Song: When I Am Dead, My Dearest Flashcards
“When I am dead, my dearest,”
- Pre-empts and predicts her death = shows how comfortable she is with death.
- ‘My’ - possessive pronoun = shows the importance of this figure in her life. Intimate atmosphere. Specific and personalised.
- Superlative
“Sing no sad songs for me;”
- (;) Pause - symbolises the end of her life
- Rest of the poem is the afterlife (endstopping)
“Plant thou no roses at my head,”
- Roses wilt = they will both die
- Permanence of death
“Nor shady cypress tree:”
- Cypress trees cannot regrow after being cut: explores the finality of death and not being able to regrow after death
“Be the green grass above me”
- “Green grass” - metaphor = connotations of health, spring, strength
- She wants him to stay strong because she puts her trust and faith in God to keep her safe.
“With showers and dewdrops wet;”
- She doesn’t want any tears from him: only rain.
“And if thou wilt, remember,
And if thou wilt, forget.”
- Juxtaposition = confusion can reflect her internal conflict in relevance to the afterlife and what comes next.
- “Remember” = desire for earthly love.
- Clinging on. Wants the reciever to remember what she was instead of what is left of her.
“I shall not see the shadows,
I shall not feel the rain
I shall not hear the nightingale”
- Reaffirms her belief of souls being in a liminal state after death
- ‘Nightingale’ - sense of distance as if she is already in soul sleep and that she will not feel the things people do for her after death.
“Sing on, as if in pain:
And dreaming through the twilight
That doth not rise nor set,”
- Twilight is a time of confusion- it is a state of between (between sunset and sunrise) = symbolise the liminal state
- Connotations of something that is losing its strength and approaching its end - can suggest how she believes this ontological state isn’t eternity and Heaven and Hell are real places
- Sunset = symbolic of God’s mercy is given for another day to make good choices.
“Haply I may remember,
And haply may forget.”
- Endstopping = symbolising the transience of human life, all life comes to an end.
- Juxtoposition - her calling is God
- Sense of reassurance
How old was Rossetti when she wrote this poem?
Only 18.
Context of this poem:
Life expectancy was low in this era, so she was expecting her death.
This poem was a response to her brother’s poem (‘The Blessed Damsel’) as he believed that women should grieve the death of their husbands for years to come. She subverts typical mourning culture and experience because she believes mourning energy should be used for praying instead.
What is the reciever of this poem like?
The reciever is very vague.
Universal speaker.
- In order to make it relatable so that people can adopt her POV and opinions.
Literal meaning of this poem:
Tells a loved one not to grieve her after her death
Structure of this poem:
- Ballad form (commonly used for story telling and narrative poems)
- Rhyme scheme of ABCB
- Alternating lines of iambic tetrameter
