From the Antique Flashcards
1
Q
From the Antique: Structure
A
ABCB quatrains - rigidity of structure, no deviations & monotony - suggestive of an inescapable life for women.
2
Q
Title: From the Antique
A
antique - something that has been moulded/sculpted to take a certain form
- antique = old - outdated ideals for women? perhaps even associated with hollowness = reflecting the speaker’s growing sense of unfulfilment.
3
Q
FTA: Rossetti crafts a sense of dreariness & consequent dissatisfaction w/ Earthly life:
1. ‘world w w o’
2. ‘would w a w f a’
A
- world would wag on’ - depressing, protracted language juxtaposes imagery of vitality through ‘bees and cherries’. Rep of drawn out ‘w’ sounds, creates an exhausting & depressed tone, perhaps a reflection of a dissatisfaction with life. ‘Still world would wag on the same’ => suggestive of an irritation with the monotony of day-to-day life as its limitations are boredom inducing.
- ‘Would wake and weary fall asleep.’: continues the notion of Earthly life as draining one’s vivacity & joy in life. Possibly ‘fall asleep’ is a metaphor for teh peaceful escape of death.
4
Q
Rossetti employs a semantic field of emptiness: From the Antique
A
- ‘doubly blank is a woman’s lot’: Paradoxical lang. forces emphasis of ‘blank’ to suggest a complete lack of opportunities for women & the speaker’s utter disinterest & dissatisfaction of Earthly existence for them as a direct consequence.
- ‘not a body and not a soul’: even religiosity seems to have no appeal to this speaker as they crave more than just simple death or non-existence, they wish to be completely expunged from ‘reality’ & does not even wish for existence outside of the earthly realm = completely devoid of any joy regarding existence, this persona is always pursuing the finality of non-existence bc they are completely downtrodden in life.
