Rossetti Poem Fact Files-2 PDF

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English literature Rossetti poems notes...

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1. A Birthday-1861- Published in Goblin Market and other poems 1862

The poem is a celebration. Using a variety of Christian Symbolism, the speaker describes the deep peace, joy and satisfaction of having God in her life. However as God is not named in the poem, many speculate that this about a lover. - Happiness- ‘My heart is like a singing bird’ - Religion- ‘singing bird’ ‘thick-set fruit’ - Love- ‘ Because the birthday of my life Is come, my love is come to me.’ - Appearance-  ‘ Whose boughs are bent with thick-set fruit’

2. Echo- 1854-Published in Goblin Market and other poems 1862

The poem is the speaker (now metaphorically, if not actually, dead) calling a lost love to come back to her in his dreams so as he may remember the times he once enjoyed. Although the term ‘echo' is not mentioned in the main body of the poem, the notion of an echoing voice is made apparent through various repetitions. - Love - Loss/ Death - Religion - Sadness ‘ Yet come to me in dreams, that I may live My very life again through cold in death’ 3. From the Antique- Composed in 1854- But never published in her lifetime. The poem explores the difficulties of women in the Victorian era, in a world where – sometimes – men seem to have all the power. Bleakly she asks the question: would anyone notice if I were gone? It’s a heartbreaking lyric poem which speaks to the misery that seems to have haunted Rossetti for a good part of her life. - Patriarchy- Critique of Marriage- Gender relations - Sadness ‘None would miss me in all the world’ - Death ‘It’s a weary life, it is, she said: Doubly blank in a woman’s lot’ ‘ I wish and I wish I were a man: Or, better then any being, were not’

4. Good Friday- 1866- Devotional Poem The speaker of Good Friday  imagines him/herself standing beneath the cross upon which Jesus Christ was crucified. The speaker reflects that, unlike all the other witnesses to the scene, s/he remains unmoved, like a ‘stone'. However, s/he asks Jesus to look at him/her and break this hard-heartedness. - Religion ‘That I can stand, O Christ, beneath Thy Cross’... ‘And yet not weep?’ - Doubt ‘ Am I a stone and not a sheep’ ‘But seek Thy sheep’ - Patriarchy (female followers) ‘ Not so those women loved/ Who with exceeding grief lamented Thee’

5. In the Round Tower at Jhansi (Indian Mutiny)- June 8, 1857 Focused during the time of Sepoy Mutiny, where many people sacrificed their lives in Jhansi. The Indian soldiers had to sacrifice their lives because they were against the British rule. Rossetti reveals the horrors of war which leads to death, and causes deaths of lots of innocent people. An idea of acceptance of death because Rossetti’s life itself was afflicted by death; she lost her father when she was around twenty four and most importantly Rossetti being religious enhances her thinking about accepting death as it is part of Christian message, especially because Christians have faith in in afterlife.

-Death & Love : ‘ Thus to kiss and die’ -Loss: ‘Good-bye.’ - ‘Good-bye.’ -Religion: ‘God forgive them this’ - Patriarchy: ‘Skene looked at his pale young wife’

6. Maude Clare- Composed 1857, Published in 1859, then in 1862 in Goblin Market Maude Clare and Nell are both in love with the same man, Sir Thomas, who has chosen to marry Nell. On his wedding day, Maude turns up with wedding gifts consisting of the gifts he had presented to her through the course of their unfulfilled courtship. She declares to Nell that she can have what is left of the love Maude and Thomas shared. However, Nell asserts that she loves her husband enough to overlook his past. Cut from 41 stanzas to 12.

- Love +Marriage - Fallen Woman, Gender Roles ‘ He strove to match her scorn with scorn,/ He faltered in his place’ ‘ I’ll love him till he loves me best,/ Me best of all, Maude Clare’

7. No Thank you, John- Written in 1860, published in 1862 Rossetti is speaking to a persistent admirer, delivering a bold and clear message regarding her feelings towards him. - Rejection - Gender roles ‘I never said I loved you John’ ‘I have no heart?’ ‘ Here’s friendship for you if you like; but love,-/ No thank you, John’

8. Shut Out - 1856, Published in 1862 Goblin Market and Other poems The speaker recalls that she was once happy, existing in a beautiful garden and enjoying the company of song-birds, moths and bees. For a reason that is not given, s/he is shut out from this garden and the only comfort that s/he can find comes from looking through the ‘iron bars' that separate him/her from it.When s/he asks the ‘shadowless spirit' who guards the gate of the garden whether she can have ‘some buds' for comfort, he refuses and builds a wall so that the garden can no longer be glimpsed at all. The poem ends with the speaker sitting alone and grieving for what has been lost. Although s/he notices violets budding nearby, they provide little solace since the speaker still retains the knowledge that what has been lost was much better.

