Violets symbolise faithfulness but also death. Blindness is a common biblical trope, representing physical as well as spiritual blindness. The door clearly shuts the speaker out of the garden, but the wall blocks even her sight of it. The poem works through symbolism, which the detailed annotations will clarify or at least enlarge upon. The ABBA pattern suggests grief, then a move one step forward to recovery, only to revert to the first line. An interesting possibility is that this follows the rhyme scheme used by Alfred Lord Tennyson in his long elegy In Memoriam, a poem much admired by Victorians including Rossetti. There is a regular ABBA rhyme scheme throughout. This gives a neat, regular tread, appropriate for the seriousness of the subject. The metrical rhythm is iambic tetrameter, that is four metrical feet or iambs per line, where a iamb is one unstressed followed by one stressed syllable. The poem comprises seven quatrains, that is four-lined stanzas. It is the lack of clarity that gives the poem its strength. Is the voice that of Rossetti or another persona? Could that persona be Eve? Is this the poet’s own yearning for a lost love? Has she in some way sinned? What does the ‘violet bed’ signify? The poet suffered serious illnesses, so does this represent her fear of dying and being shut out of Paradise? It has even been suggested that it represents Rossetti’s charity work for ‘fallen women’, the prostitutes who lived dangerous, abused lives and feared punishment for their sin. There are a range of questions that can be asked. It could also represent the fear of exclusion from Paradise on death. The garden could symbolise many things, but it immediately brings to mind the Garden of Eden and the fall of Adam and Eve who were expelled, as described in Genesis 3:24. Christina Rossetti clearly wished to leave it unclear for the reader to interpret. A resigned tone to the attitudes of the narrator, she has accepted her death before she has died.This complex poem is open to many interpretations. Reflective attitudes, mournful yet accepting tone. Regular form, indentation on every 2nd line the imprints of people on our lives? See diction above (Lots of natural imagery, Romantic poets' influence etc.) As death is one of the few regularities in all of our lives. This regularity perhaps shows the organised, inevitability of death. The rhyme scheme is abcb, the two octave stanzas are separated into 2 quatrains which both follow abcb rhyme patterns. Strong sense of rhythm and rhyme, a lyric poem which was popular in the mid 19th century. Symbols: ' Roses.' this use of flowers is a symbol for love, not of death as lilies are the typical funeral flowers. The archaism also develops a solemn tone. Archaic terms: 'Haply.' which means 'perhaps' showing the narrator's uncertainty. Further showing her inner strength which is shown in direct address through the use of these imperatives. What does the poet put aside when death stops by The poem's narrator is deceased and on her way to her ultimate resting place. She does not want flowers or gloomy cypress trees planted at her grave. Imperative sentences: 'Plant.Be.' which show a soft, quiet confidence and persuasion. When I Am Dead, My Dearest, by Christina Georgina Rossetti, summary and analysis The poem's opening verse explains the world of living humans. The natural imagery shows the Romantic poets' influence on Rossetti (Especially when writing about death or love) Parallelism and Dichotomies: 'And if thou wilt remember,/ And if thou wilt, forget.' Idealistic diction with archaic, natural imagery: ' And dreaming through the twilight.' Frequent use of colons and semi-colons (Similar to 'Maude Clare', Poem #8 and 'No, Thank You, John', Poem #10) Death, loss, reflection, remembrance after death, resigned acceptance of the inevitability of death, religion. To contradict the traditional views of death/bereavement from Rossetti's era. Rossetti is ahead of her time by questioning the values and attitudes of her era. A woman who is thinking of death, speaking to her lover/romantic partner and explaining that he/she should not mourn her death, refuting the tradition Victorian attitudes - and their process - of mourning.
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