Fragment of a Ballad

Elizabeth Eleanor Siddal 1829 (London) – 1862 (London)



Many a mile over land and sea
Unsummoned my love returned to me;
I remember not the words he said
But only the trees moaning overhead.

And he came ready to take and bear
The cross I had carried for many a year,
But words came slowly one by one
From frozen lips shut still and dumb.

How sounded my words so still and slow
To the great strong heart that loved me so,
Who came to save me from pain and wrong
And to comfort me with his love so strong?

I felt the wind strike chill and cold
And vapours rise from the red-brown mould;
I felt the spell that held my breath
Bending me down to a living death.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

37 sec read
59

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABB XXXX CCDD EEFF
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 593
Words 124
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4

Elizabeth Eleanor Siddal

Elizabeth Eleanor Siddall, styled and commonly known as "Lizzie", was an English artist, poet, and artists' model. Siddall was an important and influential artist and poet. Significant collections of her artworks can be found at Wightwick Manor and the Ashmolean. Siddall was painted and drawn extensively by artists of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, including Walter Deverell, William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais (including his notable 1852 painting Ophelia), and her husband, Dante Gabriel Rossetti. more…

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