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.
