Christina Rossetti Poetry Quotes Flashcards
(12 cards)
Goblin Market
Lizzie: ‘eat me, drink me, love me’
- conveys are perverse concept of love that women are tempted/ enticed by
- self sacrifice
Laura: ‘golden [hair]’ contrasted with ‘thin and grey’
- conveys the corrosive effect and degradation of women when they ‘fall from grace’ (fall of eve reconstructed)
From the Antique
Monotonous and mundane form conveys the suffrage of women.
‘the world would wag on the same’
‘blossoms bloom as in days of old’
- conveys the continued pursuit of regressive patriarchy values
Pair this with the natural imagery that suggests the idyllic facade of victorian society ie ‘wild bees hum’, ‘blossoms bloom’
‘cherries ripen’
‘a drop of water from pole to pole’
‘season go and come’
inverted locatum
‘doubly blank in a woman’s lot’
‘Not a body, not a soul’
anaphora
Natural imagery in all Rossetti poems
‘cherries ripen’ (FTA)
‘a drop of water from pole to pole’ conveys internal conflict (FTA)
‘blossoms bloom as in days of old’ (FTA)
‘sunlight on a stream’ (E)
‘brimful of love’
‘thirsting longing eyes’
Echo
Sensual and expresses love. Rejects earthly love, instead embraces spiritual love.
Contextually, Rossetti was a devout christian, being a dedicated member of the ‘New Oxford movement’ also known as the Trachtarian movement.
St Mary Magdalene Penitentiary in Highgate, a charitable institution for “fallen women” or those struggling with social stigma. She worked there for 11 years (1859 to 1870)
‘sunlight on a stream’
‘brimful of love’
‘thirsting longing eyes’
‘watch the slow door’ - allusions to shut out
‘come’ anaphora portrays sense of desperation
‘speaking silence of a dream’
suggests earthly love is an illusion
semantic field of ‘dream’ and night’
‘soft rounded cheeks and eyes as bright’
‘pulse for pulse, breath for breath’ promiscuous undertones - plosive and demanding, portrays the imposing temptation is difficult to defy
‘where souls brimful of love abide and meet’ spiritual level of love
‘O memory’ ‘O dream’ transition conveys the deification of her love. the formal register ‘O’ conveys the elevation and love, exemplifying true love is spiritual and not earthly.
‘too sweet, too bitter sweet’ conveys anaphora, hyperbole and metaphor
Twice (woman dissappointed by secular love, and turns to god for solace)
‘Yet a woman’s words are weak’
‘Speech’
‘Judgement’
‘Let me live or die’
‘Let me fall or stand’
‘Til the corn goes brown’
‘skylarks’ the divine nature of happiness and joy. Unattainable by humans
Shut out
‘the door was shut’
‘I looked through iron bars’
‘a shadowless spirit kept the gates’
‘some buds to cheer my outcast state’
‘blank and unchanging like the grave’
Up hill
‘Does the road wind uphill all the way?’
‘They will not keep you stranding at the door’
‘Shall I find comfort, travel-sore and weak?’
‘slow dark hours begin’
Good Friday
‘I am a stone, and not a sheep’
‘exceeding grief lamented’
‘A horror of great darkness’
Round Tower of Jhansi
‘To kiss and die’
‘Not a hope in the world remained’
‘Young strong and so full of life’
‘God forgive them this!
Maude Clare
‘His bride was like a village maid’
‘Maude was like a queen’
‘Take my share of a fickle heart’
Souer Louise
‘Oh vanities of vanities desire!
‘Now dust and dying embers mock my fire’ (soeur louise)
‘Longing and loving’ (soeur louise)
‘Pangs of perished passions’
No, Thank you, John
‘Let us strike hands as hearty friends’
‘wax and weariness’
‘I never said I loved you John’
‘Don’t call me false, who owned not to be true’
‘I’ll wink at your untruth’
‘but then you’re mad to take offence, that I don’t give you what I do not have’
