Page:William Blake in his relation to Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1911).djvu/20

— 20 — editing of Blake's works by the widow of Alexander Gilchrist, for which edition Rossetti wrote a considerable critical part, now joined to his works under the title of "A literary paper on William Blake", had enlivened his interest in Blake again. Perhaps also the great sorrow of Rossetti's life had inclined him towards philosophical speculation. HowewerHowever [sic] it be, it is certain that only after 1863 we find occasionally a special mystical doctrine expressed in Rossetti's works. So that we can assume that the influence of Blake's philosophy made itself felt most distinctly in two periods of Dante G. Rossetti's career. The first time this influence asserts itself most is the Praeraphaelitic period of Rossetti's art, the time of his youth. Here we find Blake's mysticism expressed in a general sense, pervading poems and pictures alike, as will be apparent from the foregoing pages and those that follow.

The second period of Blake's influence in a more marked sense is the time of Rossetti's riper years, when his faculties had reached their highest development. Now Rossetti, as mentioned above, is more inclined towards philosophical speculations; the generalities, the ideas which lie on the surface of Blake's philosophy do not suffice him any longer. He penetrates deeper into the meaning of the doctrines put before him and many special teachings of Blake find utterance in his verse. Especially in his Sonnets' Sequel "The House of Love" we find these doctrines expressed. But I shall speak of the general influence first.

The more general sense of mysticism, which, however, I believe finds its origin in Blake's theory of correspondences, is often expressed in the choice of the subject for his poems, as in the ballads "Rose Mary" and "Sister Helen". In his pictures we observe it in the subjects chosen, as in his drawings "The Gates of Memory", "How they met themselves", or in his crayon drawing "Pandora". It relieves his early artistic productions from the harshness and exaggerated naivete we find in the pictures