Poetry Of Dante Gabriel Rossetti eBook

Poetry is often cited as our greatest use of words. The English language has well over a million of them and poets down the ages seem, at times, to make use of every single one. But often they use them in simple ways to describe anything and everything from landscapes to all aspects of the human condition. Poems can evoke within us an individual response that takes us by surprise; that opens our ears and eyes to very personal feelings.

Forget the idea of classic poetry being somehow dull and boring. It still has life, vibrancy and relevance to our lives today.

This comes to you from Portable Poetry, a dedicated poetry publisher. We believe that poetry should be a part of our everyday lives, uplifting the soul & reaching the parts that other arts can’t. Our range of audiobooks and ebooks cover volumes on some of our greatest poets to anthologies of seasons, months, places and a wide range of themes.

This audio book is also duplicated in print as an ebook. Same title. Same words. Perhaps a different experience. But with Amazon’s whispersync you can pick up and put down on any device - start on audio, continue in print and any which way after that.

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Dante Gabriel Rossetti - An Introduction

Dante Gabriel Rossetti was born on 12th May 1828 in London, England.

As a youth he was "self-possessed, articulate, passionate and charismatic" but also "ardent, poetic and feckless". Like his siblings, including famed poet Christina Georgina Rossetti, he most wished to be a poet but had a keen eye as a painter, having shown a great interest in Medieval Italian art.

Together with Williamn Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais they developed and founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

Their mission? To reform English art and return to the detail, intense colours, and complex compositions of Quattrocento Italian and Flemish art.

The brotherhood''s magazine, The Germ, was first published in 1850 with Rossetti contributing a poem, "The Blessed Damozel", and a story about a fictional Italian artist inspired by a vision of a woman who bids him combine the human and the divine in his art.

Rossetti first met his future wife, Elizabeth Siddal, a model, in 1849, who was latter sitting for him and involved in an intense relationship.

By 1852 they withdrew from society, totally absorbed in each other. The lovers nicknamed each other; "Guggums" and "Dove".

In 1861, Rossetti together with William Morris became a founding partner in the decorative arts firm, Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. Rossetti contributed designs for stained glass and other decorative objects.

Meanwhile his marriage to Lizzie was troubled. The terrible hurt of Rossetti’s affairs with other women had caused her stress leading to depression and other illnesses. She now began to take and become addicted to laudanum.

In 1861, Lizzie became pregnant but the resultant birth was a stillborn daughter. Lizzie’s post-partum depression was followed by an overdose of laudanum the following year.

Rossetti was devastated and, at her funeral in Highgate Cemetery, he buried the bulk of his unpublished poems with her body.

Poetry and painting are closely entwined in Rossetti''s work. He frequently wrote sonnets to accompany his pictures, while also creating art to illustrate poems such as "Goblin Market" by his sister.

His personal life was closely woven into his work, especially his relationships with his models and muses. William Morris’s wife, Jane, regularly sat for him during the next few years, and it was said she "consumed and obsessed him in paint, poetry, and life".

During these years, Rossetti was prevailed upon by friends to exhume his poems from his wife''s gr...