30 The Lust of the Eyes (1854)
Elizabeth Siddal
“The Lust of the Eyes” by Elizabeth Siddal was first published posthumously in 1899 by her brother-in-law, William Michael Rossetti, who included her works in Ruskin: Rossetti: Preraphaetlitism: Papers 1854 to 1862. The Boston Public Library has made a digitized version of this text available through The Internet Archive. The poem is in the public domain.
The editorial notes are available under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license. Unless otherwise attributed, they were written by Dr. Kylee-Anne Hingston at the University of Saskatchewan.
The Lust of the Eyes
I care not for my Lady’s soul,
Though I worship before her smile:
I care not where be my Lady’s goal
When her beauty shall lose its wile.
5
Low sit I down at my Lady’s feet,
Gazing through her wild eyes,
Smiling to think how my love will fleet
When their starlike beauty dies.
I care not if my Lady pray
10
To our Father which is in Heaven;
But for joy my heart’s quick pulses play,
For to me her love is given.
Then who shall close my Lady’s eyes,
And who shall fold her hands?
15
Will any hearken if she cries
Up to the unknown lands?
Work Cited
Siddal, Elizabeth. “The Lust of the Eyes.” Ruskin: Rossetti: Preraphaetlitism: Papers 1854 to 1862, arranged and edited by William Michael Rossetti, George Allen, 1899, p. 155. The Internet Archive, contributed by Boston Public Library, 31 Oct. 2011, archive.org/details/ruskinrossettipr00ross/page/155/mode/2up.
