Rossetti Poems

21 poems with theme, structure and technical terminology: Remember Echo May A Birthday SLDMSW The World An Apple Gathering Maude Clare At Home Up-Hill Goblin market What Would I Give? Twice Memory A Christmas Carol Passing and Glassing Piteous my Rhyme is A Helpmeet for Him As froth on the fact of the deep Our mother lovely women pitiful Babylon the Great

Remember me themes-

• Death/ legacy

• Love

• Memory/ grief

• Guilt

• Isolation

Remember me structure-

• Petrarchan sonnet (14 lines)- love

• Iambic pentameter (heart)

• Octave (problem), sestet (solution)

• Rhyme scheme- ABBA ABBA CDD ECE

• Volta

• ABBA- strict structure- captive in her desire to be remembered

Remember me technical terms-

• Euphemism/ metaphor (death/ heaven)

• Anaphora

• Enjambement

• Repetition

Echo themes-

• Grief

• Longing

• Echo

Echo structure-

• Lyric poetry (like a song instead of narrative story)

• Three sestets

• Varying line length

• Rhyme Scheme- ABABBCC (alternating rhyme scheme that ends in a couplet)

Echo technical terms-

• Euphony (musical/ pleasing words)

• Alliteration

• Metaphor (death)

Echo symbols-

• The door (entrance to heaven)

• Eyes (longing for deceased)

• Water (emotion/ longing)

May themes-

• Joy/ hope

• Love

• Youth/ fertility

• Transition/ death

May structure-

• Truncated sonnet (13 lines)

• Iambic tetrameter (unstressed and stressed x4)

• Separation (8/5)

• Rhyme scheme- irregular

• Shift from past tense to near past/ present (recent change)

May technical terms-

• Polysyndeton triplet

• Anaphora

• Imagery (warmth/ flourishing vs cold)

• Symbols (poppies- rebirth/ Spring)

May context-

Rossetti was abandoned by her lover in May, potentially representing the feelings she has every year as a result.

SLDMFW themes

• Shallowness in Victorian society

• Judgement

• Women/ patriarchy

• Societal expectations

SLDMFW structure-

• Sonnet (14 lines)

• Iambic pentameter

• Rhyme scheme- ABBA ABBA CDE EDC

• Volta (drowning)

SLDMFW technical terms-

• Anaphora (“some”)

• Alliteration

• Imperatives

• Biblical Allusion (Noah's ark) 

• Juxtaposition

The World themes-

• Romance

• Innocence

• Desire

• Sexism/ patriarchy- blames women

• Universal human struggle- avoiding evil

The World structure

• Petrarchan sonnet

• Iambic pentameter

• Rhyme scheme- ABBA, ABBA, CDCEDE (unusual)

• Volta

• B rhyme- indented

The World technical terms-

• Anaphora

• Animalistic imagery

• Personal pronoun (confessional tone)

• Juxtaposition (night/ day, good/ evil)

• Biblical allusion- Genesis fall of man

A Birthday themes-

• Joy

• Love

• Religion

• Celebration

A Birthday structure-

• 16 lines

• Irregular rhyme

A Birthday technical terms-

• Comparison/ similes (heart compared to nature)

• Biblical imagery (raise me- celebration is also at a reunion with Jesus/ rainbow- God's promise to Noah)

• Sensual/ sexual imagery (bird's mating, shell- Aphrodite)

• Anaphora

• Anthropomorphism

A Birthday context-

The link between joy and nature is seen in many pre-Raphaelite artists. Debate over whether the poem discusses just a lover or God.

An Apple Gathering themes-

• Heartbreak and betrayal

• Sexism/ double standards

• Love

An Apple Gathering structure-

• Ballad form

• 7 quatrains- rigid structure- represents pressure to conform to patriarchy.

• Rhyme- regular rhyme/ lyrical- childish.

• Allegorical fable

• Alternating 3 lines of iambic pentameter (five beats per line) and 4th line of iambic trimeter (three beats per line). Puts emphasis on fourth line.

