Pre-Raphaelite Poetry & Paintings

John William Waterhouse - The Lady of Shalott

Compiled by R.E. Slater 

Pre-Raphaelite poetry is characterized by its pictorial quality, using vivid, detailed language to create "pictures with words," and was heavily influenced by the visual art movement of the same name. Key themes include romantic love, artistic inspiration, and sexuality, often approached with an emphasis on sensory experience, realism, and a nostalgic medievalism. Prominent poets include the Rossetti siblings, Christina and Dante Gabriel (The Blessed Damozel), as well as William Morris (The Defence of Guenevere) and Algernon Charles Swinburne (poems by ACS). 

Ophelia by John Everett Millais (Elizabeth Siddal is the model)

Dream Land

by Christina Rossetti

Where sunless rivers weep

Their waves into the deep,

She sleeps a charmed sleep:

Awake her not.

Led by a single star,

She came from very far

To seek where shadows are

Her pleasant lot.

She left the rosy morn,

She left the fields of corn,

For twilight cold and lorn

And water springs.

Through sleep, as through a veil,

She sees the sky look pale,

And hears the nightingale

That sadly sings.

Rest, rest, a perfect rest

Shed over brow and breast;

Her face is toward the west,

The purple land.

She cannot see the grain

Ripening on hill and plain;

She cannot feel the rain

Upon her hand.

Rest, rest, for evermore

Upon a mossy shore;

Rest, rest at the heart's core

Till time shall cease:

Sleep that no pain shall wake;

Night that no morn shall break

Till joy shall overtake

Her perfect peace.

Joan of Arc (1882) by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

William Holman Hunt, The Hireling Shepherd (1851-1852)

John Everett Millais, Christ in the House of His Parents
(The Carpenter’s Shop), 1849-50.

William Holman Hunt, The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple (1854/1855)

An Introduction to the Pre-Raphaelites

National Museums Liverpool

The Pre-Raphaelites: From Rebellion to Ophelia’s Beauty

HENI Talks

What Is Pre-Raphaelite Art?

Pre-Raphaelite paintings differ from the art of Raphael by rejecting idealized figures for realism, using vibrant colors instead of muted tones, and exploring complex human emotions and social themes. Raphael's art (High Renaissance) emphasized idealized forms, balanced compositions, and a more restrained palette, while the Pre-Raphaelites focused on the "real," often through highly detailed depictions of nature, literature, and social issues.

Feature	Pre-Raphaelite paintings	Raphael's paintings
Style	Realistic, detailed, with sharp focus on detail and often a flatter perspective	Idealized, balanced, with an emphasis on symmetry and classical composition
Subject matter	Literary, mythological, and social themes; complex emotions like love, death, and passion	Religious, mythological, and historical subjects; often more stoic and idealized
Color	Bold, vibrant, and jewel-toned colors, often applied to a white background to make them "pop"	Muted and more limited color palettes, characteristic of the High Renaissance
Figures	Realistic figures, often with psychological depth and flaws	Idealized, perfect, and often "sterilized" figures, with less emphasis on flaws
Inspiration	Medieval art, late medieval and early Renaissance art "before Raphael"	High Renaissance, Classical antiquity, and mythological history
Approach to nature	Deeply admired and frequently featured with botanical accuracy and intricate realism	Often used as a backdrop rather than the focus; more emphasis on human figures and architecture

REFERENCES

Narrative Article by Robert Wilkes - Pre-Raphaelites in Cornwall

Wikipedia - Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB), later known as the Pre-Raphaelites, was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, James Collinson, Frederic George Stephens and Thomas Woolner who formed a seven-member "Brotherhood" partly modelled on the Nazarene movement.[1] The Brotherhood was only ever a loose association and their principles were shared by other artists and poets of the time, including Algernon Charles Swinburne, William Morris, Ford Madox Brown, Arthur Hughes and Marie Spartali Stillman. Later followers of the principles of the Brotherhood included Edward Burne-Jones and John William Waterhouse.

