“We must not look at goblin men, We must not buy their fruits:” Written in 1859 by Christina Rossetti (sister to Dante Gabriel Rossetti), Goblin Market is a narrative poem of two sisters who encounter temptation. It is a complex poem–almost too complex to delve into for a blog post simply because it is hard to narrow it down to…
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- Alexa Wilding, Annie Miller, Christina Rossetti, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Fanny Cornforth, Jane Burden Morris, Paintings
Rossetti’s Models
Like his Pre-Raphaelite brethren, Dante Gabriel Rossetti used live models in his works. Throughout the course of his career, the same faces grace his canvasses, ranging from family members to lovers. Occasionally, models Elizabeth Siddal and Alexa Wilding are confused for each other. Other models may be misidentified completely. so this post is intended to be a brief overview of…
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Did Elizabeth Siddal inspire Bram Stoker?
In the early years of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, artist Walter Deverell discovered Elizabeth Siddal working in a millinery shop. After modeling for his painting Twelfth Night, Siddal posed for several Pre-Raphaelite painters, including William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais. It was the artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti who was most captivated by her. He drew and painted her image obsessively.…
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Hide Me Among the Graves
Tim Powers doesn’t write about your run-of-the-mill vampires. His undead may feed upon you, but in return they will inspire words and poetry that you could never have written before. I found Powers’ mythology to be a refreshing twist. In Hide Me Among the Graves, the artistic Rossetti family deals with the vampiric curse of their late uncle, John Polidori.…
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Love is a place
One of the benefits of an active reading life is that when you read not only for pleasure but for improvement, then similar themes in different authors’ works seem to just float to you. Unbidden. Like synergy. Today I read e.e. cummings’ Love is a Place: love is a place & through this place of love move (with brightness of…
