Christina Rossetti poems analysis

No thank you John summary

Explores gender dynamics and societal ecpectations between man romantically pursuing women.

Criticises marriage system, indirectly becomes proponent to concept of New Woman

'Why will you tease me day by day'

Framed as rhetorical Q, w/o rational answer, futility

Subverts flirtatious women 'teasing' to playfully provoke

'I never said I loved you, John:'

Echoing, prevalent lack of male voice, refutation to his projection of melancholy on her

John- symbol,generic lover / John Brett

Symbolism- 'Hour old ghost', 'toast'

Emotionally taxing exp,firmly refutes blames that male speaker victim and wounded by unrequited love juxt female hysteria

Newly formed, freshly wounded

Disturbing appearance underscores action

Stubborn aggressors accountable for own emotions, women should not be responsible for object of admiration.

'Don't remain single for my sake who can't perform the task'

Marriage presented as role to fulfill, displeasing and laborious obligation

Sibilance= sweet coaxing nature contrasts sardonic tone, retains feminine desire to please?

'Let us strike hands as hearty friends'

Patronising masculine gesture, transactional rel

Dissociation, contingent on remaining just that

Exuberance can only offer 'hearty', not 'heart'

Rep of 'Let' anaphora, imperative

'Rise above/ Quibbles and shuffling on and of'

Above attempts to provoke, lightheartedness juxt to persistent anger, distinctly levelheaded and charitable

No thank you John structure and form

Sonnet- problem and resolution

Cyclical structure and steady ABAB w/ internal rhyme adds to predictable regular rhythm

Dramatic monologue and varying iambic pentameter reflects cadence of natural speech, singsong complements humour

Maude Clare summary

Moral statement attacking institution of marriage, challenges idea marriage not ideal of fulfilled life

Tragedy not spiritual love lost by means of morality but unsatisfaction prevalent in interplay of love triangle

'His bride was like a village maid, Maude Clare was a queen'

Nell less challenging submissive option, not flaunting beauty, loss of identity in embodiment of Vic ideal

Hint at superiority, adopting Maude's POV who poses threat to social order

'But he was not as pale as you, Nor I as pale as Nell'

Implication less happy in partnership or inner conflict and doubt

Nell 'pale w/ pride' phys reaction to joy, pales to MC's stature and personage

'Here's my half of the golden chain... day we waded ankle deep for lillies in the beck'

Inappropriate description of intimacy, gifts suggests symbolically bound together and not whole w/o, battle between restraint and free expression

'Lillies' loss of virginity, anunciation- preggo?

Premature ending, should reconvene 'budding'

Sowing dissent and distrust, wrath assuaged

'Lady' he said-'Maude Clare'

Suceeded in intention of humiliating, struggles to define rel

Critique of dominant masculinity

Inassertive, subconscious regret

'I'll love him till he loves me best, Me best of all Maude Clare'

Paragon of female virtue juxt to unwieldly, aggressive, unfeminine MC, boost of favour w/ Vic

'Better and worse' challenge befits marriage vows

MC ideal match but marriage motivated by finance, women victim to society

Repitition trying to convince herself T will eventually love her best

Nell rep wholesome goodness of earth- love sustains

Acknowledges struggle in presenting as image of security, marriage for women security but promiscuous men= restraint

Maude Clare structure and form

Traditional ballad for moral statement , abcb rhyme scheme ,alternate iambic tetrameter and trimeter lines

Variation avoids fitting into predictable pattern

From the antique summary

Female narrator, expresses burning desire to escape social role assigned by oppressive patriarchy

Name notes women's intrinsic value despite low self esteem

In art is practice of drawing plaster casts made from classical figurative sculpture in order to learn anatomy. Biblical reference as Eve was created from Adams rib alluding to her being the second gender. Metaphorical ,feels as though she is the newer version of the older form

'Doubly blank is a woman's lot'

'Blank' absolute term, life being weary exp absolute but 2x for females

Dreary nature middle class milieu? Nothing to live for unmarried,childless

Metrical change, duality to refutation

Austere word choice reflect uncompromising attitude

'Weary life', inspo from Tennyson's 1830 Mariana

'I wish and I wish I were a man:Or better than any being, we're not'

