Christina Rossetti - Remember Study Notes

Background: Born in London; daughter of a painter and Italian political exile. Her mother was the sister of John Polidori, physician to Lord Byron.
Influences: Deeply influenced by Italian writers and her brother, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in $1848$ .
Personal Struggles: Her father suffered from tuberculosis and depression; Rossetti herself had a nervous breakdown at age $14$ .
Career and Death: Refused three marriage proposals on religious grounds. Published "Remember" in her most famous collection at age $31$ . Died of breast cancer in $1894$ .

Philosophy: Formed in $1848$ to reform art by rejecting the classical styles of Raphael. They promoted abundant detail, intense colors, and imitation of nature.
Themes: Focused on atmospheric mood, medieval subjects, female beauty, and spiritualism over narrative.
Legacy: Popularized the concept of "art for art's sake" and emphasized the spiritual nature of art.

"The Silent Land": A metaphor for death and heaven. It references Revelation $14:13$ (a place of silent rest) and reflects ideas in Wordsworth’s "Tintern Abbey," where communication with the living is no longer possible.
Physical Imagery: "Hold me by the hand" symbolizes early love and the physical connection that death will sever.
Structural Refrain: The word "remember" functions as a refrain. Its power diminishes as the poem progresses, moving from a command at the start of lines to being modified by "only" or overshadowed by "forget."
"Darkness and corruption": Refers to physical decay and the end of life, leaving only a "vestige" (trace) of the speaker's thoughts.

Petrarchan Sonnet: Consists of an octave (lines $1-8$ ) and a sestet (lines $9-14$ ).
Rhyme Scheme: Follows the pattern $ABBA$ $ABBA$ for the octave and $CDDECE$ for the sestet.
The Volta: Occurs at line $9$ with the word "Yet." The tone shifts from a desire to be remembered to a selfless wish for the beloved’s happiness.
Meter: Written in regular iambic pentameter, which creates a sense of emotional control.

Selfless Love: The conclusion, "Better by far you should forget and smile," suggests true love involves self-sacrifice and prioritizing the beloved's peace over one's own legacy.
Victorian Gender Roles: An alternative reading suggests a critique of male dominance. The male figure is presented as controlling the "future that you planned" and holding the speaker possessively, making death a potential escape from patriarchal control.