The group sought a return to the abundant detail, intense colours and complex compositions of Quattrocento Italian art. They rejected what they regarded as the mechanistic approach first adopted by Mannerist artists who succeeded Raphael and Michelangelo. The Brotherhood believed the Classical poses and elegant compositions of Raphael in particular had been a corrupting influence on the academic teaching of art, hence the name "Pre-Raphaelite". In particular, the group objected to the influence of Sir Joshua Reynolds, founder of the English Royal Academy of Arts, whom they called "Sir Sloshua". To the Pre-Raphaelites, according to William Michael Rossetti, "sloshy" meant "anything lax or scamped in the process of painting ... and hence ... any thing or person of a commonplace or conventional kind". The group associated their work with John Ruskin, an English critic whose influences were driven by his religious background. Christian themes were abundant.

The group continued to accept the concepts of history painting and mimesis, imitation of nature, as central to the purpose of art. The Pre-Raphaelites defined themselves as a reform movement, created a distinct name for their form of art, and published a periodical, The Germ, to promote their ideas. The group's debates were recorded in the Pre-Raphaelite Journal. The Brotherhood separated after almost five years.

The Ruthless Beauty by John William Waterhouse (1893)

La Belle Dame sans Merci (A Ballad)

The Beautiful Lady without Mercy - Analysis

by John Keats

O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,

       Alone and palely loitering?

The sedge has withered from the lake,

       And no birds sing.

O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,

       So haggard and so woe-begone?

The squirrel’s granary is full,

       And the harvest’s done.

I see a lily on thy brow,

       With anguish moist and fever-dew,

And on thy cheeks a fading rose

       Fast withereth too.

I met a lady in the meads,

       Full beautiful—a faery’s child,

Her hair was long, her foot was light,

       And her eyes were wild.

I made a garland for her head,

       And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;

She looked at me as she did love,

       And made sweet moan

I set her on my pacing steed,

       And nothing else saw all day long,

For sidelong would she bend, and sing

       A faery’s song.

She found me roots of relish sweet,

       And honey wild, and manna-dew,

And sure in language strange she said—

       ‘I love thee true’.

She took me to her Elfin grot,

       And there she wept and sighed full sore,

And there I shut her wild wild eyes

       With kisses four.

And there she lullèd me asleep,

       And there I dreamed—Ah! woe betide!—

The latest dream I ever dreamt

       On the cold hill side.

I saw pale kings and princes too,

       Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;

They cried—‘La Belle Dame sans Merci

       Thee hath in thrall!’

I saw their starved lips in the gloam,

       With horrid warning gapèd wide,

And I awoke and found me here,

       On the cold hill’s side.

And this is why I sojourn here,

       Alone and palely loitering,

Though the sedge is withered from the lake,

       And no birds sing.

Based on Alain Chartier's 1424 poem, La Belle Dame sans Merci,
painted by John William Waterhouse (1893)

Comparison of Ballads

John Keats's La Belle Dame sans Merci, is a dark ballad about a knight who is enchanted and then abandoned by a mysterious, supernatural woman. The poem explores themes of love's consuming and destructive power, the danger of obsession, and the spiritual death that follows abandonment. The narrative, presented as a dialogue between a poet and a knight, uses vivid imagery of nature, a hauntingly simple ballad form, and unsettling allusions to death to create a story of profound loss and disillusionment.

Whereas Alain Chartier's La Belle Dame sans Merci, is a 15th-century French poem about a devoted lover who is repeatedly rejected by the "beautiful lady without mercy" despite his pleas, compliments, and threats. The poem explores themes of courtly love, linguistic failure, and the frustration of unfulfilled desire, and its portrayal of a merciless woman generated controversy at the time. Its title later inspired John Keats's famous 19th-century ballad of the same name.

In brief summary, Keats borrows the evocative title and the core concept of the femme fatale from Chartier but reinterprets the story using the traditional English ballad form to explore Romantic themes of imagination, despair, and the clash between an ideal world and harsh reality.

Structural and Formal Differences

Feature	Keats's "La Belle Dame sans Merci" (1819)	Chartier's "La Belle Dame Sans Mercy" (1424)
Form	Traditional English ballad	Long courtly poem (100 stanzas)
Structure	12 quatrains (four-line stanzas)	Octaves (eight-line stanzas of octosyllables)
Rhyme Scheme	ABCB	Complex, consistent octave rhyme scheme (not fully preserved in modern English translation)
Meter	Primarily iambic tetrameter for the first three lines, iambic dimeter for the fourth line, creating a "dying fall" effect	Consistent octosyllabic lines
Language	English (Romantic era)	Middle French (le moyen français)