Images of Lilith in A Sea-Spell and The Orchard Pit :: Sea-Spell Essays

Images of Lilith in A Sea-Spell and The Orchard Pit   While Liliths and explicit appearances are in the poems Lilith and Eden Bower, visualizes of her arise in a number of other poems by Rossetti, including A Sea-Spell and The Orchard Pit (Johnston 120). Considered minuscule poems, very little has been written on either. Of A Sea-Spell, some encounter gone so far as to proclaim it is kinder to the memory of the operative to say nothing. It is the work of a prematurely faltering mind and make (Waugh 211). As for The Orchard Pit, a fragmentary prose tale, there is little that in time could be said.   Yet, in the sonnet A Sea-Spell, there exists imagery instantaneously relating this Siren-figure to Lilith, making the poem worthy of consideration here. The sonnet reads   Her lute hangs fly-by-night in the apple-tree, While flashing fingers weave the sweet-strung spell Between its chords and as the wild notes swell, The sea-bird for those branches leaves the sea. Bu t to what sound her listening ear stoops she? What netherworld gulf-whispers doth she hear, In answering echoes from what planisphere, Along the wind, along the estuary? She sinks into her spell and when full soon Her lips track down and she soars into her song, What creatures of the midmost main shall throng In furrowed surf-clouds to the summoning runic letter Till he, the fated mariner, hears her cry, And up her rock, bare-breasted, comes to die? (Collected Works 361)   As demonstrate above, both specific Lilith-imagery and Lilith-related themes are present in this sonnet. The poem begins with an prompt reference to Lilith, specifically Rossettis Lilith, with the line Her lute hangs shadowed in the apple-tree (line 1). This image is reminiscent of Liliths supposed tempting of Eve while in the apple-tree, the guide of the Knowledge of Good and Bad. Line 2 then borrows imagery at once from Lilith. The corresponding lines of Lilith, for example, read And, subtly of he rself contemplative, Draws men to watch the bright web she can weave, Till heart and body and life are in its hold. (lines 6-8) It is this same story which is told in A Sea-Spell. The character is a splendid Siren who weaves her magic into a spell that will ensnare and push down men (Sea-Spell, line 2 Lilith, line 13). In both poems, the masculine figures succumb to the Sirens charms, causing their own demise.