Jenny by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

A man spends the night with Jenny, a London prostitute who has dozed off on his shoulder. Throughout the poem, he reflects on her life — pondering her thoughts, feelings, and what society has done to her. It unfolds as a lengthy dramatic monologue that presents Jenny not as a scandal but as a complete human. Rossetti raises difficult questions about men, money, and morality, leaving them somewhat unanswered.

The tone is both meditative and restless—a man mulling over the same questions at 3 a.m. without finding answers. There's a real tenderness toward Jenny, mixed with feelings of guilt, self-blame, and sudden bursts of anger directed at society. It avoids sentimentality, as Rossetti constantly tempers his own empathy with self-awareness. The overall impression is one of moral unease that the poem doesn’t try to alleviate.

Rossetti wrote the first draft of *Jenny* around 1848 and made significant revisions before it appeared in his 1870 *Poems* collection. He played a key role in founding the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a group of artists and poets who rejected the polished, moralistic art of their time in favor of rich detail and emotional truth. In Victorian London, the sex trade was rampant and visible, with the 'fallen woman' often appearing in literature — typically punished, pitied, or redeemed by the story's end. Rossetti chose to write a poem that defies these typical endings, instead shifting the moral focus onto the men who created the environment in which Jenny exists. The poem stirred up controversy upon its release; critic Robert Buchanan targeted it in 1871, labeling it part of the 'Fleshly School of Poetry' and accusing Rossetti of indecency. This criticism contributed to Rossetti's mental breakdown in 1872.