Compare and Contrast: 'Song' and 'Remember'

Compare and contrast how Rossetti shows her view on death and the after-life in the poem’s ‘Song’ and ‘Remember.’

Both poems by Rossetti talk about death and the after-life. Both of the poems address the subject and in the times of Victorian Britain, death would be an awkward untouched subject. The fact that Rossetti has addressed death in such a way in her poems is a huge contrast to the era. Even though other poets like Keats have addressed death, Rossetti was more to the point about the journey of dying and the after-life.

The structures of both poems are different in comparison. ‘Song’ has two clear defined stanzas whereas ‘Remember’ is one stanza that is broken up by end-stopped lines, as if to be a break. As ‘Song’ has no rhyme scheme the rhythm of the poem is read at a slower pace. ‘Remember’ has a rhyme scheme of: ABBA. This use of rhyming couplets makes the poems pace increase only to be slowed down with caesuras mid line and end-stopped lines that make the reader stop to think about what Rossetti is trying to say and express.

In the first line of both poems Rossetti addresses the topic; death. Within ‘Song’ the first line ‘When I am dead, my dearest’ is to the point. The use of the word ‘dead’ is very blunt and emotionless. Rossetti here addresses the person with a poem that is as serious and the tone and theme of the poem. In the first line of ‘Remember’ Rossetti pitches the idea of death as if somebody has ‘gone away’.  ‘Gone away’ is a euphemism for dead, this type of poetic feature creates a sense of fear from the persona‘s point of view. This euphemism also hints at some sort of futuristic adventure, or in contrast, a longing for death.

Both poems address the after-life to be still a physical place; however, it comes across as an opaque blurry image. This shown when in ‘Song’ Rossetti uses ‘the twilight’ to describe the realm after life itself. In ‘Remember’ Rossetti uses ‘the silent land’ to describe the after-life. This use of the word ‘silent’ suggests a world without pain. I feel as if Rossetti has used the word ‘land’ to represent the ground that the soul rests in the ground until Jesus returns and you are taken to heaven, which could be a link to her strong religious faith.

Ode to a Nightingale - notes

The speaker from the first stanza associates his feelings as to being numb, almost as if to have taken drugs recently, because of the quote "drowsy numbness."

The speaker is the only too happy that the nightingale sings maybe because a nightingale represents youth, freedom and spontaneity.

'Ode to a Nightingale' explores the fullness and deepest exploration of the morality of human life.

The poem has ten stanzas which follows Keats' typical structure for his Ode's poems.

The first seven and last two lines in the stanzas are written in iambic pentameter. The eight line, however, is written in trimeter with only three syllables instead of five.

The rhyme scheme is: ABABCDECDE

Rossetti - Song - analytical response

A general summary of the poem ‘Song’ is a poem about death, with quite a morbid tone to it. The poem is expressing the persona’s wish for her loved one to move on after she passes away. Rossetti explores the events before, during and after death and with that she describes the persona to be desperate for them to move on, however there is a hint of doubt in the line ‘And if thou wilt, remember,’ where she contradicts her earlier statements and there a glimmer of insecurity that she won’t be remembered and that she wishes for her memory to live on.

‘Sing on, as if in pain’ is a perfect example of a line in iambic trimeter. The three feet in the line slow down the rhythm and make the reader/speaker slow down which makes the words register at a more subdued and calm pace witch is more expressive. The caesura ‘Sing on,’ makes a pause in the rhythm and really drags attention to what she has to say.

The words ‘as if in pain’ really make an impact, as how ‘sing’ then also links with ‘pain’ to relate to how an opera singer would perform. Opera singers often perform clear sounds rather than identifiable words which could link back to how a Nightingale’s song is spontaneous note of no certain rhythm.

I think there are common links between and ‘Nightingale’ and a song of ‘pain’ because you associate the bird with hope and prosperity which is a huge contrast to the morbid tone of the poem.

The first line doesn't fit the pattern because it is an example of iambic pentameter, as it has four feet in its line. This line has a double stressed word 'dearest', also known as a spondee. This use of the 'est' at the end accentuates how high held the person is to the speaker and how they cannot be replaced by another person.

The last line of the second stanza also doesn't fit the trimeter pattern because its an example of iambic dimeter which is a line with two feet. 

The line 'And haply may forget.' has a stress on the word 'forget' as it has two syllables, the word is sharp and is finished with and end-stopped line. In general, it comes across as a forceful tone which hints at the speakers desire to be remembered in memories shared but for her 'dearest' to move on after she has passed. This is because the speaker recognizes that they will no longer be in pain and they feel guilty if they leave the loved one behind, hurting. 