An Apple Gathering technical terms-

• Pathetic fallacy- "night grew chill"

• Dentals/ plosives- "stopped to talk"

• Gerunds

• Extender metaphor- apple = hope, flowers = temptation

• Collective personal pronoun

• Colour symbolism

An Apple Gathering context-

Written shortly after Rossetti broke up with James Collinson (first love) after he went back to the Catholic church- betrayal

Maude Clare themes-

• Love/ marriage

• Social expectations

• Sexism/ patriarchy

Maude Clare structure-

• Ballad = warning for women

• Rhyme- ABCB- 2nd/ 4th lines rhyme

• Starts in media res

Maude Clare technical terms-

• Symbolism- death/ purity/ virginity

• Personal pronouns- declarative

• End stops- dominance

• Name symbolism e.g. Thomas- doubting Thomas in bible at resurrection.

• Dialect words- “beck” (water) reinforced ballad

At Home themes-

• Life/ death

• Hedonism/ denial

• Loss/ isolation

• Family

At Home structure-

• 4 octets

• ABCB DEFE rhyme scheme (regular, highly controlled esp in final 2 stanzas) (represents Rossetti's self control'

• Iambic tetrameter (4 sets of 2 beats)- creates a sense of harmony + can build momentum/ tension

At Home technical terms-

• First person narrative

• Enjambment

• Imagery

• Anaphora

• Lots of caesura/ end stops- potentially linking to the disconnect that the ghost is experiencing from the real world. 

 

Up-Hill themes-

• Faith/ religion

• Struggle (faith uphill)

• Journey of life

• Death

Up-Hill structure-

• 4 quatrains

• Hypophora (question/ answer structure)

• Regular rhyme scheme- ABAB

• Loose metre- contrasting predictable with uncertainty

Up-Hill technical terms

• Symbolism - inn = heaven/ death

• Allegory- life = journey, death = resting place

• Extended metaphor

• Syntactic parallelism (all who)- represent all welcome by God 

• End stops- confidence/ blunt

Up-Hill context-

Influenced by John Bunyan’s ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’- metaphor of life as a journey established in early religious/ literary texts

Goblin market themes-

• Love

• Coming of age

• Religion

• Nature/ beauty

• Patriarchy/ feminism

Goblin market structure

• Lyrical narrative form

• Couplets

• Inconsistent rhyme scheme- rhyme-like quality

• Omniscient narrator- folklore/ fairy tale

Goblin market technical terms-

• Repetition

• Alliteration- musicality

• Enjambement

• Anaphora "like"

• Onomatopoeia

• Allusion- fruit= temptation/ fallen women

• Personification

• Metaphors e.g. Fire (Laura's lifeforce taken)

• Refrain (come buy, come buy)

Goblin market context

Vicky perspective of foreignness- Increase in industrialisation/ goods flooding the market- disconcerting to some Victorians. Element of resistance to otherness/ foreign goods.

Fallen women- poem about redemption of fallen women-Influenced by Rosetti's experience working as an "Associate Sister" at St Mary's, in the Highgate penitentiary where "fallen women ended up

Illness- potentially links to women suffering from STDs, Contagious diseases Act- 1864, as a result of increase in STIs.

What Would I Give Themes-

• Desire for companionship

• Human connection

• Salvation

• Purity vs sin

What Would I Give structure-

• 3 tercets

• Internal rhyme on last lines of each stanza, "small"/ "all"

What Would I Give technical terms-

• Refrain “what would I give”

• Anaphora

• Exclamatory lines

• Hyperbole

• Polysyndetic listing

• Juxtaposition

• Semantic field- coldness/ isolation

Twice themes-

• Divine vs Romantic love

• Transformative power of faith

• Patriarchy (Sexual double standards)

 

Twice structure-

•  Cyclical structure

• Six octets

• 3 = relationship with man, 3 = relationship with God

Twice technical terms-

• Epizeuxis (O my love, O my love)

• Synthetic parallelism

• Metaphor (heart)

• Refrain

• Repetition

• Symbolism- skylark- freedom/ divinity

Twice context-

Failed relationship with James Collinson and Charles Cayley.

Memory themes-

• Guilt

• First half- Loss/ grief

• Rejection

• Faith/ resilience

• Second half- hope/ acceptance

Memory structure-

•  Ballad

• Loose narrative structure

• Volta- written 1857 + 1865, Rossetti refused proposal and mother died in between.

