Rosetti The Blessed Damozel

As I was reading Rosetti's The Blessed Damozel, I understood how powerful his language and description were throughout the poem. He manages to use words to create vivid pictures, almost cinemagraphic in a way that are very similar to Milton's descriptions in Paradise Lost. This picturesque quality to his poetry helps narrate the story a lot better because it helps create a myriad of images that reflect the story he is telling. It also exemplifies the efforts poets like Rosetti put forth to interweave the spiritual traditions, the pastoral, along with a mystic one that reads more like a fairytale story. The poem begins with a great picturesque description of Heaven and unravels from there to describe the desire of the Blessed Damozel to eventually meet the man she loves in the Heavenly kingdom. I also noticed how important it was for poets during this era like Rosetti to marry poetry to the arts, as a way to strengthen, prove, and display the power of words. Like Browning, Rosetti is trying to incorporate many elements in his poetry in order to legitimize poetry and the power it holds.