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Rossetti > Quotes > Flashcards

Quotes Flashcards

1
Q

Song: When I Am Dead, My Dearest

the first line of the poem, instructing the listener to not mourn her death and instead move on

A

“When I am dead, my dearest, / Sing no sad songs for me”

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2
Q

Song: When I Am Dead, My Dearest

instructing the listener not to take part in the normal displays of mourning

A

“Plant thou no roses at my head, / Nor shady cypress tree”

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3
Q

Song: When I Am Dead, My Dearest

telling the listener to carry on growing and living life after she is gone

A

“Be the green grass above me”

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4
Q

Song: When I Am Dead, My Dearest

nonchalance, it does not matter whether she is remembered or forgotten

A

“And if thou wilt, remember, / And if thou wilt, forget”

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5
Q

Song: When I Am Dead, My Dearest

describing what she will not be able to do once she is dead

A

“I shall not see the shadows, / I shall not feel the rain; / I shall not hear the nightingale / Sing on, as if in pain”

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6
Q

Song: When I Am Dead, My Dearest

repetition of the same idea of nonchalance at the end of the poem

A

“Haply I may remember, / And haply may forget”

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7
Q

Remember

the first line of the poem, instructing the listener to remember her

A

“Remember me when I am gone away, / Gone far away into the silent land”

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8
Q

Remember

describing what will no longer happen when she dies

A

“When you can no more hold me by the hand, / Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay”

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9
Q

Remember

the listener plans the narrator’s future for her

A

“…no more day by day / You tell me of our future that you plann’d”

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10
Q

Remember

the narrator wishes that if the reader remembers her, they should not grieve

A

“Yet if you should forget me for a while / And afterwards remember, do not grieve”

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11
Q

Remember

(the narrator reaches the conclusion that she’d rather be forgotten so her loved ones can be happy instead of remembering her and being sad)

A

“Better by far you should forget and smile / Than that you should remember and be sad”

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12
Q

From The Antique

life is particularly hard for women

A

“It’s a weary life, it is, she said: / Doubly blank in a woman’s lot”

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13
Q

From The Antique

wishing to be a man, or not exist at all

A

“I wish and I wish I were a man: / Or, better than any being, were not”

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14
Q

From The Antique

the narrator imagines not existing and being nothing at all

A

“Were nothing at all in all the world, / Not a body and not a soul”

“Not so much as a grain of dust / Or a drop of water from pole to pole”

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15
Q

From The Antique

the world will continue after she is dead, the insignificance of human life

A

“Still the world would wag on the same, / Still the seasons go and come”

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16
Q

From The Antique

(no one would miss her, everyone else will carry on with their own monotonous lives, divide between the narrator and the wider world)

A

“None would miss me in all the world, / …all the rest / Would wake and weary and fall asleep”

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17
Q

Echo

memory of love and of a person the speaker has lost

A

“O memory, hope, love of finished years”

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18
Q

Echo

bittersweet, the pain of remembering someone lost

A

“Oh dream how sweet, too sweet, too bitter sweet”

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19
Q

Echo

the door to the afterlife

A

“Where souls brimfull of love abide and meet; / Where thirsting longing eyes / Watch the slow door / That opening, letting in, lets out no more”

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20
Q

Echo

the narrator gaining life from another person, she wants her love to make her feel alive again

A

“Yet come to me in dreams, that I may live / My very life again tho’ cold in death”

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21
Q

Echo

the speaker wanting to give her life to her lost love

A

“Come back to me in dreams, that I may give / Pulse for pulse, breath for breath”

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22
Q

Shut Out

the speaker looking through the gate into a garden that used to be hers but she is no longer allowed access to

A

“The door was shut. I looked between / Its iron bars; and saw it lie, / My garden, mine”

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23
Q

Shut Out

the description of her garden

A

“From bough to bough the song-birds crossed, / From flower to flower the moths and bees”

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24
Q

Shut Out

the loss the speaker suffers

A

“It had been mine, and it was lost”

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25
Q

Shut Out

the garden is being guarded by a shadowless spirit, death contrasting to the life in the garden

