At Home by Christina Rossetti

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Edexcel English Literature A Level Poetry Christina Rossetti

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28 Terms

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At Home
1858
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Form
Dramatic monologue
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Tone
Sombre
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Symbolism of title
Idea of comfort and security, the themes in the poem contradict this- shows speakers isolation
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Readings
* A ghost looking back at their life and the people around them
* Speaker evaluating the contrasts between the joy of others and their own ascetic life
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Past tense
‘When I was dead’

* Speaker is asserting their identity, importance of the persona- they are the topic, their life and choices
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Link to Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood/Temporal delights
* ‘Feasting beneath green orange-boughs’
* ‘Wine’
* ‘Plum and peach’

Semantic field of wealth and frivolous items

Shows sins associated with humanity, greed and over-indulgence
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Link to Goblin Market- Temptation and greed as sinful
‘They ^^sucked^^ the pulp of ^^plum^^ and ^^peach^^’
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Plosive
‘@@P@@ul@@p@@ of @@p@@lum and peach’

Shows speakers dissatisfaction with the people involved
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‘To seek the much-frequented house:’
* Shows distance
* No self of bel
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Tricolon
* ‘They sang, they jested, and they laughed’

Distance from ‘they’- speaker is deceased
* ‘Said one:’…’Said one:’…’Said one:’…

Distance between speaker and friends, reported speech- memory of them (further shown by the colon)
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Spondee (a foot consisting of two long (or stressed) syllables)
‘Plod Plod’
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Onomatopoeia
‘Plod plod’

Contrasts monotony of previous octet, shows how temporal delights fade
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‘Featureless sands’
* Barren landscape
* Exhaustion
* Journey to piety, sacrifice to God (Link to uphill)
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‘Before the turn of tide’
* Reminiscent of a sermon
* Repentance
* Naivety
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Repetition/ Anaphora of ‘tomorrow’
* Emphasis on tomorrow
* Naivety
* Contrasts the speakers lack of a tomorrow
* The characters are always wanting more, not appreciative of what God has given them today
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Juxtaposition
‘Tomorrow’, ‘Today’ and ‘Yesterday’

Symbolises
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Assonance
* ‘S%%ea%%’
* ‘S%%ea%%t’

Free, wave like
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‘Eyrie-seat’
Heaven
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Trochee
‘Only, I’

Asserts speakers isolation through the disrupted meter (similar to spondee)
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‘I was of yesterday’
* Loss of traditionalism
* Increased knowledge of science
* Fear of enlightenment
* People questioning God
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Increased use of personal pronoun ‘I’ in last stanza
The speaker is facing difficulty retaining their character amongst all of the frivolity and indulgence of others
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Semantic field of discomfort synonyms
* ‘Shivered comfortless’
* ‘Chill’
* ‘Forgotten, shivered, sad’ (asyndetic listing, further shows discomfort)
* ‘Loth’
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Repetition of ‘passed’
* Euphemism for death
* Isolation
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‘Tarrieth’
Biblical form of the verb ‘tarries’ ad contrasts with the simplicity of the rest of the language in the poem
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Structure
* Highly controlled
* Pattern represents Rossetti’s personal self-control and her desire to place her faith above earthly pleasure and self-indulgence
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Anapest (two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable)
Stanza 3, ‘Tomorrow’

Deviates from rhythm of poem
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Rhythm
* Iambic tetrameter (8)
* Alternates with iambic trimeter (3)

BUT
* Rhythm is disrupted by ANAPEST, TROCHEE and SPONDEE when new emotions are brought up