her poetry; Marsh’s work on this is listed in the bibliography.
- 9.
Jan Marsh, Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood (London: Quartet Books, 1998), 35.
- 10.
Margaret Homans, Women Writers and Poetic Identity: Dorothy Wordsworth, Emily Brontë, and Emily Dickinson (Guildford: Princeton University Press, 1980), 3.
- 11.
Homans, Women Writers, 7.
- 12.
Lionel Stevenson, The Pre-Raphaelite Poets (New York: Norton, 1974), 4, 5.
- 13.
Dinah Roe, ed., The Pre-Raphaelites from Rossetti to Ruskin (London: Penguin Books, 2010), xviii.
- 14.
Isobel Armstrong, “The Pre-Raphaelites and Literature,” in The Cambridge Companion to the Pre-Raphaelites, ed. Elizabeth Prettejohn (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 15–31, 18.
- 15.
William Michael Rossetti, “Dante Rossetti and Elizabeth Siddal,” The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 1, no. 3 (1903): [273–295] 292.
- 16.
Constance Hassett, “Elizabeth Siddal’s Poetry: A Problem and Some Suggestions,” Victorian Poetry 35, no. 4 (1997): [443–470] 457–458.
- 17.
Roe, Pre-Raphaelite Poetry, xxi, xxii.
- 18.
I explore this further in “‘Truth to Nature’: The Pleasures and Dangers of the Environment in Christina Rossetti’s Poetry,” in Victorians and the Environment, ed. Ronald D. Morris and Lawrence Mazzeno (Farnham: Ashgate, 2017), 63–78.
- 19.
Hunt, Wife of Rossetti, 111.
- 20.
Homans, Women Writers, 13.
- 21.
Stefania Arcara, “Sleep and Liberation: The Opiate World of Elizabeth Siddal,” in Sleeping Beauties in Victorian Britain: Cultural, Literary and Artistic Explorations of a Myth, ed. Béatrice Laurent (Bern: Peter Lang, 2014), 95–120, 117.
- 22.
Eugenia C. DeLaMotte, Perils of the Night: A Feminist Study of Nineteenth-Century Gothic (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990), 22.
- 23.
Marjorie B. Garber, Shakespeare’s Ghost Writers: Literature as Uncanny Causality (London: Methuen, 1987), xv.
- 24.
Tricia Lootens, The Political Poetess: Victorian Femininity, Race and the Legacy of Separate Spheres (Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2017), 4.
- 25.
William Michael Rossetti, The Poetical Works of Christina Georgina Rossetti, with Memoir and Notes (London: Macmillan, 1903), lxix.
- 26.
Rossetti, William Michael, “Dante Rossetti and Elizabeth Siddal,” The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 1, no. 3 (1903): [273–295] 292.
- 27.
Lootens, Political Poetess, 4.
- 28.
Hunt, Wife of Rossetti, 283.
- 29.
Isobel Armstrong, Victorian Poetry: Poetry, Poetics and Politics (Abingdon: Routledge, 1993), 319.
- 30.
Armstrong, Victorian Poetry, 323.
- 31.
Armstrong, Victorian Poetry, 324.
- 32.
Hassett, “Elizabeth Siddal’s Poetry,” 452.
- 33.
Christina Hole, English Folklore (London: Batsford, 1940), 50.
- 34.
Hassett, “Elizabeth Siddal’s Poetry,” 453.
References
Arcara, Stefania. “Sleep and Liberation: The Opiate World of Elizabeth Siddal.” In Sleeping Beauties in Victorian Britain: Cultural, Literary and Artistic Explorations of a Myth, Edited by Béatrice Laurent. Bern: Peter Lang, 2014. 95–120.
Armstrong, Isobel. Victorian Poetry: Poetry, Poetics and Politics. Abingdon: Routledge, 1993.
Armstrong, Isobel. “The Pre-Raphaelites and Literature.” In The Cambridge Companion to the Pre-Raphaelites, Edited by Elizabeth Prettejohn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. 15–31.
Bullen, J. B. Rossetti, Painter and Poet. London: Frances Lincoln, 2011.
DeLaMotte, Eugenia C. Perils of the Night: A Feminist Study of Nineteenth-Century Gothic. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.
Garber, Marjorie B. Shakespeare’s Ghost Writers: Literature as Uncanny Causality. London: Methuen, 1987.
Hassett, Constance. “Elizabeth Siddal’s Poetry: A Problem and Some Suggestions.” Victorian Poetry 35, no. 4 (1997): 443–470.
Hawksley. Lucinda. Lizzie Siddal: The Tragedy of a Pre-Raphaelite Supermodel. London: André Deutsch, 2004.
Hole, Christina. English Folklore. London: Batsford, 1940.
Homans, Margaret. Women Writers and Poetic Identity: Dorothy Wordsworth, Emily Brontë, and Emily Dickinson. Guildford: Princeton University Press, 1980.
Hunt, Violet. The Wife of Rossetti: Her Life and Death, etc. London: John Lane, 1932.
Latham, David. “A ‘World of Its Own Creation’: Pre-Raphaelite Poetry and the New Paradigm for Art.” In Twenty-First Century Perspectives on Victorian Literature, Edited by Laurence W. Mazzeno Plymouth: Rowman & Littlefield, 2014. 127–150.
Lootens, Tricia. The Political Poetess: Victorian Femininity, Race and the Legacy of Separate Spheres. Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2017.
Marsh, Jan. The Legend of Elizabeth Siddal. London: Quartet Books, 1989.
Marsh, Jan. Elizabeth Siddal 1829–1862: Pre-Raphaelite Artist. Sheffield: Ruskin Gallery, Collection of the Guild of St George/Sheffield Arts Department, 1991.
Marsh, Jan Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood. London: Quartet Books, 1998.
Marsh, Jan. Dante Gabriel Rossetti: Painter and Poet: A Biography. London: Orion, 1999.
Roe, Dinah, ed. The Pre-Raphaelites from Rossetti to Ruskin. London: Penguin, 2010.
Roe, Dinah. The Rossettis in Wonderland. London: Haus Publishing, 2011.
Rossetti, William Michael. Dante Gabriel Rossetti. His Family-Letters with a Memoir. 2 vols. London: Ellis & Elvey, 1895.
Rossetti, William Michael. Ruskin, Rossetti, Pre-Raphaelitism. London: Allen Lane, 1895.
Rossetti, William Michael, ed. The Poetical Works of Christina Georgina Rossetti, with Memoir and Notes. London: Macmillan, 1903.
Rossetti, William Michael. “Dante Rossetti and Elizabeth Siddal.” The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 1, no. 3 (1903): 273–295.
Rossetti, William Michael. Some Reminiscences. 2 vols. New York: Scribner, 1906.
Stevenson, Lionel. The Pre-Raphaelite Poets. New York: Norton, 1974.
Trowbridge, Serena, ed. My Ladys Soul: The Poetry of Elizabeth Eleanor Siddall. Brighton: Victorian Secrets, 2018.
Trowbridge, Serena. “‘Truth to Nature’: The Pleasures and Dangers of the Environment in Christina Rossetti’s Poetry.” In Victorians and the Environment, Edited by Ronald D. Morris and Lawrence Mazzeno. Farnham: Ashgate, 2017. 63–78.
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Trowbridge, S. (2020). Elizabeth Siddall: Pre-Raphaelitism, Poetry, Prosody. In: Witcher, H.B., Huseby, A.K. (eds) Defining Pre-Raphaelite Poetics . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51338-2_8
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