• Half rhyme for first part, complete rhyme in the second part- when talking about her faith there is more stability in the speaker's life/ structure of the poem

Memory technical terms-

• Semantic field of isolation

• First person pronoun

• Plosives (b sound)

• Repetition

A Christmas Carol themes-

• Love/ Giving

• Loneliness

• Faith

A Christmas Carol structure-

• 5 Quatrains

• Regular structure- strength/ reliability of God

• Rhyme- lyrical/ comforting

A Christmas carol technical terms-

• Personification of elements "Wind made moan"

• Epizeuxis "snow on snow" RPT

• Biblical allusions "Him"

• Syntactic parallelism

• Pathetic fallacy "bleak mid-winter"

A Christmas Carol fun fact 💗

Poem written at request of "Scribner's Monthly", made into a hymn in 1906

Passing and glassing themes-

• Societal pressures

• Passage of time/ aging

• Beauty

• Knowledge

Passing and glassing structure-

• 3 octets

• Regular Rhyme- AABBBBCCD (Structure suggests problem + solution)

• Irregular metre- could reflect instability of women's beauty

Passing and Glassing technical terms-

• Semantic field of flowers (represent women's positive qualities/ impermanence)

• Metaphor- mirror representing female anxiety/ societal pressures regarding self-image

• Refrain "all things that pass"

Piteous my Rhyme is themes-

Themes

• Cynicism vs faith in love

• Human vs Divine love

Piteous my Rhyme is structure-

• 2 troulis (10) line stanzas

• Volta- change in perspective

• ABBCCADDDC then EBCBCEDDDC.

• Same words/ rhyme as end words in the two stanzas e.g. "vain/ pain" "can/ man"

Piteous my rhyme is technical terms-

• Repetition

• Polyptoton  "Love loveth"
  Anaphora "and"

• Intertextual reference "dalliance space of a dying man"- said my Macbeth- all actions leading to death- inevitability, choosing power over connection

• Polysyndeton- connection- power of love/ God.

A Helpmeet for him themes-

Women (women's role)

Patriarchy

Religion

A Helpmeet for him structure-

• Roundel- ABAB, BAB, ABAB (name of this specific rhyming scheme, with the repeated refrain)

• Two quatrains and a tercet

A Helpmeet for him technical terms-

• Chiasmus - Reversal of syntax "Him she stays"

• Anadiplosis - Same word used in close proximity

• Biblical allusion "shadow"- women's made from man's ribs- Genesis

• Personification "moon"

• Emphatic utterance "be not afraid!"

As Froth on the Face of the Deep themes-

• Human futility against nature

• Ephemeral nature of hope

• Divine power

• Longing

As Froth on the Face of the Deep structure-

• Octet

• Iambic tetrameter, with one line of trochaic trimeter at the conclusion (syntax builds to final line)

• Rhyme scheme- ABACABCD. 

As Froth on the Face of the deep technical terms-

• Fricative alliteration (fs)

• Anaphora- "Froth on the face"

• Imagery- sleep, water,

• Similes

• Exclamative "O"

Our Mothers, lovely women pitiful themes-

• Patriarchy

• Family connection (Rossetti and mother)

• Religion

• Death

Our Mothers, Lovely women pitiful structure-

• Petrarchan sonnet

• Iambic pentameter

• First person- dramatic monologue.

• Volta

• ABBA, ABBA, CDEECD

 

Our Mothers, lovely women pitiful technical terms-

• Heavenly imagery

• Repeated allusions

• Syntactic parallelism- "Our mothers, Our sisters".

• Sibilance/ irony- 'life's sufficient school'

Babylon the Great themes-

• Sex

• Temptation

• Patriarchal expectations

• Hedonism

Babylon the Great structure-

• Petrarchan Sonnet

• Iambic pentameter

• Rhyme scheme - ABBA ABBA CDDECE - unpredictable nature of Babylon - actions can corrupt

Babylon the Great technical terms-

• Anastrophe (inversion of syntactics) - "foul is she and ill-favoured"

• Anaphora - "Gaze not upon her"

• Polysyndeton - "scarlet vest and gold and gem and pearl"

• Fricatives