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Lizzy Siddal

· Dante Gabriel Rossetti: A New-Year’s Burden · HET LEVEN VAN ELISABETH SIDDAL VERTELD DOOR EVA WANJEK IN DE ROMAN ‘LIZZIE’ · ELIZABETH (LIZZIE) SIDDAL: AT LAST · Elizabeth (Lizzie) Siddal: Lord May I Come? · Elizabeth (Lizzie) Siddal: A Year and a Day · Elizabeth (Lizzie) Siddall: Worn Out · Elizabeth Siddal: The Lust of the Eyes · Elizabeth (Lizzie) Siddal: Love and Hate · Elizabeth (Lizzie) Siddal: Four Poems · Elizabeth (Lizzie) Siddal: The Passing of Love · Elizabeth (Lizzie) Siddal: True Love · Elizabeth (Lizzie) Siddal: Gone

»» there is more...

Dante Gabriel Rossetti: A New-Year’s Burden

A New-Year’s Burden

Along the grass sweet airs are blown
Our way this day in Spring.
Of all the songs that we have known
Now which one shall we sing?
Not that, my love, ah no!—
Not this, my love? why, so!—
Yet both were ours, but hours will come and go.
The grove is all a pale frail mist,
The new year sucks the sun.
Of all the kisses that we kissed
Now which shall be the one?
Not that my love, ah no!—
Not this, my love?—heigh-ho
For all the sweets that all the winds can blow!
The branches cross above our eyes,
The skies are in a net:
And what’s the thing beneath the skies
We two would most forget?
Not birth, my love, no, no,—
Not death, my love, no, no,—
The love once ours, but ours long hours ago.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti
(1828 – 1882)
A New-Year’s Burden

• fleursdumal.nl magazine

More in: *The Pre-Raphaelites Archive, Archive Q-R, Archive Q-R, Lizzy Siddal, Rossetti, Dante Gabriel


HET LEVEN VAN ELISABETH SIDDAL VERTELD DOOR EVA WANJEK IN DE ROMAN ‘LIZZIE’

De kunstenaar en zijn muze: liefde, begeerte, desillusie en onontkoombare verbondenheid

lizzy_wanjekEen onconventionele relatie tussen twee bijzondere mensen leidt hen naar de toppen van de roem, maar ook naar afgronden van ellende en vertwijfeling: van drank, opium en vooral wederzijdse afhankelijkheid. Het is de symbiotische relatie van een gedreven kunstenaar die alles – ook zijn eigen geluk en dat van anderen – opoffert voor de kunst, en een vrouw die haar bestaansrecht ontleent aan haar uitzonderlijke schoonheid, terwijl ze faalt in haar eigen artistieke ambities.

Lizzie geeft een levendig en panoramisch beeld van het bruisende Londen van de 19de eeuw, met zijn culturele elite, zijn bohémiens en zijn zelfkant. Hij biedt zowel kostuumdrama en ‘Gothic horror’ als erotische en indringende psychologische scènes. Het is een groots opgezet drama, van de allereerste ontmoeting in 1849 tussen het onbekende naaistertje en het aanstormende genie, tot aan diens dood als beroemde, maar eenzame weduwnaar in 1882.

Lizzie is een boeiende roman, die alle facetten van een man-vrouwrelatie toont, van prille liefde en begeerte, via wederzijdse ontrouw, vervreemding en desillusie tot aan het besef van absolute lotsverbondenheid.

Eva Wanjek is het pseudoniem waaronder twee auteurs van Uitgeverij Wereldbibliotheek hun krachten hebben gebundeld: de romanschrijver Martin Michael Driessen en de dichteres Liesbeth Lagemaat.

De pers over Lizzie:
‘Een samenwerkingsverband tussen Martin Michael Driessen en Liesbeth Lagemaat leidt tot een historische roman waarin kunstzinnige verhevenheid en de liefde het pijnlijk afleggen tegen de zelfdestructie. ****’ NRC Handelsblad
‘De auteurs hebben dit tranentrekkende, vuistdikke verhaal schittering opgebouwd. beelden trekken als een film aan je voorbij en laten je niet los. En al ben je broodnuchter, raak je door hun liefdesgeschiedenis die gedoemd is te mislukken, bedwelmd, en leest die in één gelukzalige roes uit.’ Baarnsche Courant