Rep desperation eager to reject femininity, desires privilege of masculinity to exist, yearning to be freed from androcentric Vic society

Syndetic listing adds fairytale quality, futile

Annihilation/ extinction preferable

'Not a body, not a soul not so much as a grain of dust'

Religious undertone of funeral rites, soul predates physical, essence more than thoughts in our head

No consolation in Christianity, looks to eternal nature of earth

State of being beyond speakers wishes, doesn't want to exist in any capacity

Wistful oblivion

'I should be nothing, while all the rest/ Would wake and weary and fall asleep'

More present and grounded than hypothetical

Criticism of complacency in subjugation of women, eradicating sense of female entrapment

Contradictory, incapable of grieving for one who never existed

Caesura disjunct between her and society

Place in universe should be replaced by one who's death would sadden

Sarcastic doubt- change/ acceptance?

Self pity? Encouragement for women they are the epicentre of their own worlds anyway

Finality, cycle of life in extreme fashion

From the antique structure and form

ABCB rhyme scheme and 4 quatrains, regularity reflects dullness of speakers exp

Voice of 1st person 'I', but reported through 3rd person narrator,indicated by 'she said' in the 1st line.

Merges into direct address to the reader w/o interception of poet, unusual convention of narration, dissociation

Metrical rhythm varied, sometimes unsettling

Round tower at Jhansi summary

Contrast between title and content-purity + simplicity of love in desperation not political response, explores Skene's protection of wife in death, outside observer sense of verisimilitude

'swarming howling wretches below, Gained and gained and gained'

Animalistic imagery dehumanizes rebels, apparent patriotism and jingoistic language.

Present participles extends action in rhythm, foregrounds sense of urgency. Elimatic sense of momentum combined w/ instant attention of in media res

Vic audience see them as unequivocal heroes- imbued w/ non critical view of the empire, distasteful from a post colonial perspective

'Skene looked at his pale young wife:/ 'Is the time come?'-' The time is come!'

Fearful, accepting, calm, resigned, commanding tone

Unattributed dialogue, emotive connection w/ punct slowing pace yet persisting ambiguity, lack of narrative voice anx

Marriage offering comfort in peril as situation apparent

Pale implicit contrast to presumed brown skin of Indians

Archetype of Vic femininity highlights vulnerability w/ speech seeking reassurance that Skene provides

2 embody stiff lip that built empire- she's womanly purity+ obedience, he's stoical+ masterly parental fig infantilising

'Close the pistol to her brow- God forgive them for this!'

Repetition of 'close' physical+ emotional proximity provide support for each other+ claustrophobic atmosphere raises tension+ suspense

Contrast between intimacy+ brutality, reminds love ends in tragedy

Intro God v suicide religious debate, juxt of 2 loft concepts, helplessness. Enhances thinking about accepting death as part of Christian morality

'Kiss and kiss: 'It is not pain

Thus to kiss and die.

One kiss more.'

+ portrayal of passion. Love> death ,moved by contrast of tenderness+ intimacy v surrounding inescapable danger

Verb carries sense of finality connotes farewells+ overwhelming sympathy

Broadly iambic pent, awkward rhythm reflects impulsivity+ rashness

Apocryphal, theme of lost+ doomed love

Round Tower at Jhansi structure

ABAB rhyme scheme for fast pace reinforcing rapidly occurring events. Enjambment, lacks lyricism suitable for dark subject matter

Remember summary

Explores the push pull nature of grief subtle influence under loved one but not constantly remembered in absence. Speaker's poignant realism engages both w/ the finality of death+ persistence of love

Wish to assert independence after end of rel? Sacrifices personal desire for true love, at peace having renounced desire for earthly things including lovers presence

'Remember me when I am gone away, gone far into a silent land; Where you can no more hold me by the hand'

Wavers conciliatory+ contemplative/ commanding+ consoling tone

Contact through memory, loss of communication, not regarding death as interruption to afterlife

Lonely journey to oblivion, anadiphlasis emphasises distance

I stresses further loss of particular identity

Symbolic of Angelican purgatory, euphenism to make prospective loss more terrifying

Yet if you should forget me for a while

And afterwards remember, do not grieve:'

Slow lilting until volta transitions from pleasing memory to pain, inexplicable change- certainty of audible advice overrides forgetting?

