Poetry Rossetti summaries Flashcards
(21 cards)
Some Ladies Dressed in Muslin Full and White
A critique of shallow, performative femininity. Rossetti contrasts outer purity with inner emptiness, highlighting the hypocrisy of societal expectations for women.
Remember
A sonnet about death and memory. The speaker first asks to be remembered but later urges forgetfulness if remembering causes pain, showing selfless love and spiritual maturity.
The World
A sonnet portraying the world as a seductive woman who is beautiful by day, monstrous by night. Critiques sin and duality from a Christian perspective.
Echo
A melancholic plea for a dead lover’s voice to return. Explores emotional yearning, spiritual loss, and unfulfilled love through dreamlike imagery.
May
A short, lyrical poem about the freshness and transience of spring, symbolising innocence, beauty, and the inevitability of change.
A Birthday
Celebrates spiritual rebirth and divine love using rich natural and decorative imagery. Conveys joy in union with God or romantic love elevated by faith.
An Apple Gathering
A narrative of lost innocence and social shame. The speaker loses her virtue and becomes an outcast, highlighting gender double standards.
Maude Clare
A dramatic monologue on a love triangle. Maude Clare confronts her ex-lover on his wedding day, exploring power, pride, and societal expectations.
At Home
Reflects on how the speaker is forgotten after death. Highlights the fleeting nature of memory and emotional detachment in the face of mortality.
Up-Hill
A dialogue that depicts life as a spiritual journey. The uphill path symbolises Christian struggle, with Heaven as the final rest.
Goblin Market
An allegory of temptation, sisterhood, and redemption. Laura succumbs to sin but is saved by Lizzie’s self-sacrifice. Celebrates moral resilience and salvation.
What Would I Give?
A reflection on spiritual emptiness. The speaker longs for purity and the ability to feel love, showing internal conflict and desire for redemption.
Twice
The speaker addresses a man who rejects her love, then turns to God. Contrasts human rejection with divine acceptance, celebrating spiritual growth.
A Christmas Carol
A devotional poem celebrating Christ’s humble birth. Encourages personal spiritual offering over material grandeur.
Passing and Glassing
A memento mori using mirrors to symbolise vanity and mortality. Urges spiritual reflection over worldly pride.
Piteous My Rhyme Is
Rossetti critiques the limitations of poetry to capture divine beauty, showing humility and spiritual yearning.
A Helpmeet for Him
Depicts the ideal Christian woman as obedient and pious. Explores and subtly questions biblical gender roles.
As Froth on the Face of the Deep
Reflects on the brevity of human life. Compares existence to fleeting froth, reinforcing the vanity of worldly ambition.
Our Mothers
Honours past generations of faithful women. Encourages following their example of humble, steadfast Christianity.
Lovely Woman, Pitiful
Critiques idealised femininity. Presents a woman who pities others but cannot help herself, exposing emotional and gendered suffering.
Babylon the Great
An apocalyptic vision of moral decay. Rossetti condemns materialism and false religion using biblical allusion to Babylon.