Poetic Features and Techniques

• Key features often used:

• Metaphor
• Simile
• Rhyming couplets
• Stanzas
• Lexis
• Punctuation
• Enjambment 
• Caesura
• Alliteration
• Ambiguity 
• End-stopped
• Oxymoron
• Onomatopoeia
• Iambic pentameter 
• Rhyme
• Rhythm
• Romanticism
• Personification
• Blank verse
• Assonance
• Ballad
• Character
• Dactyl
• Dialogue 
• Exposition
• Foot
• Free verse 
• Hyperbole
• Imagery
• Meter
• Narrator
• Narrative poem
• Quatrain
• Satire
• Setting
• Structure
• Theme
• Tone
• Verse form
• Line length
• Line break
• Voice

Christina Rossetti Information

Christina Rossetti

Her life:

·       - Born December 5^th 1830

·   -Passed away December 29^th 1894

·   -Raised in London

·   -From a very cultural Italian heritage

·   -Taught her education by her mother

·   -She suffered with breakdowns in school at age 14

·   -Family is creative

·   -Father was exiled

·   -The youngest of the four children

     -She had three suitors, was engaged twice

(Both failed due to religious beliefs)

·   -Pen name: Ellen Alleyne

·   -Literary movement was the pre-Raphaelite

     -Religion played a large part in her life

·    -Rossetti sat for Dante’s most famous paintings as a model of the Virgin Mary

·    -Late in life Rossetti suffered with Graves’ Disease an illness that affected the thyroid and eyes

General: Against all female poets of the Victorian ear, posterity has been the most kind to Rossetti. From the early stages of her life, she was under influence of her creative family to find her calling and method of expression. Christina tried painting but found her stride in poetry where she managed to capture the strokes of a painting within her words.

Rossetti’s education was structured and taught by her mother. Rossetti did go to school but she had breakdowns at a young age and her family found it best if she was home-schooled. 

During the Victorian period men and women’s roles became more sharply defined than at any time in history. The two sexes now inhabited what Victorians thought of as ‘separate spheres’, only coming together at breakfast and again at dinner.

Despite her often religious themes dominating her work, Rossetti never preaches within it. Rossetti expressed herself as a high Anglican, formal and serious about their devotion to God.

The poet Augusta Webster wrote to Rossetti asking for her support in a campaign, which aimed to give women the right to vote. However, Rossetti refused. In her letter of response, she asked,

“Does it not appear as if the Bible was based upon an understood unalterable distinction between men and women, their position, duties, privileges?”

In her mind, this ‘unalterable distinction' was made with Eve and continued throughout the Bible. To Rossetti, men and women were created by God as fundamentally different creatures. Because of their fundamental differences, Rossetti believed that men and women should have different responsibilities and rights.

How does the speaker in 'I Come From' create a sense of his identity?

After reading 'I Come From' by Robert Seatter, you begin to comprehend the persona and you understand that the speaker is expressing his upbringing. From first glance you can tell that from the structure, this poem is a flow of his consciousness onto the page. The poem doesn't include any end-stopped punctuation, the lines flows as enjambment and is used throughout. I feel that the enjambment represents the travel of his thoughts running from his brain to the page, however this movement could also represent how quickly his childhood went by.

The voice of the poem is the speaker, possibly Seatter, looking aback on his childhood memories. This can tells us that from his upbringing he's been brought up with hopes for something else to become of his life. The line 'from no accent at all' suggests that the family the persona has come from, hardly catches the eye, its suggests that his family is the 'norm' and that his family is not any different to the families surrounding him.

Seatter identifies as a young boy who has grown up on the outside looking in. From my understanding, the persona has felt nothing but kindness from his childhood, he's been brought up well, he didn't get into trouble but he's hoping for something more. From the last 'I come from' in the poem there is a sense of change in the tone and the poem seams to take a morbid and depressing approach. I think this change means that Seatter has maybe realised his innocence and how naive he was in his younger years.

The lines 'I come from rats behind the garage,
and a man who followed me
back from the library' takes quite a different approach, I fell that maybe whilst he was a child, this might not have been much of an issue but to a modern day audience I think this is quite powerful and really expresses Seatter as a person who had to grow up and mature quite fast and I think with the ending of the poem he has chosen to identify as someone who was in need of help and got lost between accepting things to be right or wrong.

I believe that with his maturity, Seatter has identified what is wrong with the world and how a child's view can be completely different to something that could have quite an effect on the person you grow up to become. I think he has chosen his identity by being so expressionist within his own work as all his work represents a thought, feeling or memory he has once had.