Christina Rossetti: Poem #1: 'Song (When I am dead, my dearest):

So, prepare yourself for 14 poems by Christina Rossetti for the poetry aspect of English literature AS level. Get the gin and tonics, grab the balloons and get ready for some voracious, Victorian fun! (Please be aware these are incomplete notes).

Poem #1: Song (When I am dead, my dearest) (Late 1840's):

Content:    

- Similar to 'Remember' (Poem #3).

- A woman who is thinking of death, speaking to her lover/romantic partner and explaining that he/she should not mourn her death, refuting the tradition Victorian attitudes - and their process - of mourning.
-Rossetti is ahead of her time by questioning the values and attitudes of her era.
-A will (of poetic sorts).

Aim:
-To contradict the traditional views of death/bereavement from Rossetti's era.
-Narrative/reflective genre.

Theme:
-Death, loss, reflection, remembrance after death, resigned acceptance of the inevitability of death, religion.

Syntax:
-Frequent use of colons and semi-colons (Similar to 'Maude Clare', Poem #8 and 'No, Thank You, John', Poem #10)

Diction: (Language Analysis):
-Idealistic diction with archaic, natural imagery: 'And dreaming through the twilight...'
-Parallelism and Dichotomies: 'And if thou wilt remember,/ And if thou wilt, forget.'

-Lots of repetition: 'I shall not... I shall not... Haply I may... And haply may...'
-The natural imagery shows the Romantic poets' influence on Rossetti (Especially when writing about death or love)
-Imperative sentences: 'Plant...Be...' which show a soft, quiet confidence and persuasion. Further showing her inner strength which is shown in direct address through the use of these imperatives.
-Archaic terms:'Haply...' which means 'perhaps' showing the narrator's uncertainty. The archaism also develops a solemn tone.
-Symbols: 'Roses...' this use of flowers is a symbol for love, not of death; as lilies are the typical funeral flowers.

Rhyme/Rhythm:
-Strong sense of rhythm and rhyme, a lyric poem which was popular in the mid 19th century.
-The rhyme scheme is abcb, the two octave stanzas are separated into 2 quatrains which both follow abcb rhyme patterns. This regularity perhaps shows the organised, inevitability of death. As death is one of the few regularities in all of our lives.

Imagery:
-See diction above (Lots of natural imagery, Romantic poets' influence etc.)

Form:
-Regular form, indentation on every 2nd line; the imprints of people on our lives?
-2 octave stanzas

Tone + Mood:
-Reflective attitudes, mournful yet accepting tone.
-A resigned tone to the attitudes of the narrator, she has accepted her death before she has died.

Metre:
-Very regular metre
-'When I/am dead/my dearest' There are three iambic feet in which the 2nd part is stressed

Voice + Viewpoint:
-1st person narrative stance