Rossetti poetry ~ quotes

Question 1

when i am dead, my dearest
- love poem
-mournful undertone

3 QUOTES

Answer 1

‘my dearest’ tender, but also possessive
‘thou no roses at my head’- rose= romantic
‘shady cypress tree’ symbolises morning
‘(doesnt pressure him to mourn her = selfless)
natural imagery- death of not only her but their love for eachother, she comforts him too move on.
disengages herself; restraining true emotion, more personal and intimate.

Question 2

Remember
-love poem
-becomes selfless

4 QUOTES

Answer 2

‘remember me’ commanding
‘silent land’- fearful imagery of the afterlife= unsettling ( Rossetti believed in soul sleeping)
‘only remember me; you understand’ - ambiguous, only her no one else
after volta tone softens rather him be happy - ‘ yet if you should forget me for a while’
before volta breaking point holding one, after volta she has accepted fate.
disconnecting attitude as rember moves about the line showing its becoming less important, and shes becoming more selfless (pronoun ‘me’ taken away)

Question 3

From the antique

5 QUOTES

Answer 3

‘it’s a weary life’ - narration = distances herself so she has the ability to express more freely
‘Doubly blank’- how empty a women’s life is = sense of despondency
‘Not a body and not a soul’- very bleak, only qualities of a women? Oppression
‘I should be nothing ‘- pessimistic, sounds final, no one will miss her, everything will stay the same.
‘Would wake and weary and fall asleep’- unsettled rhythm, ‘weary’ out of place = change in perspective, bleak disalution of life! Waiting for death

Question 4

Echo

10 QUOTES

Answer 4

“come to me” - commending imperative, passion + intensity
“night/dream” - finds a type of forbidden comfort
“speaking silence” - the silence powers her dreams
“come back in tears” - wants him to mourn her like she’s mourned him
“memory, hope, love” - sombre tone of passion (their relationship ended but love remains)
“how sweet, too sweet, too bitter sweet” - passion intensifies as its repeated
“watch the slow door” - common motif for heavens entrance in Rossettis poetry (they’ll meet again in the afterlife, anticipation)
“pulse for pulse, breathe for breathe” - devotional, sense of balance like marriage, will give her life= worship and love
“speak low, lean low” - close and intimate, alliteration reflects time dragging on
“as long ago, my love, how long ago” - she longs him, she’ll never experience intimacy in marriage

Question 5

Shut Out

8 QUOTES

Answer 5

“the door was shut” - speakers locked out or banned from a place they love and that brings them comfort and happiness
“My garden, mine” - quite childish, highlights them maturing through the poem
“it had been mine, and it was lost” - her private place = someone’s intruding leaving her displaced and grieving
“a shadowless spirit kept the gate” - supernatural = sense of fear, element of society? allegory for her stopping her own happiness (we know its a man from the use of ‘he’ could be portraying mens treatment of women in the era?)
“now I sit here quite alone” - change in tense, speaker has matured
“since MY delightful land is gone” - given up all hope, still sees it as her home
“wherein a LARK has made her nest” - songbird is a symbol of women. bird built a new home, like the speaker will, shows its possible. fragility of a small bird = how women were viewed in the victorian era.
“and dear they are, but not so dear” - conveys feeling of acceptance, speaker accepting their fate.

Question 6

In the Round Tower at Jhansi

Answer 6

1859
“Swarming howling wretches below” - animalistic and dehumanising
“Gained and gained and gained.” - hyperbole, up to imagination
“skene looked at his pale young wife” - oxymoron in imagery = fear
“is the time come?’ - ‘the time is come.” - hyphen = hesitent dont want to let eachother go