Rossetti AO5 Flashcards
Westerholm
‘poem-prayers’
Symons
‘The thought of death had a constant fascination for her.’
Sullivan
‘Tension between control and chaos… the only resolution is death.’
What were the two sides of Christina bestie’s character? Mermin
‘the sensuous and the ascetic’
(ascetic - self-discipline)
Natural imagery? Grass
‘considering Rossetti’s love of the natural world around her.’
Shrimpton
‘The reserve of the elite.’
Only those armed with faith and devotion can access the teachings and beliefs of the divine.
Tractarian theology
Virginia Woolf - love and life and therefore poetry because of her religion’s demands
‘she starved herself of love, which meant also life; then of poetry in deference to what she thought her religion demanded.’
Virgy Woolf again about religion and poetry
‘Rossetti’s religion is at enmity with her poetry.’
Sexual desires versus religion
Coleridge
‘Creative power and intellectual energy wrestle as in a war embrace.’
May refer to her religion here. Antagonism with religion and poetry, not a most loving embrace.
Wilson
‘observant and imaginative’
Birch
‘Her life had an undertone of melancholy.’
Williams
‘Her sense of her ideal human condition is in her poetry, often identified with femininity.’
‘She had a strong sense of church hierarchy.’ ‘She was not a feminist in that sense’
Mole
‘Rossetti is saturated in the bible.’
- Shows how her poetry is more concerned with being orthodox rather than original. She wants to inculcate the values of High Anglican tradition by actually using its language.
William Michael Rossetti
‘She certainly felt that to write anything for publication is to incur a great spiritual responsibility.’
- ‘Spiritual responsibility’ weighed on Rossetti significantly and informed her approach to poetry, which was to do ‘God’s work’.
Dinah Roe - where gods meet mankind
‘Her poems, both secular and devotional, create imaginative arenas where gods meet mankind, muses face poets and hope does battle with despair.’
Dinah Roe - the PRB
Pre-Raphaelite movement ‘pined for a lost, idealised medieval England.’
Oliver Herford - metrical rhythms
‘The musical metrical sound is the easiest way to communicate. The exchange of love.’
Avery - trapped females
Her poetry depicts ‘female figures who are trapped.’
Scholl
‘Rossetti steers away from equating female sexuality with sinfulness.’
