remember Flashcards
essence of the poem
Speaker fast approaching death clearly states a dying wish to their lover. The volta changes the speakers opinion, wanting the lover to forget and be happy rather than remember and be sad.
What is the significance about Rossetti compared to the other poets?
As the foremost female poet in the 19th century and the only female poet in the anthology, Rossetti holds an interesting vantage point - her female perspective devises a pure, emotive, deep, visceral and raw exploration of love.
Critic Joshua Bocher supports that ‘Rossetti predominantly expresses an emotional love - and not a sexualised love’. - it is this that drives the poignancy of the poem.
From a feminist standpoint, societal expectations placed on women at the time would have encourage the repressal and distance from sexual love, instead to uphold expectations on innocence.
Christina Rossetti
-Belongs to a group of artists ‘Pre-Raphaelites’ , who sought to return art to as it was before with a moral seriousness and sincerity.
-Exposed to a lot of ill health in her childhood and had a mental breakdown aged 14.
-Her father was a political exile - their household was frequently open to visiting Italian scholars, artists and revolutionaries
-Deeply religious and never married because of devotion
Themes
Death, mourning, acceptance
Rhyme Scheme
ABBA ABBA CDE CDE
1) sense of looking back
2) time running out
Metre
Iambic pentameter (unstressed/stressed)
Reminiscent of a heartbeat
Form
Petrarchan sonnet
What is significant about it’s form as a sonnet?
It follows the transition from life to death for the speaker, but for the audience it takes you from raw grief to future healing
‘Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;’
- imperative verb - insistent and commanding
-anadiplosis - caesura highlights the permanent disconnection of death
-‘far’ adds emotional weight, poignant
‘When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay’
- ‘h’ sounds, fricatives are gentle, conjuring images of intimacy, touch and affection
-hesitation conveys the speaker’s fear and uncertainty at their coming death
‘Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.’
- ‘only’, desparation
- enjambment is a stoic attempt at controlling emotions
‘Yet if you should forget me for a while’
Volta, mood shift
1) a transition much like life to death
2) would rather he forget her and be happy, than be sad and wallow in the painful memories of her
- a degree of sad realism and verismilitude
Repetition of ‘remember’
reiterates not to forget
Repeated use of ‘you’ and ‘I’
singular and distant
‘we’ and ‘us’ are markedly absent