Lucie in Pearls

My short story collection is coming along nicely...I might even meet my deadline. The one entitled Lucie in Pearls is inspired by a painting that I love by the same name and this poem by Christina Rossetti, which I also love:

In an Artist's Studio

One face looks out from all his canvases,
One selfsame figure sits or walks or leans:
We found her hidden just behind those screens,
That mirror gave back all her loveliness.
A queen in opal or in ruby dress,
A nameless girl in freshest summer-greens,
A saint, an angel - every canvas means
The same one meaning, neither more nor less.
He feeds upon her face by day and night,
And she with true kind eyes looks back on him,
Fair as the moon and joyful as the light:
Not wan with waiting, not with sorrow dim;
Not as she is, but was when hope shone bright;

Not as she is, but as she fills his dream.

When it's finished I will plop it on this blog...or maybe not. I love this poem, because it reminds me of painters like Waterhouse and Leighton, who were focused on the Pre-Raphaelite female form...and in all their paintings there is a thread of similarity in their chosen muse; pale skinned classical beauty framed by what seems like infinite sadness. Being inspired by the female form myself, I find this poem has a poignant message about desire and objectification. I believe A.S Byatt (one of my favourite writers) was inspired to write a collection of short stories by Matisse, entitled The Matisse Stories, which seems to suggest the relationship between beautiful art and beautiful literature is a symbiotic one.