Disjunct between remembering and forgetting

Means to be permanent art, attachment should outlast death imagery of 'darkness and corruption'

'Better by far you should forget and smile/Than you should remember and be sad'

Possibility of forgetfulness imperative

Pattern of repetition so reader intrinsically understands to remember despite the world losing strength as the narrator is less forceful instead voice controlled and tentative

Iambic beat attempt to est control over lover's reaction to death/ intrusion of uncomfortable thought? Inversion of the 1st foot in the first 2 lines where passion is fighting for expression

Remember structure and form

Petrachan sonnet ABBA ABBA CDD ECE. Romantic tenement 'memento mori' = Act of dying of the instrinsically alive, focus on death exclusively as journey. PRB material struggle< inner conflict

Song summary

Love and tragic loss combined beautifully in a way that neither glorifies nor portrays a detrimental idea of death and the outcomes it brings

'When I am dead, my dearest, Sing no sad songs for me; plant thou no roses at my head'

Imperatives+ objective manner overbearing. Speaker exerting control to illustrate how women are only valued when dead

Instills deeply felt emotion, egocentric disregard, defying decorum in narcissism as she isn't the one bearing tragedy

Natural imagery contrasted to the prevalence of death, manipulation of beauty into something dark+ twisted or to illustrate prolificiency in existence

Heavily symbolic rose metaphor for life: After overcoming difficulty of grief, you will find inner harmony, union

'With the showers and wet drops wet : And if thou wilt remember , And if thou wilt, forget.'

Metaphor for endurance and comforting promise as grief is personal for companion of death

Natural growth replaces grief but surprisingly nonchalant attitude to legacy

Memory acts as a sustaining force, forgetfulness axis upon self awareness construed

'I shall not hear the nightingale, sing on as if in pain: And dreaming through the twilight'

Transformation of senses, shifting from earthly env

Loss of senses, denies existence of afterlife, rejects possibility of viewing earth

Metrically deviant in depicting day/night border of stillness simultaneously recall imagined. Heaven Rev 21:23

Romantic immorality, joy Rossetti associates w/ pain, denies idea natural world of pure joy

Song structure

Irregular rhyme, metrical instability indicative of inflicted heart

Souer Louise de la misericorde 1674 summary

Protagonist longing for presence of former beau whilst exploring the nature of desire, vanity and aging. Theme of sisterhood influenced by Sister Maria of society of All saints, reflection of world and vanities by eponymous

'I have desired, and have been desired; But now the days are over of desire. Now dust and dying embers mock my fire: Where is the higher for which my life was hired?'

High repetition, central theme but wistful connotations of death

Indicative of Rossetti's attempts to portray L's state of mind

Strong statements of equality- no attempt to distance

Despairing rhetorical, didactive refrain w/ awkward phrasing+ rhyming disjointed feel, creates melodrama

Elegant metaphor pondering if she'll ever be desirable again. Fire= necessity, metaphor for public ridicule

'Now my heart, love's deathbed, trickles, trickles, drop by drop of fire'

Drawing out life in death quality of poem, R wishing she never felt/ still feels desire?

Linguistically semantic field of loss, mourns destruction desire caused. Startlingly bleak, blamed for deterioration of life

Beauty serves no purpose but accidental pain

Overt elegance juxtaposed w/ awkward phrasing

Rhythmic place slowed- iambic, anapests, trochees, futility of trying to control desire

'Longing and love, pangs of a perished pleasure, Longing and love, a disenkindled fire'

Elongated sounds emphasise pleasure, plosives painful= romantic love damaging

Implication love ended, nothing to be sustained

Lament for lost love, despairing nature of poem

Rep= conflict, are heartfelt emotions sincere/ shallow

'Turning my garden plot to barren mire: Oh deathstruck love, oh disenkindled fire, O vanities of vantes desire!'