A

“A shadowless spirit kept the gate, / Blank and unchanging like the grave”

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26
Q

Shut Out

(the spirit ignoring her pleas

A

“He answered not”

“The spirit was silent”

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27
Q

Shut Out

(the gate, which she could at least peer through, is now being replaced by a wall, blocking her from her garden forever, confinement and restriction)

A

“…he took / Mortar and stone to build a wall; / He left no loophole great or small / Through which my straining eyes might look”

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28
Q

Shut Out

loneliness and isolation

A

“So now I sit here quite alone”

“my outcast state”

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29
Q

Shut Out

the speaker’s sadness and despair now that she is alone

A

“Blinded with tears”

“For nought is left worth looking at / Since my delightful land is gone”

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30
Q

Shut Out

hope at the end of the poem for a new garden, although the speaker admits it will never be as good as the original one

A

“A violet bed is budding near, / Wherein a lark has made her nest”

“And good they are, but not the best; / And dear they are, but not so dear”

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31
Q

In The Round Tower At Jhansi (Indian Mutiny)

lack of hope

A

“A hundred, a thousand to one; even so; / Not a hope in the world remained”

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32
Q

In The Round Tower At Jhansi (Indian Mutiny)

(a sense of time running out, everything is closing in on them, utterly surrounded, sense of enclosure and entrapment, dehumanisation)

A

“The swarming howling wretches below / Gained and gained and gained”

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33
Q

In The Round Tower At Jhansi (Indian Mutiny)

the tragedy of their deaths

A

“Young, strong, and so full of life / The agony struck them dumb”

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34
Q

In The Round Tower At Jhansi (Indian Mutiny)

repetition of close

A

“Close his arm about her now, / Close her cheek to his, / Close the pistol to her brow”

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35
Q

In The Round Tower At Jhansi (Indian Mutiny)

(questions, uncertainty, needs guidance, the woman asking the questions and the man providing the answers, stereotypical representation of gender)

A

“Is the time come?”

“Will it hurt much?”

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36
Q

In The Round Tower At Jhansi (Indian Mutiny)

wishing to sacrifice herself for her husband and bear the pain alone

A

“I wish I could bear the pang for both / I wish I could bear the pang alone”

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37
Q

In The Round Tower At Jhansi (Indian Mutiny)

the man is given an identity, the woman is nameless and simply his wife, lacks an identity of her own

A

“Skene”

“his pale young wife”

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38
Q

In The Round Tower At Jhansi (Indian Mutiny)

their final goodbye

A

“One kiss more/ …And yet one again”

“‘Good-bye.’—’Good-bye’”

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39
Q

A Birthday

singing bird

A

“My heart is like a singing bird”

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40
Q

A Birthday

apple tree

A

“My heart is like an apple-tree / Whose boughs are bent with thickset fruit”

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41
Q

A Birthday

rainbow shell

A

“My heart is like a rainbow shell / That paddles in a halcyon sea”

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42
Q

A Birthday

the speaker declaring that her heart is so full of love now that her love has come back to her

A

“My heart is gladder than all these / Because my love is come to me”

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43
Q

A Birthday

images of luxury, celebrating the return of her love

A

“Raise me a dais of silk and down”

“Hang it with vair and purple dyes”

“Carve it in doves and pomegranates”

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44
Q

A Birthday

repetition of her love coming back to her and the newfound vitality it has brought her

A

“…the birthday of my life / Is come, my love is come to me”

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45
Q

Maude Clare

Maude Clare following them out of the church, after their wedding ceremony

A

“Out of the church she followed them / With a lofty step and mien”

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46
Q

Maude Clare

the differences between Maude Clare and Nell

A

“His bride was like a village maid, / Maude Clare was like a queen”

“…though you’re taller by the head, / More wise and much more fair”

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47
Q

Maude Clare

pale used in three different ways

A

“My lord was pale with inward strife”

“Nell was pale with pride”

“My lord gazed long on pale Maude Clare”

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48
Q

Maude Clare

Maude Clare imposing herself into all aspects of their marriage, cruel, spiteful

A

“I have brought my gift, my lord”

“To bless the hearth, to bless the board, / To bless the marriage-bed”

