ROSSETTI - QUOTES
SONG
(Strong Iambic rhythm contrasts with content; elegy)
• When I am dead, my dearest, // Sing no sad songs for me; // Plant thou no rose at my head, //
Nor shady cypress tree:
• And if thou wilt, remember, // And if thou wilt, forget
• I shall not see the shadows, // I shall not fee the rain; // I shall not hear the nightingale // Sing on,
as if in pain:
• Haply I may remember, // And haply may forget.
REMEMBER
(Petrachan Sonnet)
• Remember me when I am gone away, // Gone far away into the silent land;
• When you can no more hold me by the hand, // Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
• You tell me of our future that you planned:
• Better by far you should forget and smile // Than that you should remember and be sad.
FROM THE ANTIQUE
(Iambic tetrameter; not released until after Rossetti’s death)
• It’s a weary life it is; she said: // Doubly blank in a woman’s lot: // I wish and I wish I were a man;
// Or, better than any being, were not:
• I should be nothing; while all the rest // Would wake and weary and fall asleep.
ECHO
(Lyric)
•Yet come to me in dreams, that I may live // My very life again tho’ cold in death: // Come back to
me in dreams, that I may give // Pulse for pulse, breath for breath:
SHUT OUT
• The door was shut. I looked between // Its iron bars; and saw it lie, // My garden, mine, beneath
the sky,
• It had been mine, and it was lost.
• A shadowless spirit kept the gate, // Blank and unchanging like the grave.
• The spirit was silent; but he took // Mortar and stone to build a wall; // He left no loophole great
or small // Thro’ which my straining eyes might look:
• So now I sit here quite alone // Blinded with tears; nor grieve for that, // For nought is left worth
looking at // Since my delightful land is gone.
IN THE ROUND TOWER AT JHANSI (INDIAN MUTINY)
SONG
(Strong Iambic rhythm contrasts with content; elegy)
• When I am dead, my dearest, // Sing no sad songs for me; // Plant thou no rose at my head, //
Nor shady cypress tree:
• And if thou wilt, remember, // And if thou wilt, forget
• I shall not see the shadows, // I shall not fee the rain; // I shall not hear the nightingale // Sing on,
as if in pain:
• Haply I may remember, // And haply may forget.
REMEMBER
(Petrachan Sonnet)
• Remember me when I am gone away, // Gone far away into the silent land;
• When you can no more hold me by the hand, // Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
• You tell me of our future that you planned:
• Better by far you should forget and smile // Than that you should remember and be sad.
FROM THE ANTIQUE
(Iambic tetrameter; not released until after Rossetti’s death)
• It’s a weary life it is; she said: // Doubly blank in a woman’s lot: // I wish and I wish I were a man;
// Or, better than any being, were not:
• I should be nothing; while all the rest // Would wake and weary and fall asleep.
ECHO
(Lyric)
•Yet come to me in dreams, that I may live // My very life again tho’ cold in death: // Come back to
me in dreams, that I may give // Pulse for pulse, breath for breath:
SHUT OUT
• The door was shut. I looked between // Its iron bars; and saw it lie, // My garden, mine, beneath
the sky,
• It had been mine, and it was lost.
• A shadowless spirit kept the gate, // Blank and unchanging like the grave.
• The spirit was silent; but he took // Mortar and stone to build a wall; // He left no loophole great
or small // Thro’ which my straining eyes might look:
• So now I sit here quite alone // Blinded with tears; nor grieve for that, // For nought is left worth
looking at // Since my delightful land is gone.
IN THE ROUND TOWER AT JHANSI (INDIAN MUTINY)