Een fragment uit: ‘Lizzie’

lizzy_wanjek03En als Miss Siddall maar lang genoeg in dit water ligt terwijl ik schilder, en vergeet waar ze is, dan krijg ik misschien juist de uitdrukking die ik zoek. Die van vergetelheid, van opgave, alsof ze op de wateren van de Lethe drijft. Misschien helpt een beetje laudanum. En ze is mooi genoeg om ook dan nog begeerlijk te zijn. Want dat is waarom het gaat. Ophelia moet in haar dood begeerlijk zijn. Want alleen dan is het tragisch dat niemand haar ooit zal beminnen.
Hij vroeg zich af wie van hen Miss Siddall als eerste bezitten zou. Ik niet, dacht hij, ze is zo kwetsbaar, daar zit je voor de rest van je leven aan vast. Hunt was te rechtschapen, die zou alleen met zijn wettige echtgenote naar bed gaan. En Deverell ook niet. Walter was idolaat van haar, maar hij was een ziek man. Het zou Dante wel zijn. Lizzie was Dante’s meisje.

Nog een fragment uit: ‘Lizzie’

lizzy_wanjek04Ik ben Rossetti,’ zegt hij en ik hoor zijn stem vertraagd, alsof hij weerkaatst wordt door een gewelf. ‘Mijn naam is Dante Gabriel Rossetti, u zult wel nooit van mij gehoord hebben. Ik ben dichter en schilder.

Er is een beweging, de Prerafaëlitische Broederschap… zo noemen we ons… waarvan ik de leider ben. En nu ik u heb gezien, wil ik u vragen…’

Als een mens ooit werd opgetild van de aarde, dan werd ik het, nu. Ik wist niet wat me overkwam. Maar ik wist wel wat ik nu wilde zeggen…

Ze glimlachte en reciteerde – bevangen, als iemand die onwennig op een bruiloft of uitvaart spreekt en bang is iets verkeerds te zeggen – twee van zijn eigen verzen, uit ‘The Blessed Damozel’:

I’ll take his hand and go with him
To the deep wells of light…

Hij knielde voor haar en kuste haar hand. Het was voor het eerst in haar leven dat een man voor haar knielde. Nu mocht en kon er niets meer gezegd worden.
In de deuropening draaide hij zich om. Ze zat nog steeds op haar stoel, haar ene hand op het tafelblad, blank en haast doorschijnend, als door een Hollandse meester geschilderd. Ze keek over haar schouder naar het beroete raam, dat nauwelijks licht doorliet, en scheen weer onbereikbaar, in haar eigen gedachten verzonken. Was ze zo, of poseerde ze? Wat het ook was, ze deed het goed.

Voordat Dante de deur weer sloot, maakte hij met zachte stem de strofe af:

As unto a stream we will step down,
And bathe there in God’s sight

lizzy_wanjek02Eva Wanjek:
Lizzie
paperback met flappen
15×23 cm.
464 pagina’s
ISBN 9789028426160
prijs € 24,95

Uitgeverij Wereldbibliotheek
Johannes Vermeerstraat 63, 1071 DN Amsterdam
Tel: 020 570 61 00
Fax: 020 570 61 99
E-mail: info@wereldbibliotheek.nl

fleursdumal.nl magazine

More in: *The Pre-Raphaelites Archive, - Book News, Archive W-X, Lizzy Siddal, Rossetti, Dante Gabriel, Siddal, Lizzy


ELIZABETH (LIZZIE) SIDDAL: AT LAST

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Siddal

(1829-1862)

 

At Last

O mother, open the window wide
And let the daylight in;
The hills grow darker to my sight
And thoughts begin to swim.

And mother dear, take my young son,
(Since I was born of thee)
And care for all his little ways
And nurse him on thy knee.

And mother, wash my pale pale hands
And then bind up my feet;
My body may no longer rest
Out of its winding sheet.

And mother dear, take a sapling twig
And green grass newly mown,
And lay them on my empty bed
That my sorrow be not known.

And mother, find three berries red
And pluck them from the stalk,
And burn them at the first cockcrow
That my spirit may not walk.

And mother dear, break a willow wand,
And if the sap be even,
Then save it for sweet Robert’s sake
And he’ ll know my sou’s in heaven.

And mother, when the big tears fall,
(And fall, God knows, they may)
Tell him I died of my great love
And my dying heart was gay.

And mother dear, when the sun has set
And the pale kirk grass waves,
Then carry me through the dim twilight
And hide me among the graves.

 

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Siddal poems
fleursdumal.nl magazine

More in: Archive S-T, Lizzy Siddal, Siddal, Lizzy


Elizabeth (Lizzie) Siddal: Lord May I Come?

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Siddal

(1829-1862)

 

Lord May I Come?

 

Life and night are falling from me,

Death and day are opening on me,

Wherever my footsteps come and go,

Life is a stony way of woe.