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49
Q

Maude Clare

(Maude Clare making the relationship she used to have with Thomas clear, they were clearly quite intimate, she seems to be exerting her dominance)

A

“Here’s my half of the golden chain / You wore about your neck, / That day we waded ankle-deep / For lilies in the beck”

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50
Q

Maude Clare

(Thomas faltering and not being able to match Maude Clare’s dominance, he becomes infantile and powerless in her presence)

A

“He strove to match her scorn with scorn, / He faltered in his place”

“Lady,” he said, – “Maude Clare,” he said, – / “Maude Clare,” – and hid his face”

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51
Q

Maude Clare

she claims to be no longer interested or concerned with Thomas, although she seems territorial and bitter

A

“Take my share of a fickle heart”

“Take it or leave it as you will, / I wash my hands thereof”

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52
Q

Maude Clare

Nell’s devotion and assertiveness, even in the face of Maude Clare, she vows to commit herself to her husband

A

“And what you leave,” said Nell, “I’ll take, / And what you spurn, I’ll wear”

“For he’s my lord for better and worse, / And him I love Maude Clare”

“I’ll love him till he loves me best, / Me best of all, Maude Clare”

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53
Q

Up-Hill

the speaker asking if the journey will be full of struggle and hardship

A

“Does the road wind up-hill all the way? / Yes, to the very end”

“Will the day’s journey take the whole long day? / From morn to night, my friend”

54
Q

Up-Hill

the speaker asking if there will be a place of comfort and peace where she can rest on her journey

A

“But is there for the night a resting-place? / A roof for when the slow dark hours begin”

55
Q

Up-Hill

(the speaker worrying she may get lost, not be able to find the place of peace or may be denied access to it, the answer reassures her she won’t be)

A

“May not the darkness hide it from my face? / You cannot miss that inn”

“They will not keep you standing at that door”

56
Q

Up-Hill

(the speaker asking whether she’ll have to take this journey alone, or whether she will meet others, worries of loneliness and isolation)

A

“Shall I meet other wayfarers at night? / Those who have gone before”

57
Q

Up-Hill

(repetition of the idea of seeking to find comfort and a place of refuge after her gruelling journey, hardship and reward)

A

“Shall I find comfort, travel-sore and weak? / Of labour you shall find the sum”

58
Q

Up-Hill

sense of solidarity and the collective, asking whether everyone will be allowed comfort and peace

A

“Will there be beds for me and all who seek? / Yea, beds for all who come”

59
Q

No, Thank You, John

opening line, the speaker immediately makes her lack of love clear, assertive and honest

A

“I never said I loved you, John”

60
Q

No, Thank You, John

the speaker pointing out that he used to command her and belittle her

A

“Why will you tease me, day by day, / And wax a weariness to think upon / With always “do” and “pray”?”

61
Q

No, Thank You, John

the speaker reasserting how she never loved him and that she is not the one to blame for this

A

“You know I never loved you, John; / No fault of mine made me your toast”

62
Q

No, Thank You, John

he continues to haunt her, an imposing figure, despite her attempts to distance herself from him

A

“Why will you haunt me with a face as wan / As shows an hour-old ghost?”

63
Q

No, Thank You, John

(all women would be equally unimpressed, sarcastic and knowing tone, suggestion that he did not ask her, he simply told her to marry him)

A

“I dare say Meg or Moll would take / Pity upon you, if you’d ask”

64
Q

No, Thank You, John

(the man as the more childish figure, unable to engage in adult conversation, instead resorting to insulting her and suggesting a defect lies within her if she doesn’t love him)

A

“I have no heart?—Perhaps I have not”

“Don’t call me false, who owed not to be true”

65
Q

No, Thank You, John

(the speaker suggests he is mad, calmly argues against his childish insults, emasculates him by saying he is illogical, pities him)

A

“But then you’re mad to take offence / That I don’t give you what I have not got: / Use your common sense”

66
Q

No, Thank You, John

(the speaker displays intellectual and emotional maturity in dealing with the situation, suggesting they both move on with their lives and resolve this conflict)

A

“Let bygones be bygones”

