Rossetti (1828–1882)was a founder of the PRB. More than just a painter, he was the poetic soul of the movement. He also contributed to The Germ, the Brotherhood’s journal, which spread their ideals. His family was also deeply connected to literature and art: His brother, William Michael Rossetti, was the critic and chronicler of the PRB. His sister, Christina Rossetti, was one of the greatest Victorian poets. As a poet, Rossetti wrote "The Blessed Damozel", "Jenny", "Silent Noon", and his sonnet sequence The House of Life. As a painter, his signature works include The Girlhood of Mary Virgin, Beata Beatrix, and Proserpine.
Jane Morris as Muse
The model for Proserpine was Jane Morris,
wife of William Morris. She was an artist herself and Rossetti’s muse from the
late 1860s until his death. Rossetti painted Proserpine in eight
versions, including a chalk sketch that mirrors the underworld’s shadowy
atmosphere. Their relationship was close, possibly romantic. Jane, like
Proserpine, was seen as trapped—in her marriage, in her role. Rossetti gave her
attention, and she gave him artistic inspiration. Her strong features, full
lips, and dramatic hair became the iconic face of Rossetti’s heroines. In this
way, Jane became both a personal muse and a symbol of Proserpine’s fate.
Proserpine
was the daughter of Ceres, the goddess of harvest. She was abducted by Pluto,
the god of the underworld who wanted to marry her. The mother searched the
whole world in grief. During this time, she neglected her duties and the earth
became barren—no crops grew, no fruits ripened, and famine spread. At last,
Jupiter, the king of the gods, intervened. He commanded that Proserpine should
be returned to her mother. But Proserpine had eaten six seeds of a pomegranate,
food of the underworld. After eating a
seed of the pomegranate, she was bound to underworld forever. A compromise was made. Proserpine would spend
part of the year with her husband Pluto in the underworld, and the rest of the
year with her mother Ceres on earth. This myth explained the seasons: winter as
her exile when Ceres mourns, and spring as her return when Ceres rejoices.
Rossetti’s
sonnet gives us the voice of Proserpine, who is trapped in the underworld after
tasting the pomegranate fruit. Rossetti’s sonnet on Proserpine is written in
Petrarchan form. (unattainable love and beauty) The octave describes her outer
exile, and the sestet shows her inner listening and longing. The octave
introduces a problem or conflict in the mind of the speaker, in the
first four lines (known as the first quatrain). The next quatrain explains the
problem or provides an exposition to the reader. The sestet begins with a volta
which marks the change in rhyme scheme as well as the change of the conflict
into a solution or some form of resolution.
The
poem begins, ‘Afar away the light that brings cold cheer. Unto this wall, – one
instant and no more / Admitted at my distant palace-door’ Here, Proserpine sees
a sliver ray of daylight enters the doorway of the underworld palace. Normally,
light should bring warmth and hope, but here it feels cold and comfortless.
This is an oxymoron—‘cold cheer.’ In the painting, Proserpine stands in a dark,
enclosed corridor. we see that faint shaft of light falling on the wall behind
Proserpine. This small glimpse of light shows her confinement—she is shut away,
with only a second’s reminder of the world above. In the painting, the absence
of flowers in the picture contrasts with the flowers of Enna she remembers in
the poem.
‘Afar
the flowers of Enna from this drear.’ She remembers the meadow-flowers of Enna
in Sicily, the place where she was abducted. Those flowers, once full of joy,
now feel impossibly far from her dreary prison.
‘Dire
fruit, which, tasted once, must thrall me here.’ This refers to the pomegranate
she ate. That single act enslaves her to the underworld for part of
every year. In the painting, Proserpine holds the pomegranate which symbolizes
the fateful choice that binds her forever to the underworld.
The
poem continues, ‘Afar those skies from this Tartarean grey / That chills me:
and afar how far away,’ She contrasts the bright skies above with the grey
gloom of Tartarus. The word ‘afar’ is repeated, almost echoing her sense of
endless distance and hopelessness. In the painting, we feel that chill in the
grey-green palette, in the shadows that surround her. The skies above are
absent, replaced by the heavy atmosphere of imprisonment.
Later
the sonnet says, ‘The nights that shall become the days that were.’ Her future
is now only nights, replacing the days she once enjoyed. Time feels inverted:
her bright past is gone, and darkness defines her present.
Inner
longing begins
Line
9: ‘Afar from mine own self I seem, and wing.’ Here, she feels cut off even
from herself, alienated from her own identity. Her mind ‘wings’ away, flying
into wandering thoughts. In the painting, this inward searching is echoed in
Jane Morris’s expression. She looks down and sideways, lost in thought,
listening inwardly rather than engaging outwardly.
Line
10: ‘Strange ways in thought, and listen for a sign:’ Her imagination travels
into strange places, while she listens for some sign—perhaps from her mother,
or from the world above, or even from fate itself. The ivy that clings like
memory. the incense burner beside her, reminding us she is a goddess waiting
for a sign.
Line
11: ‘And still some heart unto some soul doth pine,’ She believes that
somewhere, one heart is still yearning for another. We can hear Ceres, her
mother, grieving for her daughter. But Rossetti writes it in general terms, so
it becomes a universal cry of longing.
Lines
12–13: ‘O, whose sounds mine inner sense is fain to bring, / (Continually
together murmuring)’ Her inner ear is eager—‘fain’—to catch that distant cry of
grief. She hears it as a low, continuous murmur, as if sorrow itself is echoing
in her heart.
The
sonnet ends, : ‘Woe me for thee, unhappy Proserpine.’ Finally, the lament
becomes a direct cry: ‘Alas for you, unhappy Proserpine.’ This could be the
voice of her mother, or the voice of the world above. Or perhaps it is
Proserpine herself, echoing her own fate in despair. And the painting too gives
us this lament, but silently—through her downcast eyes.
the sonnet as a whole captures Proserpine’s
exile—her distance from the light, from nature, from herself, and from her
mother. Through repetition and rich imagery, Rossetti makes us feel the weight
of her sorrow and longing.”
Pre-Raphaelite
Principles in Proserpine
“Both
the sonnet and the painting perfectly express Pre-Raphaelite ideals:
- Truth to
Nature:
in the detailed textures of the fruit, the ivy, the folds of her gown; in
the poem’s flowers, skies, and light.
- Symbolism: the fruit
represents fate and bondage; the ivy stands for memory and time; light and
shadow show hope and confinement; her downward gaze reflects psychological
imprisonment.
- Unity of the
Arts:
Rossetti combined poetry and painting to tell one story in two languages.
- Style: intense
jewel-like colours, sharp outlines, mythic subjects reimagined with modern
feeling
In Proserpine, Rossetti unites myth, poetry,
painting, and personal experience. The sonnet speaks of exile and longing,
while the painting captures silent sorrow and symbolic detail. Together, they
reveal the essence of the Pre-Raphaelite movement: truth to nature, symbolic
richness, intense colour, and the union of the arts. Proserpine is not just a
mythic figure here—she is also Jane Morris, and she is Rossetti himself: caught
between desire, loss, and the longing for freedom
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