Remember

Question 1

Form (and metre)

Answer 1

• Petrachan sonnet (14 lines consisting of an octave then a sestet)
• This allows for a volta between stanzas, meaning each stanza can focus on a different aspect of the poems theme (as this poem does)
• They are usually about love, just like this poem, however Remember is different as it is also about death and memory from a female perspective
• As it is a petrachan sonnet, it is in iambic pentameter which shows the inevitability of death

Question 2

Main themes

Answer 2

• Memory
• Death (and inevitability of)
• Love
• Grief vs moving on
• Selfishness vs selflessness

Question 3

Rhyme scheme

Answer 3

• ABBA ABBA CDD ECE (as is similar for most Petrachan sonnets, though slightly different)
• It allows for a change of tone and therefore direction of thoughts in the second stanza, making the volta more prominent
• It creates the sense that the narrator is gradually reaching a conclusion with their thoughts and perspectives after undergoing realisations

Question 4

‘Remember me’

Answer 4

• Imperative
• Creates a sense of desperation as she is leaving her lover with no option
• It is later repeated at the start of line 5, further showing her desperation

Question 5

‘when I am gone away’

Answer 5

• Euphemism and metaphor for death
• Softens the tone, showing she is trying to soften the emotional impact of her death on her lover
• The word ‘when’ creates the sense that death is inevitable and there is nothing you can or should do to stop it

Question 6

‘Gone far away into the silent land’

Answer 6

• ‘Silent land’ is a metaphor for death
• It shows how she views death as very bleak and is scared of it, yet something peaceful where resistance would be futile

Question 7

‘When you can no more hold me by the hand’

Answer 7

• The personal pronouns ‘you’ and ‘me’ suggests links between the couples and personalises the poem
• The alliteration in ‘hold’ and ‘hand’ creates feelings of intimacy, deepening the potential impact of her death on her lover

Question 8

‘Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.’

Answer 8

• ‘stay’, which is the end of the first quatrain, is end-stopped and end-focused
• This is symbolic of how she wants to stay, but knows that death is inevitable
• This makes her seem desperate and hopeless, so she wants her lover to remember her as a way to mitigate her feelings of hopelessness

Question 9

‘can no more hold me’ and ‘when no more day by day’

Answer 9

• Repetition of ‘no more’
• Shows her fear for her impending death, highlighting that she wants her lover to remember her out of desperation

Question 10

‘Remember me when no more day by day’

Answer 10

• ‘Remember me’ is anaphora as it is repeated for the second time, emphasising her desperation
• ‘Day by day’ is quotidian, and juxtaposes the ‘silent land’, showing that at this point in the poem she desperately wants to stay and asks her lover to remember her so at least the memory of her stays

Question 11

‘It will be too late to counsel then or pray’

Answer 11

• Shows how in the octave, she knows that death is inevitable and there is nothing you can or should do against it
• However she still wants to be remembered as it means at least some part of her will remain, highlighting her desperation

Question 12

‘Yet’

Answer 12

• Volta
• As the first word of the sestet, it signifies a change in direction of thought and is the beginning of the exploration of a different aspect of remembrance after death
• The word has connotations of realisation, showing she has moved past her desperation and is now thinking more rationally

Question 13

‘if you should forget me for a while/And afterwards’

Answer 13

• Enjambment
• Shows the more fluid stream of conciousness now which has connotations of more rational thought

Question 14

‘do not grieve’

Answer 14

• Imperative, juxtaposing with ‘remember me’
• It is another imperative, but now it is instructing her lover to do the opposite thing
• This shows the realisation that she has now come to

Question 15

‘For if the darkness and corruption leave’

Answer 15

• ‘Darkness and corruption’ is a metaphor for death, highlighting it as a fundamentally negative thing
• This shows that, while she is still aware that death is bad, she is now asking her lover to forget about her if it affects him in order to avoid this bad

Question 16

‘Better by far you should forget and smile Than that you should remember and be sad’

Answer 16

• ‘Forget and smile’ is juxtaposed with ‘remember and be sad’
• These are the two options presented in the poem, with her in the sestet now being more contemplative and sacrificial and encouraging the first as she has now overcome her desperation and realises that the happiness of the people still alive is more important than her wish to have a part of her stay in the real world due to her fear of death