Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Dante Gabriel Rossetti is most notable as the founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood,an avart guarde group that believed in the primacy of mimetic and detailed art (painting in particular). His role on the GRE is mostly an historic one since as a poet his was a rather minor figure.

an English poet, painter and translator. The son of émigré Italian scholar Gabriele Rossetti, D. G. Rossetti was born in London, England and originally named Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti. His family and friends called him "Gabriel", but in publications he put the name Dante first, because of its literary associations. He was the brother of poet Christina Rossetti and the critic William Michael Rossetti and a founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood with John Everett Millais and William Holman Hunt

“A Superscription”

Look in my face; my name is Might-have-been; I am also called No-more, Too-late, Farewell; Unto thine ear I hold the dead-sea shell Cast up thy Life's foam-fretted feet between; Unto thine eyes the glass where that is seen Which had Life's form and Love's, but by my spell Is now a shaken shadow intolerable, Of ultimate things unuttered the frail screen.

Mark me, how still I am! But should there dart One moment through thy soul the soft surprise Of that winged peace which lulls the breath of sighs, - Then shalt thou see me smile, and turn apart Thy visage to mine ambush at thy heart Sleepless with cold commemorative eyes.

"The ballad of dead ladies"

by D.G. Rossetti and several Victorian painters

Rossetti especially, but Victorian artists generally, celebrated beautiful women as the expression of the highest beauty in art or nature. In this poem, a translation of Francois Villon's “Ou sont les neiges d'antan,” Rossetti catalogs women in history who were worthy of such celebration. Although it is unlikely that the painters were responding to this poem specifically, they certainly chose subjects for their paintings according to the same impulse.

Tell me now in what hidden is    Lady Flora the lovely Roman? Flora Where's Hipparchia, and where is Thais,    Neither of them the fairer woman? Where is Echo, beheld of no man, Echo    Only heard on river and mere,-- She whose beauty was more than human?...    But where are the snows of yester-year? Where's Heloise, the learned nun,    For whose sake Abeillard, I ween, Lost manhood and put priesthood on?    (From Love he won such dule and teen!) And where, I pray you, is the Queen    Who willed that Buridan should steer Sewed in a sack's mouth down the Seine?...    But where are the snows of yester-year? White Queen Blanche, like a queen of lilies,    With a voice like any mermaiden,-- Bertha Broadfoot, Beatrice, Alice,Joan    And Ermengarde the lady of Maine,-- And that good Joan whom Englishmen    At Rouen doomed and burned her there,-- Mother of God, where are they then?...    But where are the snows of yester-year? Nay, never ask this week, fair lord,    Where they are gone, nor yet this year, Except with this for an overword,--    But where are the snows of yester-year?