Song: When I am Dead my Dearest

Themes

• Memory and forgetfulness

• Earth vs afterlife

• Expression through natural world

Structure

• 2 stanzas, both 8 lines

• Regular rhyme scheme first half stanza (ABCB)

• Anaphoric and incremental repetition

Stanzas

Stanza 1

Talks to someone

Positive

Tangible

Stanza 2

Talks about self

Negative

Abstract

Relating to Rossetti

Separation from herself and her love

Nature = Pre-Raphaelite

Doubt (religious mental breakdown)

Acceptance of father’s death

“Sing no sad songs for me”

Would lead to mourning. Poem is not sad, not funeral song

“No roses”

Don’t focus on remembrance of love

“Cypress trees”

Mourning. Traditionally carried at funeral. God created to show his love of life

“Shadows”

Natural imagery. Death = natural

Unknown or hidden aspects of ourselves or situations

Repressed emotions or fears

“I shall not fear the rain”

Stress (iambic trimeter) falls on contrasting words (“Shall feel rain”)

“Nightingale”

Creativity, muse, nature’s purity, virtue and goodness. Sung a joyful song. Contrasts pain. Joyful bird in distress

“rain”

Rebirth, unhappiness, foreboding. Tears at funeral

“And if thou wilt, remember,

And if thou wilt, forget”

• No matter if you remember or forget the dead, still should not mourn. Contrasting

• Flowers and plants “wilt” when they die

“Haply I may remember

And haply may forget”

“haply” has two meanings

1. By chance (hopefully). Hopefully I forget and remember, but no mourning because death is inevitable and natural

2. Happily. Would be happy to remember and forget