Soeur Louise de la Misericorde Flashcards
published when
Rossetti was in her 50s
perhaps showing her regret at unfulfilled desires and lack of children
her work
with fallen women allowed her to see the destruction caused by desire
written
in 1881
title means
sister of mercy
context of character
based on the French Duchess de la Valliere, Louis XIV’s mistress
converted to Catholicism and moved to a convent
equality
“I have desired, and I have been desired”
mocking
tone - “dying embers mock my fire” and “disenkindled fire”
desire all burned out?
connotation of death
“dust” and “death-struck love”
death of desire or her previous ways
repetition
“longing and love” x2
slow vowel sounds, which sound mournful
plosive sounds
“pangs of a perished pleasure”
damaging effect
misery
“bottomless gulf of mire”
implies dirty and soiled
interrupted rhythm
“fount of tears outrunning measure”
maybe to show how desire interrupted her life
contradiction of
ideas about love - “love’s deathbed”
end of her love
3rd stanza
slow rhythmic pace
futility of trying to control desire
eden
“my garden plot”
