Images of Lilith in A Sea-Spell and The Orchard PitWhile Lilith's only explicit appearances are in the poems "Lilith" and "Eden Bower", images of she in a number of Rossetti's other poems, including "A Sea-Spell" and "The Orchard Pit" (Johnston 120). Considered "minor" poems, very little has been written about both. Of "A Sea-Spell," some have gone so far as to proclaim "it is kinder to the artist's memory to say nothing. It is the work of a prematurely wavering mind and hand" (Waugh 211). As for "The Orchard Pit," a fragmentary prose tale, there is little that can be said. Yet, in the sonnet “A Sea-Spell,” there are images that directly connect this mermaid figure to Lilith, making the poem noteworthy. of consideration here. The sonnet reads: His lute hangs in the shade of the apple tree, while flashing fingers weave the sweet-stringed spell between its strings; and as the wild notes swell, the sea-bird leaves the sea for those branches. But to what sound does his ear bend to listen? What whispers of the infernal gulf does he hear, responding to the echoes of which planisphere, along the wind, along the estuary? She sinks in her spell: and when she is full, soon her lips move and she soars in her song, what creatures of the chief medium will crowd in the furrowed clouds of the surf to the rune of conjuration: Till he, the fated sailor, hears her cry, And on her rock, bare-chested, comes to die? (Collected Works 361) As highlighted above, there are both Lilith-specific images and Lilith-related themes in this sonnet. The poem begins with an immediate reference to Lilith, particularly Rossetti's Lilith, with the line: "Her lute hangs in the shade of the apple tree" (line 1). This image recalls Lilith's supposed temptation of Eve while she was in the "apple tree", the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Line 2 then borrows imagery directly from “Lilith.” The corresponding lines of “Lilith,” for example, read: And, subtly contemplative, she draws men to look upon the luminous web she can weave, while heart and body and life are in her grasp. (lines 6-8) It's the same story told in "A Sea-Spell." The character is a beautiful mermaid who weaves her magic into a "spell" that traps and kills men ("Sea-Spell", line 2; "Lilith", line 13). In both poems the male figures succumb to the Siren's charm, resulting in her death.