She gave up beauty in her tender youth, gave all her hope and joy and pleasant ways she covered up her eyes lest they should gaze on vanity, and chose the bitter truth.

The lines portray a woman who deliberately renounces youthful attractiveness and the ordinary pleasures that accompany it, choosing instead a life of self-denial and moral or spiritual seriousness. “Covered up her eyes lest they should gaze on vanity” evokes ascetic discipline: refusing the temptations of worldly display, romance, or social admiration. The “bitter truth” suggests that clear-sighted integrity can be painful, requiring sacrifice of “hope and joy and pleasant ways.” In Rossetti’s work, such imagery often aligns with a Christian-inflected tension between earthly desire and spiritual fidelity, and with the costs—especially for women—of pursuing holiness, conscience, or uncompromising honesty over conventional happiness.