This page looks at the work of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, specifically his poem Jenny. Rossetti was an extremely influencial English poet and artist who was a founder of the Pre Raphaelite movement. Artist and literary creators who identified with the Pre-Raphaelite genre aimed to break free from the idealistic and “rigid” structure of traditional Victorian art. The Pre-Raphaelite’s sought to portray naturalistic and hyper-realistic representations of their subjects and environments, demonstrating how sensuality, spirituality, and morality all play apart in the human experience.

The poem “Jenny” first began composition in 1848, but endured many years of revision before its final publication in 1870. The work was originally created as part of a manuscript volume completed in 1861, which was subsequently placed in the coffin of his wife following her death in 1862. Rosetti later exhumed the work in 1869, leading to the poems feature in Rosetti’s first collection of verse entitled Poems. 

In Rossetti’s poem Jenny, he disrupts this societal view of morality by both romanticizing and humanizing a prostitute. This work, along with other Pre-Raphaelite contributions, inspired generations of future poets to expand into new topics and push the boundaries of society.