GENERAL RHYME, CONTENT ETC.
- Contains common stylistic techniques of Rossetti.
-1 sided-conversation.
- Rhyme is extremely irregular, perhaps juxtaposing against the regularity of seasons? Odd pattern.
- A lot of rhyme techniques. ( STRONG internal rhyme!).
- Seems to be 1 narrator's development throughout the year (context).
-Lots of colons and semicolons, she's explaining something without explaining anything really. (Synatx) - Links to '
No, Thank You, John' due to syntax. - disjointed feel.
-Context: Winter was synonymous with death in Victorian era.
- Themes: themes of identity can be seen with the constant pronoun reinforcement. Nonsense is also a prominent theme, as the tone is playful - suggesting there is no secret after all, it's more about the
act of concealment. (Curiosity is also a theme, see stanza 1 for details).
-Most stanzas are regular form but stanza 2 is much longer. - symbolic of how winter drags on?
-VOICE: playful, teasing, reticent, reprimanding, wary, cautious, possessive, coy, mischievous (Possession links to '
Shut out'), brisk, perky, slightly flirtatious, over confident (hiding something).
-Conversational genre, the addressee isn't given a voice like in '
No, Thank You, John' - undermining the addressee's power.
-Little plot.
-Contrasts to '
Shut out' due to tone of voice.
TITLE & STANZA 1:
- TITLE: The colon and the unclear 'secret' create an instant ambiguous tone.
-First line starts with rhetorical question, but it is actually not a rhetorical question because she answers it. She doesn't let character she's speaking to answer.
- The personal pronoun reinforcements displays the 1st person narrative stance.
- Stanza 1 is consisted of predominantly short sentences
- '
Perhaps' on line two, used as a teasing adverb - promoting a playful voice. This is continued at the end of the line too with another Rhetorical question, which again she answers.
'
it froze, and blows and snows' assonance and consonance which begins to demonstrate a strong sense of internal rhyme - almost in a jokey sense.
-'
And you're too curious: fie!' here Rossetti's narrator is almost reprimanding the reader for being too curious and that is the reason why she will not divulge her secret. This adds to the reticent and reprimanding - yet teasing - tone of the narrator, perhaps poking at themes of human curiousity and human's disappointment in everything.
- Again more pronoun reinforcement in last line of this stanza, creates a possessive tone. '
my...mine...I'.
STANZA 2:
-'
suppose there is no secret after all' again the narrator is mocking the reader by supposing there's nothing to explain, thus implying that this poem is about nothing more than exciting the reader's curiosity, perhaps?
-More internal rhyme and repetition:
'today's a nipping day, a biting day'.
-'
a shawl, a veil, a cloak' not only do these nouns have connotations of concealment (see themes) but a
veil is also a juxtaposition to the others as it has connotations of marriage whereas the others seem to be more classically linked to spinsterhood.
-'
ope' archaic diction, tradition form of 'open'.
-'
and let the draughts come whistling thro'...' personification of the wind.
-A lot of internal rhyme and listing in imperative couplet: '
come bounding and surrounding me/come buffeting, astounding me'.
-The narrator is talking about winter and concealment, welcoming it almost.
-'
his nose to Russian snows' contextually Russian snows were some of the coldest.
-repetition of '
peck'
-'
believe....' declarative, asking for trust in her concealment?
STANZA 3:
- Lots of natural imagery - influence of Romantic poets on Rossetti - '
March...rainbow-crowned brief showers...flowers...sunless'
- A more hopeful season, tone changes.
STANZA 4:
-'
languid' perhaps links contextually with how Rossetti was ill for most of her life. Weak with illness. Links summer with lethargy.
-Again a great deal of natural imagery.
-Last line:
'Perhaps my secret I may say, or you may guess' the model verbs of may and perhaps here again create the playfulness and leaves the poem on a sort of cliffhanger.
-Give hope to the addressee.
