Remember, Christina Rossetti

Question 1

Meaning

Answer 1

• Initially poet wishes to be remembered
• But then advises that she’s forgotten so his lover can be happy and move on
• Explores themes of love & sacrifice

Question 2

Imagery #1

Answer 2

“silent land”

• Metaphor + Euphemism
  
  • Death and loneliness without her lover
• Calm, peaceful afterlife
  
  • Lessens pain of her departure for her lover
• OR unnerving image
  
  • Lack of sound = speaker’s senses will be deadened
    
    • Afterlife = lonely with no one to speak to or to hear her
    • Quite unchristian

Question 3

Imagery #2

Answer 3

“For if the darkness and corruption leave / A vestige of the thoughts that once I had”

• Quite unchristian death
  
  • Death = lacking light and full of decay
• “corruption”
  
  • Used in its archaic form (means process of becoming rotten)
    
    • Speaker’s body decaying in grave
• “vestige (a little) of the thoughts”
  
  • Soul living on after death
  • OR spiritual presence or echo of her
    
    • Even this tiny part of soul would want her Beloved to be happy

Question 4

Tone #1

Answer 4

Poignant, fearful tone

“Remember me”

• Imperative
  
  • Clear/direct request
  • Shows authority + power
• Repetition
  
  • Instruction repeated = forms a refrain
    
    • Reduces its power = makes poet seem uncertain or desperate about being heard
    • Shows her anxiety
• “me”
  
  • Personal pronouns
    
    • Very personal, emotional poem
    • Subject matter = important

Question 5

Tone #2

Answer 5

Volta (line 9)

1. Contradicts theme of poem
   
   1. = Reflecting mood
      
      1. Speaker not at peace
   2. Speaker becomes hopeful
      
      1. Should move on

Optimistic tone: “Better by far you should forget and smile”

• “Better by far” = Change in her thoughts
  
  • Decides she would sacrifice lasting memory of her = = in return for her lover’s contentment
• Compensates & relieves herself
  
  • Advises reader what to do when she’s gone
• “smile”
  
  • Encapsulates hope for Beloved’s future
    
    • Contrasts with her own expected death, decay and eradication from memory

Question 6

Structure #1

Answer 6

Petrarchan Sonnet

• Form used to offer opportunity for poem to change direction of its thoughts at end of octave
• Traditionally written by aristocratic men to show off their literately skills & addressed to woman
  
  • Reverses tradition: believes women able to speak & feel as passionately about love as men
  • = poem love + about death and memory

Question 7

Structure #2

Answer 7

• BBA rhyme scheme twice
• But then instead of using CDE twice = pattern changes to CDDECE
  
  • = Meaning and message of poem change in sestet to idea of forgetting and being happy
  • Rather than instructions to remember

Question 8

Comparisons 3x

Answer 8

• ‘War Photographer’
• ‘My Last Duchess’
• ‘Do not go gentle into that good night’

Question 9

‘War Photographer’

Answer 9

• About capturing death and destruction but with photographs
  
  • Wants people to notice and remember
  • Whereas Rossetti decides forgetting is better

Question 10

‘My Last Duchess’

Answer 10

Male voice remembering dead lover while female voice instructing forgetfulness of herself

Question 11

‘Do not go gentle into that good night’

Answer 11

• Thomas pleads with father to fight against death
• Rossetti accepts inevitability of death