“Let’s mar our pleasant days no more”

“I’ll wink at your untruth”

67
Q

No, Thank You, John

(hyperbolic, reiterating her rejection of him, she is acting unorthodoxically by refusing to submit to a man, challenges stereotypes)

A

“I’d rather answer “No” to fifty Johns / Than answer “Yes” to you”

68
Q

No, Thank You, John

(the speaker being the bigger person by offering him friendship instead of romantic love, she behaves more maturely despite his taunting and insults)

A

“Let us strike hands as hearty friends; / No more, no less: and friendship’s good”

“Here’s friendship for you if you like; but love,— / No, thank you, John”

69
Q

No, Thank You, John

(there is a danger of him misunderstanding their friendship and still seeking some kind of love, suggestion that he often misunderstands and doesn’t listen to her, but she makes it clear that they will never have anything more than friendship)

A

“Only don’t keep in view ulterior ends, / And points not understood”

70
Q

No, Thank You, John

(war like imagery of reconciliation, she asks him to rise above their petty disputes and move on, she recognises that this conflict is childish and unnecessary)

A

“In open treaty. Rise above / Quibbles and shuffling off and on”

71
Q

No, Thank You, John

the speaker asks that he doesn’t remain single for her sake and that he should move on, because she will

A

“And pray don’t remain single for my sake / Who can’t perform that task”

72
Q

No, Thank You, John

the last line reinstating her refusal of him, determined and resilient until the end

A

“Here’s friendship for you if you like; but love,— / No, thank you, John”

73
Q

Good Friday

the speaker feels heartless and regretful that she does not weep at Christ’s crucifixion

A

“Am I a stone, and not a sheep”

“That I can stand, O Christ, beneath Thy cross, / To number drop by drop Thy blood’s slow loss, / And yet not weep?”

74
Q

Good Friday

(the speaker feels alone, she does not weep or grieve like the women or Peter, even the thief who was crucified next to Jesus felt some pain, yet the speaker feels nothing)

A

“Not so those women loved / Who with exceeding grief lamented Thee”

“Not so fallen Peter, weeping bitterly”

“Not so the thief was moved”

75
Q

Good Friday

(even the sun and moon made the world completely dark after his death, yet is frustrated and regretful that she cannot bring herself to cry)

A

“Not so the Sun and Moon / Which hid their faces in a starless sky, / A horror of great darkness at broad noon”

76
Q

Good Friday

the speaker’s isolation, only she feels nothing, she is detached from everyone else

A

“I, only I”

77
Q

Good Friday

she wishes Christ to show her the way and inspire faith or some deeper belief in Christianity

A

“Greater than Moses, turn and look once more / And smite a rock”

78
Q

Goblin Market

the persistent cry of the goblin men, constantly tempting them to buy their fruits

A

“Morning and evening / Maids heard the goblins cry”

“Come buy, come buy”

79
Q

Goblin Market

examples of the fruit the goblin men are selling, rich imagery, exotic and sensual descriptions

A

“Plump unpeck’d cherries”

“Pomegranates full and fine”

“Figs to fill your mouth, / Citrons from the South”

80
Q

Goblin Market

multisensory, disorientating wave of imagery, overwhelming of the senses

A

“Sweet to tongue and sound to eye; / Come buy, come buy”

81
Q

Goblin Market

(both sisters are shy, timid, subservient, although ‘veiled’ suggests that there are already blushes to hide, Laura bows her head to hear, which suggests she is curious and may already be tempted)

A

“Laura bow’d her head to hear, / Lizzie veil’d her blushes”

82
Q

Goblin Market

Laura’s warning against being tempted by the goblin men, to look is to be tempted

A

“We must not look at goblin men, / We must not buy their fruits”

83
Q

Goblin Market

(Lizzie’s warnings against the goblin men, she is determined not to be tempted and much more strong-willed than her sister, able to resist temptation)

A

“You should not peep at goblin men”

“Lizzie cover’d up her eyes”

“No, no, no; / Their offers should not charm us, / Their evil gifts would harm us”

“She thrust a dimpled finger / In each ear, shut eyes and ran”

