Explore the way Rossetti presents nature in her poems.

Rossetti was raised in London, a location that doesn’t fit with her scenes of nature within her poems. Rossetti growing up in London would have given her a city life upbringing, her constant use of nature is Rossetti taking herself away to be with one in nature. This is a common theme within Rossetti’s work. Rossetti uses nature to represent her high Anglican Christian faith. Rossetti is always sure to link her sensual descriptions back to Jesus as an act to show her love and devotion for him, rather than the human and earthly objects.

Rossetti hints at being influenced on Romantic poetry. Even though Rossetti doesn’t distinctly mention what she has read, from evidence in her own poems, we can theoretically guess that the Romantic poet who most influenced her was John Keats. Rossetti makes references as if to be in conversation with Keats and to be challenging him in her poem ‘Song’ to his poem ‘Ode to a Nightingale.’ The nightingale was a common symbol in Romantic poetry. Keats used it in ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ to speak of joy, music, self-expression, nature and immortality. However, Rossetti, in ‘Song’ contradicted Keats by suggesting that the nightingale's song is associated with pain, Rossetti disagrees with the idea that the natural world is a place of pure joy.

Rossetti has a clear and deep sense of Religion; in her poems she does not preach God however she constantly makes reference to the Garden of Eden and the Tree of Life. In her poem ‘Paradise: In a Dream’ she uses the line ‘The Tree of Life stood budding there’ the singular ‘Tree’ is a contrast to the plural inhabitants of nature. I think Rossetti has used the singular, in order to almost present Gods in the way he should be seen. To a Christian, you should not put God in an image, nor is there two of him. The singular ‘Tree of Life’ is also a medieval image of Christ on a cross at the crucifixion. The use of a ‘Tree’ allows us to denote that not only is the tree a representation of Christ, but an image that is supporting and strong. This use of nature to describe Christ expresses how natural the reciprocated love is and it links to how nature is an ongoing cycle that doesn’t stop, just like how she pictures Christ’s love.

Rossetti uses images of flowers to represent the cycle of life and the senses we experience within the ongoing journey. With the line ‘And faint the perfume-bearing rose’ it shows the senses which Rossetti is keen to describe, and turn the simple things into things of beauty and wonder. The quote ‘three silver fleur-de-lys’ is a out of season flower chosen to represent a perfect and specialised aspect Rossetti is trying to use as a metaphor, for love. The use of the ‘three’ flowers is a link to the Holy Trinity, The Son, The Ghost, and The Holy Spirit. This use of the three beautiful flowers, really stresses Rossetti’s devotion to Christ.

Rossetti presents the idea of birds in her poems to often be rather plain and normal creatures of song birds. However, Rossetti uses a ‘peacock’ in her poem ‘Paradise’ in order to express how the speakers love is great than all the extravagant and luxurious objects. A peacock is a bird of plural colours, those being green and blue which represent nature and royal status, similar to purple. The peacocks are birds often owned by royalty and people who are wealthy, the use of this bird really emphasises the purity and priceless-ness that is true love.

However, in other poems Rossetti uses normal everyday birds, like ‘doves’ to represent peace, love and religion. The birds are a symbol of freedom and the song birds give off a meaning of declaring emotion. This use of the animals really stresses her feelings and the emotions behind the words she has written due to the representation of the creature itself.