Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Cassandra

Crows as death omen

Cassandra's warnings are like carrion birds circling Hector. The crows know what's coming even if he doesn't.

CASSANDRA
I

Helen's face

Cassandra just told the Trojans they're looking at their own death when they look at Helen—the 'ravished ravishing prize of Death.' Paris kidnapped her, she'll destroy them.

REND, rend thy hair, Cassandra: he will go.
Yea, rend thy garments, wring thy hands, and cry
From Troy still towered to the unreddened sky.
See, all but she that bore thee mock thy woe:—
He most whom that fair woman arms, with show
Of wrath on her bent brows; for in this place

Helen's face

Cassandra just told the Trojans they're looking at their own death when they look at Helen—the 'ravished ravishing prize of Death.' Paris kidnapped her, she'll destroy them.

This hour thou bad'st all men in Helen's face
The ravished ravishing prize of Death to know.
What eyes, what ears hath sweet Andromache,

Andromache's tunnel vision

Hector's wife can't hear Cassandra's prophecy—she only sees her husband about to leave. The 'warm last kiss' will be their actual last kiss.

Save for her Hector's form and step; as tear
On tear make salt the warm last kiss he gave?
He goes. Cassandra's words beat heavily
Like crows above his crest, and at his ear
Ring hollow in the shield that shall not save.
II
"O Hector, gone, gone, gone! O Hector, thee
Two chariots wait, in Troy long bless'd and curs'd;
And Grecian spear and Phrygian sand athirst
Crave from thy veins the blood of victory.

The brand prophecy

Hecuba dreamed Paris would be a firebrand destroying Troy. Rossetti merges this with the actual brand that will burn the city—prophecy becomes literal.

Lo! long upon our hearth the brand had we,
Lit for the roof-tree's ruin: and to-day
The ground-stone quits the wall,—the wind hath way.—
And higher and higher the wings of fire are free.
O Paris, Paris! O thou burning brand,
Thou beacon of the sea whence Venus rose,
Lighting thy race to shipwreck! Even that hand
Wherewith she took thine apple let her close
Within thy curls at last, and while Troy glows
Lift thee her trophy to the sea and land."
Source Wikipedia Poetry Foundation

Reading Notes

The Curse of Being Right

CONTEXT Apollo gave Cassandra prophecy, then cursed her never to be believed when she rejected him. Rossetti's poem captures the specific torture of watching people walk into disaster you've already announced.

The poem's structure mirrors Cassandra's isolation. Part I is third-person—we watch her 'rend thy hair' while everyone else focuses on Hector's departure. Notice 'all but she that bore thee mock thy woe'—even Hector's mother dismisses her. The only person who might listen is Andromache, but she's 'save for her Hector's form'—completely absorbed in her husband, deaf to prophecy.

Part II switches to Cassandra's direct speech, but it's already too late—Hector is 'gone, gone, gone.' The repetition isn't emphasis; it's the sound of someone talking to empty air. Rossetti gives Cassandra her voice only after the moment for action has passed, which is the structural equivalent of her curse.

Rossetti's Trojan Women

This is one of five sonnets Rossetti wrote about Troy, all focused on women watching men make catastrophic decisions. He returns obsessively to the gap between knowledge and power—Cassandra knows, Helen caused it, Andromache loves blindly, Hecuba dreamed it. None can stop anything.

The 'ravished ravishing prize of Death' is Rossetti's entire thesis in seven words. Helen was ravished (kidnapped), she's ravishing (beautiful), and she's Death's prize—both trophy and bait. The line works three ways simultaneously, like looking at Helen from three angles: victim, weapon, corpse.

Watch how fire imagery builds: the 'brand' (both Paris and the literal firebrand), the 'roof-tree's ruin,' the 'wings of fire' rising, Troy 'glows.' Paris starts as metaphorical torch and ends as literal ash. Rossetti collapses prophecy and fulfillment into the same image—the firebrand Hecuba dreamed is the fire that's already burning.