From the Antique Flashcards
published
never published in Rossetti’s lifetime, possibly because of its unmistakable critique
1854
Simon Avery
calls the word choice “austere”, noting its cold, bleak language
weary
“it’s a weary life”
physical or emotional- could be a women from any class
unoccupied
“doubly blank”
just her or all women?
men
“I wish I were a man”
futility of her desire
extinction
“better than any being, were not”
desire for extinction - being a woman is worse than being nothing
religious reference
“grain of dust”
religious - dust to dust
no gender identity
dismissive
“the world would wag on the same”
seems dismissive
wag - little significance
natures indifference
“from pole to pole”
shows natures indifference about the lives of men
temporary beauty
“blossoms bloom” and “cherries ripen”
short lived, temporary - like women’s beauty?
nature reference comparable to Keats
life cycles
nature is more permanent than a human due to their repeated life cycles
collocation
“go and came”
inversion of usual collocation which allows a complete rhyme scheme
finality
she often uses modal “would” and “should” which seems more final than the subjunctive “were”
tone
despairing
stanzas 3-4 bitterness and sarcasm creep in “none would miss me”
structure and form
metrically unstable, with 8,9-10 syllable lines
it is set against the regularity and rhyme of the stanzas