“I hear the fruit call but I dare not look”

84
Q

Goblin Market

Laura’s curiosity and temptation, she has a passionate desire to eat the fruit they are selling

A

“Curious Laura chose to linger / Wondering at each merchant man”

“Laura stared… / Long’d but had no money”

“a passionate yearning”

“gnash’d her teeth for baulk’d desire”

85
Q

Goblin Market

animalistic, dehumanised description of the goblins, sinister and inhuman

A

“One had a cat’s face, / One whisk’d a tail”

86
Q

Goblin Market

the goblins’ manipulation of Laura, they are tempting and luring her in, predatory, disguising their sinister motives

A

“She heard a voice like voice of doves / Cooing all together: / They sounded kind and full of loves”

“In tones as smooth as honey”

“sugar-baited words”

87
Q

Goblin Market

Laura finally giving into temptation and succumbing to her desires

A

“Like a vessel at the launch / When its last restraint is gone”

88
Q

Goblin Market

the sinister, predatory nature of the goblins, surrounding her

A

“Leering at each other”

“Signalling each other, / Brother with sly brother”

89
Q

Goblin Market

Laura possessing no money of her own, but being able to pay with a lock of her hair

A

“I have no copper in my purse, / I have no silver either”

“You have much gold upon your head”

“She clipp’d a precious golden lock, / She dropp’d a tear more rare than pearl”

90
Q

Goblin Market

(Laura succumbing to desire, not being able to stop her hunger, she lacks control, gluttony and greed, consumed by desire)

A

“She suck’d and suck’d and suck’d the more”

“She suck’d until her lips were sore”

“I ate and ate my fill, / Yet my mouth waters still”

91
Q

Goblin Market

vulnerability of women, how easily they can be tempted and drawn in

A

“Twilight is not good for maidens; / Should not loiter in the glen / In the haunts of goblin men”

92
Q

Goblin Market

(a warning against being tempted and giving into desire, an example of a fallen woman, the consequences of succumbing to temptation)

A

“Do you not remember Jeanie, / How she met them in the moonlight”

“she dwindled and grew grey”

“to this day no grass will grow / Where she lies low”

“She thought of Jeanie in her grave, / Who should have been a bride; / But… Fell sick and died”

93
Q

Goblin Market

closeness of the sisters, protecting each other, bonds of sisterhood

A

“Like two pigeons in one nest / Folded in each other’s wings”

“Cheek to cheek and breast to breast / Lock’d together in one nest”

94
Q

Goblin Market

the divide growing between the sisters, clear differences are emerging, Laura’s temptation is driving them apart

A

“Lizzie with an open heart, / Laura in an absent dream”

“One content, one sick in part”

“One warbling for the mere bright day’s delight, / One longing for the night”

95
Q

Goblin Market

the journey back from temptation and sin is a difficult one

A

“the bank was steep”

however, it is much easier for Lizzie, who “sprang up the bank” (she is the stronger sister)

96
Q

Goblin Market

(Laura no longer being able to hear the goblins’ cries once she has succumbed to temptation, she has lost her value to them now so they no longer seek her out, links to the value of a woman lying in her purity, so Laura has no worth to them now she’s been corrupted)

A

“Listening ever, but not catching / The customary cry”

“Laura turn’d cold as stone / To find her sister heard that cry alone”

“She never caught again the goblin cry”

97
Q

Goblin Market

(the consequences of temptation for Laura, who now suffers due to her giving into desire, she is punished for her actions)

A

“Her tree of life droop’d from the root”

“She said not one word in her heart’s sore ache”

“wept / As if her heart would break”

“In sullen silence of exceeding pain”

“Her hair grew thin and grey”

“She dwindled, as the fair full moon doth turn / To swift decay and burn / Her fire away”

“She no more swept the house, /… And would not eat”

98
Q

Goblin Market

Lizzie’s determination to save her sister and sacrifice herself for Laura

A

“Long’d to buy fruit to comfort her, / But fear’d to pay too dear”

“For your sake I have braved the glen / And had to do with goblin merchant men”

“her sister stood / In deadly peril to do her good, / And win the fiery antidote”