- Religion, Loss, Sadness, female restraint. ‘The door was shut. I looked between/ Its iron bars: and saw it lie,/ My garden,mine.’ 9. Soeur Louise de la Miséricorde- 1881 Louise de la Valliere, who was initially a mistress of King Louis XIV. When she was thirty she left the court and became a Carmelite nun. A ‘misericorde’ is a long dagger which was used to grant mercy to injured soldiers; i short they were killed rather than left to suffer agonising death. The title literally means ‘Sister Louise of Mercy’. - Sexuality- Religion- Consequence of sin - Gender Roles - Love - Sadness ‘ Oh death- struck love, oh disenkindled fire’ ‘ Oh vanity of vanities, desire!’ ‘ my rose of life gone all to prickles’ ‘stunting my hope’

10. Song: When I am dead, my dearest- written in her teens in 1848- published in 1862 The speaker of Song l ooks forward to her own death and instructs a lover or friend not to mourn or sing ‘sad songs' once she is gone. - Death ‘When I am dead, my dearest’ - Love + Remembrance - Religion ‘Sing no sad songs for me’ - Catholic idea ‘Haply I may remember, And haply may forget.’

11. Remember - Written in 1849 when she was a teenagerpublished in 1862 The narrator, who presumably represents Rossetti, addresses her beloved and encourages him to remember her after her death. She asks him to remember her even when his memory of her begins to fade. - Death ‘Remember me when no more day by day’ - Love + Remembrance - Religion ‘ Gone far away into the silent land’ ‘You tell me of our future that you planned’ ‘Better by far you should forget and smile Than that you should remember and be sad.’

12. Twice- 1864 The female speaker offers her heart to her beloved but he does not appreciate the gesture / does not believe her to be ready for such a commitment (or is not ready himself). She feels her heart is breaking and becomes depressed, before bringing her bruised heart to God. She asks God to judge her accurately and perfect her love, knowing that her heart will be secure in his ‘hands'. Aware of her acceptance by God, with a renewed sense of optimism the speaker commits her whole life to him, willing to accept whatever it is that he asks her to do.

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Rejection ‘ You took my heart in your hand’.. ‘Then set it down’ Love ‘My broken heart in my hand’ Religion turns to God ‘ O my God, O my God’ Patriarchy ‘Yet a woman’s words are weak;/  You should speak, not I’

13. Up-hill The speaker is a traveller who questions a guide about the journey that she is on. She asks and receives answers, about whether: ● ● ● ●

The journey will ‘wind uphill all the way' and take all day She will recognise the place to rest There will be others on the journey (yes) A kind reception awaits

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Doubt/ Questioning Struggle/ Journey

‘ Does the road wind up-hill all the way?’ ‘Shall I find comfort’

14. Winter: My Secret - 1857, Published in 1862 A female speaker (determined by the female clothing she alludes to) is addressing an auditor who has asked her to tell her ‘secret'. She refuses on the grounds that the day is too cold, that perhaps there is nothing to tell and that she does not want to reveal herself, just as she does not want to be exposed to the cold. The speaker does not trust the assurances of the auditor that it will be alright, explaining that she is cautious even as springtime progresses. She may  open up in the warmth of summer but otherwise the auditor will have to guess the secret.

- Secrecy + Doubt ‘yet I don’t trust’ ‘ I wear my mask for warmth’ - Gender Roles ‘Only my secret’s mine, and I won’t tell’ ‘ Perhaps my secret I may say,/ Or you may guess’

15. Goblin Market-1859, published in 1862 in Goblin Market and selected poems. - Sisterhood ‘For there is no friend like a sister’ - Greed/ Sin ‘She loathed the feast’ - Commerce/ Materialism (Drugs and alcohol) - Sacrifice ‘White and golden Lizzie stood’ - ‘Fallen Woman’/ Sexuality - Violence ‘Their offers should not charm us, / Their evil gifts would harm us.’ ‘Buy from us with a golden curl.’ ‘sugar-baited words’ ‘Sucked their fruit globes… She never tasted such before’

‘Twilight is not good for maidens’...