Lord, have I long to go?

 

Hallow hearts are ever near me,

Soulless eyes have ceased to cheer me:

Lord may I come to thee?

 

Life and youth and summer weather

To my heart no joy can gather.

Lord, lift me from life’s stony way!

Loved eyes long closed in death watch for me:

Holy death is waiting for me

 

Lord, may I come to-day?

 

My outward life feels sad and still

Like lilies in a frozen rill;

I am gazing upwards to the sun,

Lord, Lord, remembering my lost one.

O Lord, remember me!

 

How is it in the unknown land?

Do the dead wander hand in hand?

God, give me trust in thee.

 

Do we clasp dead hands and quiver

With an endless joy for ever?

Do tall white angels gaze and wend

Along the banks where lilies bend?

Lord, we know not how this may be:

Good Lord we put our faith in thee

 

O God, remember me.

 

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Siddal poems

fleursdumal.nl magazine

More in: Archive S-T, Lizzy Siddal, Siddal, Lizzy


Elizabeth (Lizzie) Siddal: A Year and a Day

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Siddal

(1829-1862)

 

A Year and a Day

Slow days have passed that make a year,

Slow hours that make a day,

Since I could take my first dear love

And kiss him the old way;

Yet the green leaves touch me on the cheek,

Dear Christ, this month of May.

 

I lie among the tall green grass

That bends above my head

And covers up my wasted face

And folds me in its bed

Tenderly and lovingly

Like grass above the dead.

 

Dim phantoms of an unknown ill

Float through my tired brain;

The unformed visions of my life

Pass by in ghostly train;

Some pause to touch me on the cheek,

Some scatter tears like rain.

 

A shadow falls along the grass

And lingers at my feet;

A new face lies between my hands –

Dear Christ, if I could weep

Tears to shut out the summer leaves

When this new face I greet.

 

Still it is but the memory

Of something I have seen

In the dreamy summer weather

When the green leaves came between:

The shadow of my dear love’s face –

So far and strange it seems.

 

The river ever running down

Between its grassy bed,

The voices of a thousand birds

That clang above my head,

Shall bring to me a sadder dream

When this sad dream is dead.

 

A silence falls upon my heart

And hushes all its pain.

I stretch my hands in the long grass

And fall to sleep again,

There to lie empty of all love

Like beaten corn of grain.

 

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Siddal poems

fleursdumal.nl magazine

More in: Archive S-T, Lizzy Siddal, Siddal, Lizzy


Elizabeth (Lizzie) Siddall: Worn Out

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Siddall

(1829-1862)

Worn Out

Thy strong arms are around me, love
My head is on thy breast;
Low words of comfort come from thee
Yet my soul has no rest.

For I am but a startled thing
Nor can I ever be
Aught save a bird whose broken wing
Must fly away from thee.

I cannot give to thee the love
I gave so long ago,
The love that turned and struck me down
Amid the blinding snow.

I can but give a failing heart
And weary eyes of pain,
A faded mouth that cannot smile
And may not laugh again.

Yet keep thine arms around me, love,
Until I fall to sleep;
Then leave me, saying no goodbye
Lest I might wake, and weep.


fleursdumal.nl magazine

More in: Archive S-T, Lizzy Siddal, Siddal, Lizzy


Elizabeth Siddal: The Lust of the Eyes

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Siddal

(1829-1862)

 

The Lust of the Eyes

 

I care not for my Lady’s soul

Though I worship before her smile;

I care not where be my Lady’s goal

When her beauty shall lose its wile.

 

Low sit I down at my Lady’s feet

Gazing through her wild eyes

Smiling to think how my love will fleet

When their starlike beauty dies.

 

I care not if my Lady pray

To our Father which is in Heaven

But for joy my heart’s quick pulses play

For to me her love is given.

 

Then who shall close my Lady’s eyes

And who shall fold her hands?

Will any hearken if she cries

Up to the unknown lands?

 

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Siddal poems

fleursdumal.nl magazine for art & literature

More in: Archive S-T, Lizzy Siddal, Siddal, Lizzy


Elizabeth (Lizzie) Siddal: Love and Hate

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Siddal

(1829-1862)

 

Love and Hate

 

Ope not thy lips, thou foolish one,

Nor turn to me thy face;

The blasts of heaven shall strike thee down

Ere I will give thee grace.

 

Take thou thy shadow from my path,

Nor turn to me and pray;

The wild wild winds thy dirge may sing

Ere I will bid thee stay.