99
Q

Goblin Market

(the goblins attacking Lizzie when she refuses to submit to their demands, they quickly abandon their false pretences and become vicious)

A

“No longer wagging, purring, / But visibly demurring, / Grunting and snarling”

“Barking, mewing, hissing, mocking, / Tore her gown and soil’d her stocking”

“Twitch’d her hair out by the roots, / Stamp’d upon her tender feet”

“Held her hands and squeez’d their fruits / Against her mouth to make her eat”

100
Q

Goblin Market

Lizzie’s resilience and strength, refusal to give into temptation, determination, deep contrast to Laura

A

“Lizzie stood, / Like a lily in a flood, / …Like a beacon left alone / In a hoary roaring sea”

“Lizzie utter’d not a word; / Would not open lip from lip / Lest they should cram a mouthful in”

101
Q

Goblin Market

Laura’s redemption and renewed vitality and freedom, she has been saved from sin by her sister

A

“like the mane of horses in their flight, / …like an eagle when she stems the light / …like a caged thing freed”

“Her gleaming locks show’d not one thread of grey”

“light danced in her eyes”

“Life out of death”

“Laura awoke as from a dream, / Laugh’d in the innocent old way”

102
Q

Goblin Market

purification by fire, she must suffer further in order to be redeemed

A

“Writhing as one possess’d”

“Swift fire spread through her veins”

103
Q

Goblin Market

(Lizzie and Laura both escape the fate of the ‘fallen woman’ and are able to grow up, eventually having families of their own)

A

“Afterwards, when both were wives / With children of their own”

104
Q

Goblin Market

bonds of sisterhood, female solidarity, family devotion

A

“For there is no friend like a sister / In calm or stormy weather”

“To fetch one if one goes astray, / To lift one if one totters down”

105
Q

Twice

the speaker’s possession of her own heart, she has autonomy at this stage and can choose what to do with her own heart

A

“I took my heart in my hand”

106
Q

Twice

(indicates passion and an intimate relationship, but ‘love’ is soon replaced with ‘God’ which points to a shift in priorities, rather than seeking to please a man, she seeks love from and closeness to God)

A

“(O my love, O my love)”

“O my God, O my God”

107
Q

Twice

the speaker submitting to a man, handing them control of her heart and her life, opening herself up to pain

A

“I said: Let me fall or stand, / Let me live or die”

“Yet a woman’s words are weak; / You should speak, not I”

108
Q

Twice

(consumerist attitudes men held towards women, the speaker’s rejection, the change from “I” to “you” indicates a loss of possession and control)

A

“You took my heart in your hand / With a friendly smile, / With a critical eye you scanned, / Then set it down”

“It is still unripe”

109
Q

Twice

the speaker’s heartbreak, hurt and pain, but her refusal to outwardly show this inner pain

A

“As you set it down it broke- / Broke, but I did not wince”

110
Q

Twice

the speaker’s loss of interest in things, her lack of joy and care for the world around her

A

“But I have not often smiled / Since then”

“Nor cared for corn-flowers wild, / Nor sung with the singing bird”

111
Q

Twice

the speaker reclaiming her heart once again, it is yet again her own to keep or give away as she pleases

A

“I take my heart in my hand”

112
Q

Twice

(the speaker giving herself fully to God, dedicating and committing herself to something bigger than earthly love, arguably she is simply submitting to another patriarchal/male figure)

A

“Now let Thy judgment stand- / Yea, judge me now”

“All that I have I bring, / All that I am I give”

“I shall sing, / But shall not question much”

113
Q

Twice

(purification by suffering, fire to cleanse sin or be reborn, she desires to be protected by God, giving her heart to him)

A

“Refine with fire its gold, / Purge Thou its dross away”

“Yea, hold it in Thy hold, / Whence none can pluck it out”

114
Q

Winter: My Secret

(the speaker enticing and teasing whoever she is addressing, suggesting she may tell her secret or she may not, enjoys having some form of power and control, the first and last line of the poem)

A

“I tell my secret? No indeed, not I; / Perhaps some day, who knows?”

