Christina Rossetti: Poem #5: 'Shut Out'

Okay, so the last post was actually a lot less time consuming because I did it stanza by stanza rather than in CATSDRIFT MMVV form. Although the catsdrift would eventually make it easier to write essays because I essentially have plans already laid out, i'll save myself some of my weekend hours and write it stanza by stanza.

GENERAL FORM, TONE, CONTENT, METRE, RHYME ETC.

- The narrator has been 'shut out' of a garden and is desperate to be back in it, this could be an extended metaphor (narrative is a vehicle) for a termination of a relationship or it could also be referring to Eve being shut out of the garden of Eden.

- The rhyme scheme is: ABBA

- Metre = iambic tetrameter all the way through, the regularity of both the rhythm and rhyme conveys a mournful tone.

- Lots of sentence variety, the first sentence is simple whereas the second stanza is complex in form which represents the complexity of the ideas being discussed.

TONE: 

-Grievous, lost, mournful: 'shadowless...silent...tears'

-Isolated

-Regretful: 'lost'

-Desperate/hurt: 'grieve...blinded...'

-Possessive

-Abandoned: 'blank...unchanging'

-Terse: 'shut out'

-Desolate

-Begging/pleading: imperative sentence: 'let me have...'

STANZA 1 & TITLE:

- The title is a sentence fragment which perhaps gives a terse tone 

- The personal pronoun 'I' in the first sentence shows that the narrative stance of the poem is 1st person

- The first sentence is a short, simple sentence which again adds to this terse and defensive atmosphere/voice

-'My garden, mine' the use of personal pronouns again here reinforces the possessive tone

-'bedewed and green' this has positive connotations due to the natural imagery (?) This is juxtaposed with the 'iron bars' which are man-made.

STANZA 2:

- Again a great deal of natural imagery: 'bough to bough...song-birds...flower to flower the moths and bees... nests... stately trees' parallelism can also be seen here.

-This beautiful imagery is again contrasted with 'lost' which stands alone, draws our attention to it; juxtaposed with the pronoun: 'mine'

-This stanza represents the past which was beautiful, whereas Stanza 3 represents the present which is negative

STANZA 3:

- 'shadowless' and 'outcast' display desperate tone as well as fear, not casting a shadow is unnerving and is also a simile.

-features the imperative sentence discussed in 'tone' (see above)

- a nostalgic tone is represented by repetition and listing

STANZA 4:

-'He answered not.' this simple sentence again conveys the narrator's fear of the spirit.

STANZA 5:

-This stanza is different to the others as it lacks natural imagery, it is discussing 'mortar'  and walls which not only develop and caged and claustrophobic atmosphere but also are discussing man-made things, an interpretation of this could be that it's subtly referring to the industrial revolution?

STANZA 6:

-'nought' archaic diction

- more complex sentence

-'land' hyperbole

-Hopeless and resigned voice

STANZA 7:

-Parallelism and repetition are used again