 

Turn thou away thy false dark eyes,

Nor gaze upon my face;

Great love I bore thee: now great hate

Sits grimly in its place.

 

All changes pass me like a dream,

I neither sing nor pray;

And thou art like the poisonous tree

That stole my life away.

 

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Siddal poems

fleursdumal.nl magazine

More in: Archive S-T, Lizzy Siddal, Siddal, Lizzy


Elizabeth (Lizzie) Siddal: Four Poems

 

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Siddal

(1829-1862)

Four Poems

 

A Silent Wood

O silent wood, I enter thee
With a heart so full of misery
For all the voices from the trees
And the ferns that cling about my knees.

In thy darkest shadow let me sit
When the grey owls about thee flit;
There will I ask of thee a boon,
That I may not faint or die or swoon.

Gazing through the gloom like one
Whose life and hopes are also done,
Frozen like a thing of stone
I sit in thy shadow but not alone.

Can God bring back the day when we two stood
Beneath the clinging trees in that dark wood?



He and She and Angels Three

Ruthless hands have torn her
From one that loved her well;
Angels have upborn her,
Christ her grief to tell.

She shall stand to listen,
She shall stand and sing,
Till three winged angels
Her lover’s soul shall bring.

He and she and the angels three
Before God’s face shall stand;
There they shall pray among themselves
And sing at His right hand.


Early Death

Oh grieve not with thy bitter tears
The life that passes fast;
The gates of heaven will open wide
And take me in at last.

Then sit down meekly at my side
And watch my young life flee;
Then solemn peace of holy death
Come quickly unto thee.

But true love, seek me in the throng
Of spirits floating past,
And I will take thee by the hands
And know thee mine at last.



 

Dead Love

Oh never weep for love that’s dead
Since love is seldom true
But changes his fashion from blue to red,
From brightest red to blue,
And love was born to an early death
And is so seldom true.

Then harbour no smile on your bonny face
To win the deepest sigh.
The fairest words on truest lips
Pass on and surely die,
And you will stand alone, my dear,
When wintry winds draw nigh.

Sweet, never weep for what cannot be,
For this God has not given.
If the merest dream of love were true
Then, sweet, we should be in heaven,
And this is only earth, my dear,
Where true love is not given.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Siddal – poetry

fleursdumal.nl magazine

More in: Lizzy Siddal, Siddal, Lizzy


Elizabeth (Lizzie) Siddal: The Passing of Love

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Siddal

(1829-1862)

 

The Passing of Love

O God, forgive me that I ranged

My live into a dream of love!

Will tears of anguish never wash

The passion from my blood?

 

Love kept my heart in a song of joy,

My pulses quivered to the tune;

The coldest blasts of winter blew

Upon me like sweet airs in June.

 

Love floated on the mists of morn

And rested on the sunset’s rays;

He calmed the thunder of the storm

And lighted all my ways.

 

Love held me joyful through the day

And dreaming ever through the night;

No evil thing could come to me,

My spirit was so light.

 

O Heaven help my foolish heart

Which heeded not the passing time

That dragged my idol from its place

And shattered all its shrine.

 

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Siddal poems

fleursdumal.nl magazine

More in: Archive S-T, Lizzy Siddal, Siddal, Lizzy


Elizabeth (Lizzie) Siddal: True Love

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Siddal

(1829-1862)

 

True Love

Farewell, Earl Richard,

Tender and brave;

Kneeling I kiss

The dust from thy grave.

 

Pray for me, Richard,

Lying alone

With hands pleading earnestly,

All in white stone.

 

Soon must I leave thee

This sweet summer tide;

That other is waiting

To claim his pale bride.

 

Soon I’ll return to thee

Hopeful and brave,

When the dead leaves

Blow over thy grave.

 

Then shall they find me

Close at thy head

Watching or fainting,

Sleeping or dead.

 

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Siddal poems

kempis.nl poetry magazine

More in: Archive S-T, Lizzy Siddal, Siddal, Lizzy


Elizabeth (Lizzie) Siddal: Gone

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Siddal

(1829-1862)

 

Gone

To touch the glove upon her tender hand,

To watch the jewel sparkle in her ring,

Lifted my heart into a sudden song

As when the wild birds sing.

 

To touch her shadow on the sunny grass,

To break her pathway through the darkened wood,

Filled all my life with trembling and tears

And silence where I stood.

 

I watch the shadows gather round my heart,

I live to know that she is gone

 

Gone gone for ever, like the tender dove

That left the Ark alone.

 

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Siddal poems

fleursdumal.nl magazine

More in: Archive S-T, Lizzy Siddal, Siddal, Lizzy


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