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structure
petrachan sonnet (split into octave and sestet)
What is the story of this poem?
Rossetti (speaker) instructs an unknown on what they should do after her death - they should try to remember her if possible, but above all be happy and not worry
rhyme scheme
alternate rhyme scheme shows conflict in her desires (changes in sestet, showing shift in speakers request)
Rhyme scheme - ABBA ABBA CDD ECE - movement from balanced ABBA pattern to complicated C,D and E rhymes - mirror the poem’s thought - speaker starts out insisting her lover remembers her, but then moves to the harder thought that they shouldn’t feel bad in forgetting her
metre
iambic pentameter (trict iambs shows speakers self restraint and witholding emotions)
volta
shows shift in speakers requests
‘me; you’ ceasura
emphasise the distance between the dead and living
‘remember me when i am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
where you can no longer hold me by the hand,
Nor i half turn to go yet turning stay’
start with plead to remember them shows desperation
the away and stay rhyme though opposites conflict the narrator in entering heaven but leaving love (shows love or relligion conflict in the speaker’s head)
- you can no longer hold me by the hand- image of holding hand employed by dante Gabriel to show the first manifestations of love. the immage is suggestive of possession and desire to cling onto physical intimacy
“when I am gone away”
Euphemism - death is a place of complete disconnection from humanity
Apostrophe - direct address to her unknown lover
“gone far away”
Anadiplosis - emphasises the distance and disconnection of death - speaker won’t just be gone, she’ll be “gone” - as if her essence would be empty after death
“half turn to go yet turning stay”
Speaker’s desire to cling to life and the tender poignancy and sadness of their imminent death
“a vestige of the thoughts I once had”
Connotations of the past tense - her thoughts and memories are of the past - as if she is ending the journey to death
“vestige” - trace of - a small part of her legacy will live of through her lover
“better by far should you forget and smile”
Speaker insists that her lover should forget her death and be happy over grieving the loss - illustrates their loving relationship - Rossetti wants her lover to be happy above all else
“than … should remember and be sad”
“Remember” is repeated - but without the same strength or intensity - as if the speaker is beginning to fade away
you tell me of our future you plann’d
shows that death is the only garuntee, not the plans
‘yet if you sould forget me and afterwards remember do not grieve.
af
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For If the darkness and corruption Leave a vestige of the thoughts that i once had, Better by far. you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.’
this marks a shift in the Volta
corruption alludes to the physical decay of death. used in the bible to refer to the physical decay of death
darkeness associated with hell (Matthew 8:12)
narrator encourages them to let go and says memories have nore permenances than the fleeting nature of life
significance of ‘silent land’
anticipates entering heaven (far from life and earth) echos classical concept of hades
positive interpretation- rest, soul sleep
negative interpretation- isolation from lover
image of holding hands
employed by dante gabriel in his pre-raphelite paintings to depict love (suggests desire to cling onto physical intimacy, also posession)
significance in rhyme of ‘away’ and stay’
shows conflict in narrator in entering heaven and leaving love
significance of ‘darkness and corruption’
corruption alludes to physical decay of death (used in bible)
euphamism for death
‘do not grieve’
contrasts victorian tradition of long period of mourning
19th century context
19th century, an era known for its customs of mourning which were exacerbated by high mortality rates.
Queen Victoria spent the last 4 decades of her life mourning her late husband, Prince Albert, whose death is said to have spiked a noticeable rise in poems about death in that era.
