Song: When I am dead, my dearest

Question 1

written in

Answer 1

1848

Question 2

published in

Answer 2

1862

Question 3

rhythm

Answer 3

iambic tetrameter

song-like rhythm

Question 4

addresses

Answer 4

direct address - speaking to someone

this allows an emotional connection to form

Question 5

deals

Answer 5

with the land of the living

Question 6

sibilance

Answer 6

“sing no sad songs”

melancholy voice

Question 7

use of

Answer 7

imperitaves

“sing” and “plant”

Question 8

love

Answer 8

represented by “roses”

Question 9

rhyme scheme

Answer 9

a
b
c
b

Question 10

cypress

Answer 10

“shady cypress tree” planted in cemeteries

represents mourning

Question 11

buried

Answer 11

“green grass above me”

Christian belief of life after death but doesn;t seem to suggest this here

Question 12

harsh rhymes

Answer 12

of “wet” and “forget”

harsh reality of life

Question 13

memory

Answer 13

“remember” and “forget” contrasted

blurring the distinction between memory and forgetfulness

Question 14

bird

Answer 14

“nightingale” - associated with joy, nature and immortality

Question 15

acceptance of death

Answer 15

shown by the metrical break in “sing on, as if in pain”

Question 16

idea of heaven

Answer 16

“haply I may remember” - possible but not definite belief in heaven

Question 17

criticizing

Answer 17

Rossetti is criticising the mourning rituals of death

the dead can’t hear or see - “I shall not see” “I shall not hear”

Question 18

victorian society

Answer 18

had strict rules for mourning

due to Queen Victoria’s deep mourning for Albert

Question 19

1st stanza

Answer 19

shows that women can be content without a man in their lives