Rossetti themes and quotes

NATURE: A Birthday

“My heart is like…

a singing bird / Whose nest is a water’d shoot”

NATURE AND RELIGION: A Birthday

“thickset…” “rainbow…”

“…fruit” “…shell”

FULFILLMENT: A Birthday

“Raise me a dais of silk and…

down; / Hang it with vair and purple dyes”

SOCIETY: A Birthday

“Carve it in doves and pomegranates …

/ And peacocks with a hundred eyes”

SPIRITUAL LOVE: A Birthday

“the birthday of my life / Is come, …

my love is come to me”

BOUNDARIES - LIFE V. DEATH: Echo

“Come to me in the …

speaking silence of a dream”

DESIRE: Echo

“thirsting, …

longing eyes”

LONGING: Echo

“O memory, hope, love of …

finished years”

BOUNDARIES - LIFE V. DEATH: Echo

“pulse for …

pulse, breath for breath”

PESSIMISM: From the Antique

“it’s a weary life, it is, …

she said: / Doubly blank in a woman’s lot”

19TH CENTURY GENDER ROLES: From the Antique

“I wish and I …

wish I were a man”

BOUNDARIES - LIFE V. DEATH: From the Antique

“Not so much as a grain of …

dust / Or a drop of water from pole to pole”

PESSIMISM: From the Antique

“Still the world would …

wag on the same,”

PESSIMISM: From the Antique

“Would wake and weary …

and fall asleep”

SOCIETY - COMMERCE: Goblin Market

“crap-apples, …

dewberries”

BOUNDARIES - RESISTANCE V. TEMPTATION: Goblin Market

“Lizzie cover’d up her eyes / Cover’d …

“Laura stretched …

close lest they should look”

her gleaming neck”

SOCIETY: CAPITALISM: Goblin Market

“I ate and ate my fill / Yet …

my mouth waters still”

BOUNDARIES - LIFE V. DEATH: Goblin Market

“Laura dwindling / Seem’d …

knocking at Death’s door”

SOCIETY - GENDER ROLES: Goblin Market

“Twitch’d her …

hair out by the roots”

RESISTANCE: Goblin Market

“like a …

lily in a flood”

SALVATION: Goblin Market

“Hug me, kiss me, suck my juices / Squeez’d from …

goblin fruits for you”

REDEMPTION:

“when both were wives / With children …

of their own”

RELATIONSHIPS:

“For there is no …

friend like a sister”

RELIGIOUS DOUBT: Good Friday

“Am I a …

stone, and not a sheep,”

ISOLATION: Good Friday

“I, only …

I”

SELF BELIEF:

“smite a …

rock”

PESSIMISM: In The Round Tower at Jhansi

“Not a …

hope in the world remained”

RELATIONSHIPS: In The Round Tower at Jhansi

“Skene looked at his …

pale young wife”

ACTION (COURAGE): In The Round Tower at Jhansi

“Close the pistol to …

her brow”

LOVE: In The Round Tower at Jhansi

“I wish I could …

bear the pang for both”

LOVE: In The Round Tower at Jhansi

“Thus to …

kiss and die”

SELF-BELIEF: Maude Clare

“With a lofty …

step and mein”

SECRETS: Maude Clare

“My lord gazed long upon …

pale Maude Clare”

DESIRE: Maude Clare

“Here’s my half of the …

faded leaves / We plucked from the budding bough”

SOCIETY - GENDER ROLES: Maude Clare

“He strove to …

match her scorn with scorn”

LOVE: Maude Clare

“I’ll love him till he …

loves me best, / Me best of all Maude Clare”

SOCIETY - GENDER ROLES: No, Thank You John

“You know I never …

loved you, John: / No fault of mine made me your toast”

SOCIETY - GENDER ROLES: No, Thank You John

“I daresay Meg or Moll …

would take / Pity on you”

SECRETS: No, Thank You John

“I’ll …

wink at your untruth”

ACTION: No, Thank You John

“In open …

treaty”

SOCIETY - GENDER ROLES: No, Thank You John

“Here’s friendship for you if you …

like; but love,- / No, thank you, John”

BOUNDARIES: LIFE V. DEATH: Remember

“Remember me when I am …

gone away, / Gone far away”

RELIGION: Remember

“silent …

land”

BOUNDARIES - LIFE V. DEATH: Remember

“When you can no more hold me …

by the hand,”

CHANGE: Remember

“do not …

grieve”

LOVE: Remember

“Better by far you should …

forget and smile / Than that you should remember and be sad”

ISOLATION: Shut Out

“The door was shut. I …

looked between / Its iron bars”

SOCIETY - GENDER ROLES: Shut Out

“My …

garden, mine”

RELIGION: Shut Out

“It had been mine, and …

it was lost”

BOUNDARIES - LIFE V. DEATH: Shut Out

“the moths …

and bees”

PESSIMISM: Shut Out

“now I sit here …

alone / Blinded with tears”

DESIRE: Souer Louise de la Misericorde

“now the days are over of desire, / Now …

dust and dying embers mock my fire:”

PUNISHMENT: Souer Louise de la Misericorde

“Alas, my rose of life gone …

all to prickles”

RELIGION:

“Turning my garden plot to …

barren mire”

PESSIMISM: Song

“When I am …

dead, my dearest”

LOVE: Song

“And if thou wilt, …

remember / And if thou wilt, forget”

BOUNDARIES - LIFE V. DEATH: Song

“I shall not see the …

shadows, / I shall not feel the rain”

RELIGION: Song

“dreaming through the …

twilight”

SOCIETY - GENDER ROLES: Twice

“Yet a woman’s words are …

weak; / You should speak, not I”

PESSIMISM: Twice

“I have not often smiled / Since then, nor …

questioned since”

RELIGION: Twice

“Refine with fire its …

gold, / Purge thou its dross away”

LOVE: Twice

“Smile Thou and I shall …

sing / But shall not question much”

RELIGION: Up-Hill

“Does the road wind up-hill all …

the way? / Yes, to the very end.”

RELIGION: Up-Hill

“Of labour you will find …

the sum”

SOCIETY - GENDER ROLES: Winter: My Secret

“Only, my secret’s mine, and I …

won’t tell”

ISOLATION: Winter: My Secret

“Nipping and clipping thro’ my wraps and all. / I …

wear my mask for warmth”

AMBIGUITY: Winter: My Secret

“Or you may …

guess”