LITERATURE C. Rossetti poetry analysis (unfinished)

Q. Explain how Rossetti describes/portrays death and loss in her poem ‘Song.’

 

Sentimentalized depictions of the unfortunate deaths of women, occupied many Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood paintings and poems. The well-known tales such as ‘The Lady of Shallot’ turn women into objects, to be toyed with and manipulated. They place women at the servitude of the man in their lives. These works originate mostly from a male vantage point. Christina Rossetti provides a unique counter argument to these works that surrounded the sum total of her life in her poem ‘Song.’ Here Rossetti uses an Iambic Tri-meter structure (which is mostly used in the dramatic forms of comedy and tragedy, and are/was used mainly for the verses that were/are "spoken" by a character from the dialogue rather than the vocal passages themselves) to voice the inner most thoughts of a dying Victorian woman, as though possibly in response to her brother, Dante Gabriel’s poem “The Blessed Damosel” in which a bereaved male whom is envisioning his dead beloved grieving for him in heaven, not long after she has passed. D. Gabriel’s poem is also written as an iambic tri-meter (but alternates between tri-meter and tetrameter) which consequently, is a common psychological pattern occurring subconsciously when responding or connecting with/to another individual in order to create a ‘common or relatable ground’ explaining both the context of each poem; wanting to connect with the dead/dying and the siblings response to each other; trying to understand death personally and romantically.

Rossetti’s female character in ‘Song’ feels little pain or loss but rather seeks peace for both gender characters. Rossetti paints a picture destitute of human earthly desire, in fact characterised by ambivalence. The woman does not languish endlessly for her lover; she states that “Haply [she] may remember/Haply [she] may forget” and that she too will forget her lover in time. There is a marked amount of repetition in ‘Song’, for example, whilst the first verse ends, ‘And if thou wilt, remember, / And if thou wilt, forget (lines 7-8), and the second ends ‘Haply I remember, / And haply may forget’ (lines 15-16). By prefacing the words ‘forget’ and ‘remember ' in the same way in both occurrences, there is a blurring of the distinction between memory and forgetfulness. Additionally, the beginning three lines in the second verse begin, ‘I shall not' (lines 9-11). The repetition of this expression highlights the transformation of the speaker's senses after death. The character is no longer able to ‘see', ‘feel', or ‘hear' the earthly pleasures (that overtake the imagery in the majority of Rossetti’s poetry) but rather, their concerns will shift away from the earthly environment. Lines 7-8 at first glance, seem to state the dying woman’s unwillingness to have her upcoming death trouble her beloved. These lines may be seen to incorporate a stereotypical Victorian view of the expected female selflessness.