All the depth, all the tenderness, all the heroic strength of a divine sorrow that sees the end of sorrow, shines in this full-souled face. It is the ideal of the highest womanhood, and indeed of the highest humanity; of the love that has attained to be godlike, redeeming the world by infinite compassion; a love that “hopeth all things and endureth all things,” and in whose steadfast courage lies the conquering principle of the life to be. It is the companion picture—and in some respects it is a nobler, healthier version—of “The Blessed Damozel,” leaning from the bar of heaven to console the mourner on the earth below. The love that can so take hold of immortality, bring comfort even from the gates of death, and bridge over, by the sweet persistence of its ministry, by the passionate reality of its inspiration, the gulf between the physical and the spiritual world, is the love which of old was the source of the “Vita Nuova,” and which springs anew in our own age through “Our Lady of Pity” and “The Blessed Damozel.” In such designs Rossetti has restored to us all that was best in the mediæval thought of womanhood,—adding the “ever-motherly” to the “ever-womanly” of the Hellenic model, and the Divine Motherhood to the Divine Fatherhood of the Christian ideal; and enriched it with the whole wealth of psycho-sensuous beauty brought over from the region of romance. And in this consummation is justified the verdict of Ruskin: that “Rossetti was the chief intellectual force in the establishment of the modern romantic school in England.” ----- Footnote 9: William Tirebuck: “D.G. Rossetti; his work and influence.” Footnote 10: Gabriel Sarrazin: “Poètes Modernes d’Angleterre.” Footnote 11: Rossetti’s sonnet, “Found.” Footnote 12: Rev. P.F. Forsyth: “Religion in Recent Art.” Footnote 13: Rossetti’s sonnet, “Pandora.” Footnote 14: Walter Pater, “The Renaissance: Studies of Art and Poetry.” CHAPTER VIII. THE POETRY OF DANTE ROSSETTI. The “Pre-Raphaelite” in Literature—The Complexity of Talent in an Age of Re-birth—The Restoration of Romance in England—The Latin and the Saxon in Rossetti—Latin Diction for the Sonnets as Reflective Poetry—Saxon Diction for the Ballads as Dramatic Poetry—“The House of Life”—Treatment of Romantic Love—Illustrations of Sonnet Structure—Miscellaneous Lyrics—“The Portrait,” “The Stream’s Secret,” “Dante at Verona,” “The Staff and Scrip”—The Ballads—“The White Ship,” “The King’s Tragedy,” “Sister Helen,” “Rose Mary,” “The Bride’s Prelude,” “The Blessed Damozel”—“A Last Confession”—“Jenny”— Relation of Rossetti’s Poetry to his Painting.