Study notes 'Echo'

Eyes:

• The speaker asks that the lover comes back with ‘eyes as bright / As sunlight on a stream' (line 3). This image suggests both youthfulness and good, accurate vision. It also works to merge the beloved with the natural environment and convey ideas of reflection. 

The door:

• The speaker imagines that ‘in Paradise', all eyes are fixed on the ‘slow door' opening and letting in souls, which hints at the potential reunion of lovers
• Several of Rossetti's devotional poems, such as Despised and Rejected, use the image of the door to depict the entrance to heaven. However, in Revelation, the image of heaven that is given is one of security, rest and peace. 

Water:

• The stream - In addition to alluding to ideas of reflection, the description of the brightness of the lover's eyes as ‘sunlight on a stream' suggests tranquility, peace and movement. Just as a stream glimmers in the sun and runs towards a river or the sea, so too, does the speaker wish that his/her eyes would gleam brightly and move towards her
• Tears - The speaker asks that his/her lover would come back to his/her ‘in tears'. As well as expressing sorrow, tears can express deep, heart-felt emotion. The hope that the lover would come in tears suggests anticipation that s/he would demonstrate his passion and love by reciprocating and sharing in the speaker's sorrow
• Brimful - The speaker describes the souls in paradise as being ‘brimful of love'. The word brimful is usually associating with an overflow of water. By describing souls as overflowing with love, Rossetti may be drawing on the words that Jesus spoke to a Samaritan woman as she drew water from a well, declaring that he himself is the Water of Life. He told her that, whereas everyone who drinks regular water will inevitably be thirsty again: ‘Those who drink the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life'. {John 4:14 TNIV}

The tone is one of longing throughout. From the first repetition of the word ‘come' to the final expression of desire that the speaker can breathe life back into the beloved, the speaker's attention is focused solely on his/her love. Longing is expressed through the repeated call to the beloved and language associated with desire.

Critical analysis of critics of Rossetti

Kathryn Dorothy's brief synopsis and critical analysis of Christina Rossetti’s 'Goblin Market' takes an very basic approach to the poem. Dorothy has identified the relationship between the sisters to be Rossetti's main point of the poem, to express 'there is no love, that of a sister.' However, I feel as if Dorothy missed a major underlying meaning within the bond between Lizzie and Laura.

Dorothy mentions "The strong-willed Lizzie, in a desperate attempt to save her sister, returns to the goblin men that only she can now hear and offers to buy their fruit, although she adamantly refuses to join them at their feast. After bravely resisting the evil creatures’ attacks, during which her mouth and face are smeared with fruit juices, Lizzie makes her way home." Dorothy is keen to point out the clear and literal figures of the sister, and I believe that she missed metaphorical points.

I think Dorothy has taken a very surface read analysis rather than delving deeper into the meanings of the relationships and problems the two sisters face in the poem. I believe that within the sisters, there is a representation of Adam and Eve. From "Like two blossoms on one stem," you understand that there are many similarities between them physically. Mentally, they are opposites, from the way that Laura gave in so easily to the 'Goblin Men' and how Lizzie remained strong enough to save her sister. Within this I see Laura as a representation of Eve and how she also ate the forbidden fruit, causing the problems.

As Rossetti is a clear Anglican believer, I can denote from this that God and Christ, are hidden within her poetry, sometimes its clear to see the links, and sometimes it takes a more in depth look into the words and what they really mean. Dorothy mentions the religious background of Rossetti but she has almost addressed it to be looked past. For Rossetti, no love is purer than the love of Christ, therefore this precious bond between the two siblings has to be something more than just family, but a bond between, Adam and Eve and God and his children.

Dorothy's angle on the poem acknowledges "Rossetti’s devout Anglican upbringing, in which her mother and her sister played such intrinsic roles, probably made her shrink from the idea of the fulfillment of love. To the quiet and often clinically depressed Rossetti, this may have been a way of reconciling her love of man with her love of God." This remark, shows the consideration of Rossetti's Religious background but still, Dorothy remains loyal to the idea of the family bond and how that is the purest form of love and how important it is to share between siblings.

I do agree with most points Dorothy has made, I believe there is a bond between the sisters that is vital, because the determination there is to help the other sibling is a force that is immortal. However, I believe that the 'Goblin Men' are metaphorical representations of the conscious and unconscious battles we have within ourselves.

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. 

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. 

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.