“Perhaps my secret I may say, / Or you may guess”

115
Q

Winter: My Secret

the speaker having control over when she reveals her secret, it is entirely at her discretion, female autonomy

A

“But not today; it froze, and blows and snows”

116
Q

Winter: My Secret

(chastising and reprimanding the addressee, playful tone, hypocritical as she is purposefully enticing them but then reprimands them for being curious)

A

“And you’re too curious: fie!”

117
Q

Winter: My Secret

the speaker reasserting her ownership over the secret, it belongs to her and she chooses what to do with it

A

“You want to hear it? well: / Only, my secret’s mine, and I won’t tell”

118
Q

Winter: My Secret

(the speaker suggesting there may be no secret at all, false seeming, manipulative, she seems to be toying with people and treating them like dolls for her own entertainment)

A

“Or, after all, perhaps there’s none: / Suppose there is no secret after all, / But only just my fun”

119
Q

Winter: My Secret

symbols of false pretences and disguise, being shielded and concealed by her clothing

A

“Today’s a nipping day… / In which one wants a shawl, / A veil, a cloak, and other wraps”

120
Q

Winter: My Secret

(the speaker cannot reveal her secret to anyone, otherwise she will suffer the consequences, it will strip her of her autonomy and power)

A

“I cannot ope to everyone who taps, / And let the draughts come whistling thro’ my hall; / Come bounding and surrounding me, / Nipping and clipping thro’ my wraps and all”

121
Q

Winter: My Secret

her facade is a source of comfort and a kind of safety net for her

A

“I wear my mask for warmth”

“who ever shows / His nose to Russian snows / To be pecked at by every wind that blows?”

122
Q

Winter: My Secret

distrustful of the seasons, they are ever-changing and inconsistent

A

“I don’t trust / March with its peck of dust, / Nor April with its rainbow-crowned brief showers”

“Nor even May, whose flowers / One frost may wither thro’ the sunless hours”

123
Q

Winter: My Secret

(the speaker outlines the exact situation she may reveal her secret, but these conditions are overly specific and almost impossible to achieve, suggesting she may never tell her secret)

A

“Perhaps some languid summer day, / If there’s not too much sun nor too much cloud, / And the warm wind is neither still nor loud”

124
Q

Winter: My Secret

the last line of the poem, she retains autonomy and power over her secret until the very end, still not giving it away

A

“Perhaps my secret I may say, / Or you may guess”

125
Q

Soeur Louise De La Misericorde

desire is fleeting and short-lasting, it is not permanent, her days of desire are now over

A

“I have desired, and I have been desired; / But now the days are over of desire”

126
Q

Soeur Louise De La Misericorde

deterioration, she feels ridiculed and worthless now that she has no purpose as she is no longer desirable

A

“Now dust and dying embers mock my fire; / Where is the hire for which my life was hired?”

127
Q

Soeur Louise De La Misericorde

(desire and vanity is shortlived, superficial and meaningless, the main line of the poem repeated at the end of every stanza, strongly emphasised)

A

“Oh vanity of vanities, desire!”

128
Q

Soeur Louise De La Misericorde

(life lacks fulfilment and meaning now, she is simply left with hollow memories of love and desire, tone of regret and bitterness)

A

“Longing and love, pangs of a perished pleasure, / Longing and love, a disenkindled fire”

“And memory a bottomless gulf of mire, / And love a fount of tears outrunning measure”

129
Q

Soeur Louise De La Misericorde

(the inevitability of life and love slowly withering away, a slow diminishing of desire, awakening and realisation of the limitations of love and desire, she is only left with the remnants of a past life that means nothing now)

A

“Now from my heart, love’s deathbed, trickles, trickles, / Drop by drop slowly, drop by drop of fire”

“The dross of life, of love, of spent desire”

“Alas, my rose of life gone all to prickles”

130
Q

Soeur Louise De La Misericorde

(she is now limited and lacks future opportunity, a sense of hopelessness, desire has trapped her with nowhere to go and all opportunities have withered away as she has aged)

A

“Stunting my hope which might have strained up higher / Turning my garden plot to barren mire”

“Oh death-struck love, oh disenkindled fire”

Rossetti (4 decks)

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