Fitting conc encompassing rose imagery, invoking fire w/o informing overarching meaning

Garden biblical illusion to paradise or Simon Avery menopause, despair over childlessness

Anaphora hypnotic effect reinforcing L's mantra

Word choices sense of conflict+ confusion as narrator laments end of important aspect of life

Souer Louise structure and form

Fairly unconventional verse structure, ABAAB

Goblin Market summary

Narrative poem to richly various, elusive, fantastical imagery+ symbolism reduced to simplistic allegory/ social commentary interpretations not mutually exclusive; viewed in tandem to extract max meaning

'Sweet to tongue and sound to eye, Come buy, come buy'

Goblin provenance+ targeting of women unexplained

Only 'Maids heard the goblin cry'- exist only to tempt

Ugly rapacious suitors lecherously using wealth to attract, rep flaws of Vic marriage conventions

Simultaneously suggestive of virginity+ sexual ripeness

Offered life in terms of pleasure and worldly

knowledge, Eden in Vic reader consciousness

Isaiah 55:1 'Come thirsty' v sensual enjoyment

'Damsons and bilberries... figs to fill your mouth'

Evocative lang seducive to reader, implicates in moral Q

Pointedly sexual, suggestive in volumptous

Seasonally incompatible against mundane, inability to purchase fresh fruits 1853

'She thrust a dimpled finger/In each ear, shut eyes and ran'

Women deviating from standard of conduct= depreciation in marriage market

Instinctive recognition of sexual threat posed

Enamored/prudent emphasis on body response, titilated/ sexually aroused by contact

Struggle natural human desires v consequences of pursuit of love

Abandonment unwomanly+ inappropriate

'One had a cats face/ one whisked a tail'

Wild, untamed+ dangerous, base nature

AWAKENING CONSCIENCE (1853) William Hunt features cat, mistress assaulted+ rises, enlightened look hints at redemption from unfortunate situation

Vermin like, disease infested- appeal to children

Exotic nature of fruit attracts but plays into Eu fears of colonized nations as primative, sinful, overtly sexual, potential for sexual violence

'Lizzie covered up her eyes, Covered lest they should look'

Maternal desire to preserve innocence

21stc critics preventing L's inevitable existence as object of male gaze - concept challenged by female figures since classical ideology, such as myth of Perseus and Medusa

Visage adopted by women as symbol of female rage, map to guide women through their terrors, depths of their anger into the sources of their power as women

'Laura streched her gleaming neck...lily from the beck, moonlight poplar branch'

Devotion/purity, Greek myth of Hera and Zeus motherhood and rebirth- hint at reintegration to society, graveyard flowers

Associated w/ pain piercing Mary at crucifixion

White imagery- nature+ freedom, transgressing boundaries

Satisfying sexual curiousity, loss restraint, ominously foreshadows metaphorical 'fall'

Moon symbol of feminity OW SALOME, menstrual cycle

'leering'

Unpleasant, lavascious way emphasizes trick, has sexual element

'She clipped a precious golden lock, she dropped a tear more rare than a pearl'

Folklore tradition, cultural commodity in jewelry+ ornaments opp depicted as web, share, veil

Extension of self- physical+ spiritual health

Terrence HoH 'castration', biblical symbol of glory

Symbolically sells herself for forbidden fruit

Honourable scruples about inability to pay

'And new not whether it was night or day/ As she turned home alone.'

Fixt of deadly fruit, bewilderment foreshadows anxiety, sorrow

Poisoning of mind and destruction of peace

'Do you not remember Jeanie...pined and pined away...dwindled and grew grey....no grass will grow/Where she lies low'

Cautionary tale of Jeanie's death in prime foreshadows probable fate

Barreness of grave- robbed of ideal Vic state of motherhood

Common trajectory of women abandoned by seducers

'You cannot think what... melons icey cold, Piled on a dish of gold'

Admission she insatiably hungers alerts to danger, awakened knowledge departure from safety of innocence

Narcassistic fantasy of fulfillment highlighted

Adoption of goblin rhetoric

'Like wands of ivory dipped in gold'

Profound peace calm before storm, described interchangeably w/ imagery emphasising inherent purity

Dante's image highlights importance of connected identity essential for redemption

Rejects 19thc view fallen women contaminated

'Laura rose with Lizzie: fetched in the honey, milked the cows'

Cultural committed Angel in the house figure

Levels of spiritual understanding at odds

Lizzie rudimentary understanding moral response to evil avoidance

Environment separatist fantasy, appropriates home w/o confronting unrealistic sexuality fears

'gnashed her teeth for baulked desire'

Psychological suffering of drug addiction

Sinister loss of nursery rhyme feel, soul in torment