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| The Blessed Damozel |
The blessed damozel leaned out
From the gold bar of Heaven;
Her eyes were deeper than the depth
Of waters stilled at even;
She had three lilies in her hand,
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| The Danozel hangs third in from the left Leyland's drawing room |
And the stars in her hair were seven.
Her robe, ungirt from clasp to hem,
No wrought flowers did adorn,
But a white rose of Mary's gift,
For service meetly worn;
Her hair that lay along her back
Was yellow like ripe corn.
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| Leyland by Rossetti 1872 |
Herseemed she scarce had been a day
One of God's choristers;
The wonder was not yet quite gone
From that still look of hers;
Albeit, to them she left, her day
Had counted as ten years.
(To one, it is ten years of years.
. . . Yet now, and in this place,
Surely she leaned o'er me—her hair
Fell all about my face. . . .
Nothing: the autumn fall of leaves.
The whole year sets apace.)
Enter Debussy with the musical version....he must have seen the painting and read the poem....must have seen it in his mind's eye in Leyland's drawing room .... and it all clicked.
https://youtu.be/qNVLTWTHYY4?si=AKSR7SZLMeB3g5GE