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 Lilith's only explicit appearances are in the poems "Lilith" and "Eden Bower," images of her arise in a number of other poems by Rossetti, including "A Sea-Spell" and "The Orchard Pit" (Johnston 120). Considered "minor" poems, very little has been written on either. Of "A Sea-Spell," some have gone so far as to proclaim "it is kinder to the memory of the artist to say nothing. It is the work of a prematurely faltering mind and hand" (Waugh 211). As for "The Orchard Pit," a fragmentary prose tale, there is little that even could be said. Yet, in the sonnet "A Sea-Spell," there exists imagery directly relating this Siren-figure to Lilith, making the poem worthy of consideration here. The sonnet reads: Her lute hangs shadowed 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. But 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 move and she soars into her song, What creatures of the midmost main shall throng In furrowed surf-clouds to the summoning rune: Till he, the fated mariner, hears her cry, And up her rock, bare-breasted, comes to die? (Collected Works 361) As evidenced above, both specific Lilith-imagery and Lilith-related themes are present in this sonnet. The poem begins with an immediate reference to Lilith, specifically Rossetti's Lilith, with the line: "Her lute hangs shadowed in the apple-tree" (line 1). This image is reminiscent of Lilith's supposed tempting of Eve while in the "apple-tree," the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Bad. Line 2 then borrows imagery directly from "Lilith." The corresponding lines of "Lilith," for example, read: And, subtly of herself 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 beautiful Siren who weaves her magic into a "spell" that will ensnare and kill men ("Sea-Spell," line 2; "Lilith," line 13). In both poems, the male figures succumb to the Siren's charms, causing their own demise.