The Blessed Damozel - Dante Gabriel Rossetti

The Blessed Damozel, written by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, is based off of a poem. It is about a Damozel watching her lover from the gates of heaven. She anxiously waits until the day they can be together. Through the painting, heaven is painted as a beautiful place with loving angels. The damozel says how she thought she had only been looking at him for a day, but instead ten years had passed.

"Herseem'd she scarce had been a day / One of God's choristers; / The wonder was not yet quite gone / From that still look of hers; / Albeit, to them she left, her day / Had counted as ten years."

The Damozel goes on to talk about how she wants her lover with her on earth. She is lost and wants to know why her and her lover have been separated. She asks God if it is because they are guilty of not praying enough.

"Are not two prayers a perfect strength? / And shall I feel afraid?"

She's curious to know if her and her lover are meant to be together. She says how shes afraid. What is she afraid of? Maybe she thinks that if her lover joins her on earth that he may find another woman. But, her lover soon helps her understand that they never know when they are going to be together. She begins to understand this...

"She gazed and listen'd, and then said, / Less sad of speech than mild, -- / 'All this is when he comes.' She ceased:/ The light thrill'd past her, fill'd / With Angels, in strong level lapse. / Her eyes pray'd and she smiled."

Her lover feels her leave and go up to heaven signified by the "(I saw her smile.)" and the closing of the poem, "(I heard her tears.)" As soon as she goes through the gates she "cast her arms along/ The golden barriers," which sounds as if she is sticking her arms through the gates of heaven. "And laid her face between her hands, / And wept." This seems to signify regret at having entered heaven without her lover. However it could also be her mourning the loss of the dream that she would enter heaven with him.