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.