Remember

Question 1

When was the poem written? (AO3)

Answer 1

1849 (19th Century)

Question 2

What happens in the poem?

Answer 2

The speaker is fast approaching death and asks their beloved to remember them after they pass away

Question 3

Christina Rossetti context (AO3)

Answer 3

• deeply religious
• father suffered from TB and poor mental health (exposed to illness and death from a young age)
• suffered mental breakdown at age 14
• allegedly never married due to devotion to her faith

Question 4

Historical Context (AO3)

Answer 4

Queen Victoria was in mourning so there was a rise in poems about death

Question 5

What is the form? (AO2)

Answer 5

Petrarchan Sonnet

Question 6

What is the rhyme scheme? (AO2)

Answer 6

ABBAABBACDDECE

It begins simply and then becomes more complex as her argument does

Question 7

What is the significance of the title? (AO2)

Answer 7

• Since it is only one word, it reflects the poem’s simplistic style
• It alludes to the key themes of the poem (loss/memory)
• It is the main quest of the speaker

Question 8

Volta (AO2)

Answer 8

“Yet…” (Line 9)
- it changes the rhyme scheme
- it changes the message from remembering her to forgetting about her if it brings them too much pain

Question 9

Themes

Answer 9

• everlasting love
• loss of love
• memory and death
• male control

Question 10

Links to Gatsby (AO4)

Answer 10

• speaker is dwelling on the power of memory and love like Gatsby
• Rossetti is embracing the ability to forget whereas Gatsby is caught in the past
• underlying themes of male control (Tom & Daisy/Myrtle)

Question 11

Feminist perspective (AO5)

Answer 11

The poem reflects the passive role of women in the Victorian society (highly patriarchal) as he has dominance over her.

Conventional gender roles

Stripping women of their autonomy.

Question 12

Alliteration (AO2)

“Hold me by the hand…”

Answer 12

“…nor I half turn.”

Reflects the desperate almost pant-like pleading of the speaker - sense of urgency.

Question 13

Euphemism (AO2)

“Silent…”

Answer 13

“…land”

• describing death and heaven (link to AO3 of her religion)
• avoids explicitly using the word ‘death’ as not to distress her lover
• likens death to a journey

Question 14

Ceasura (AO2)

“Only remember me;…”

Answer 14

“…you understand.”

In separating ‘me’ and ‘you’ it represents the physical distance between the living and the dead.

Question 15

Repetition (AO2)

“Remember.”

Answer 15

• repeated several times throughout the octave as an imperative
• appears softer in line 7
• in the sestet ‘remember’ is optional and it mirrors the speaker’s process of accepting that their lover may forget them

Question 16

“You tell me of our…”

Answer 16

“…future that you planned.”

Male control