Some Ladies

Question 1

(SOME LADIES)
Tone? Reasoning? Form?

Answer 1

• The tone is quite satirical yet scathing, with a didactic (moral message) Rossetti wrote this at a more rebellious 18 years of age, never intending for this to be published.
• In the Petrarchan Sonnet form, the strict structure reflecting the strict society of Victorian England.
• The octet is demeaning/judgemental, the anaphora of “Some people” accentuates her distance and distaste for these people.
• The sestet becomes more personal after the volta, now reflecting upon what she would do to these people. Follows a very irregular CDEECD rhyme scheme, accentuating the subversion of tradition that is so integral to the poem’s message.

Question 2

(SOME LADIES)
“Or a woman…
“towering above her sex…

Answer 2

in a great coat like a sack”, simile enhances judgement, exaggerates her irritation, masculine clothing connotes a suffragette.
with horrid height”, the alliteration serves to amplify her distaste.

Question 3

(SOME LADIES)
“If all the world were…

Answer 3

water fit to drown/ There are some whom you would not teach to swim”, biblical allusion to Noah’s ark, sinners drowned and rightful were saved, believes herself rightful. Shows great contempt for non-conformists.

Question 4

(SOME LADIES)
“Certain old ladies…

Answer 4

dress in girlish pink/ With roses and geraniums on their gown / Go to the Bason, poke them o’er the rim.” shift to a didactic sestet, roses connote youth and romance, geraniums connote stupidity and folly, lack of couplet here possibly connotes that not all humans will be saved.