COVE

The title-page vignette of Goblin Market and Other Poems, by Christian Rossetti, is a wood engraving illustrated by Dante Gabriel Rossetti in 1862. The illustration was captioned, “Golden head by golden head.” The illustration shows Laura and Lizzie sleeping in an intimate embrace. Dante Gabriel Rossetti demonstrates conformity to the text as he illustrates the sisters almost identically. He is essentially using the poem as references, as Christina Rossetti describes the sisters as, “Like two blossoms on one stem.” He also included the first line of the stanza, “Golden head by golden head,” to again show how image and text must work in harmony to convey meaning. Through the window, the Goblin men are pictured walking down the hill carrying fruit baskets; seemingly at night as Rossetti included stars and a quarter moon in his illustration as well. The image depicts the sisters in a private and vulnerable state, alluding to their youth and innocence. This casts the theme of sexuality and sexual deviance onto the poem, in which one would view as a simple tale of right and wrong.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti channeled the Pre-Raphaelite Movement in this illustration as he portrays Lizzie and Laura in an intimate embrace that emphasizes sexual symbolism within the poem. The Pre-Raphaelite Movement worked to showcase women in their sexual form, as lustful and passionate creatures. Therefore, Rossetti channels this ideology as the illustration evokes thoughts of female morality, as Laura and Lizzie represent succumbing and refraining from temptation. This image is significant because it demonstrates the way in which images affect the meaning of text, but also how the ideas we are exposed to in literature often reflect into our ways of thinking in everyday life. This means that the image works to highlight female sexuality, which in turn works to bring women to the forefront and gives them agency within the 19th century.

Source: “Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood,” Britannaica 

Source: Christina Rossetti and Illustration : A Publishing History, by Lorraine Janzen Kooistra