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Literature Annotations
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| Genre | Poem |
| Keywords | Acculturation, Religion, Sexuality, Society, Women in Medicine, Women's Health |
| Summary | Rossetti writes about Lilith, Adam's evil first wife according to Hebraic oral tradition. She is described as a beautiful temptress. Her beauty hides a deep evil that nearly snares Adam and dooms mankind. |
| Commentary | This poem reflects a popular attitude towards women in the mid-nineteenth century. Woman had evil secrets within her that must be ferreted out if mankind is not to fail. The beauty of women can be only a mask hiding sin beneath. It is no accident, then, that so many nineteenth-century sciences pursued the secrets of women, especially gynecology (professionalized in this period) and psychology. |
| Source | The Works |
| Publisher | Georg Olms Verlag |
| Edition | 1972 |
| Editors | William M. Rossetti |
| Place Published | New York |
| Alternate Source | Victorian Prose and Poetry |
| Alternate Publisher | Oxford Univ. Press |
| Alternate Edition | 1973 |
| Alternate Editors | Lionel Trilling & Harold Bloom |
| Place Published | New York |
| Miscellaneous | First published: 1868 |
| Annotated by |
Moore, Pamela |
| Date of Entry |
08/08/94 |
| Last Revised |
06/13/98 |