Rossetti – Remember Me
Initial Responses Development of ideas and interpretations (red)
Meaning / Ideas / Themes constructed and explored Meaning / Ideas / Themes constructed and
by the poet explored by the poet
- love, death and memory - despite Rossetti's Christian belief in the
afterlife- there still remains a conflict to be
- sonnet exploring the relationship between two resolved between faith and the natural grief
lovers as one of them faces their impending death occurring when losing a loved one
- palpable tone of finality throughout as confronted - from the perspective of dying
w death
- speaker can be seen as demeaning, ‘Only
- two possible interpretations- death vs the end of remember me’- emphasising futility of trying
a relationship to do anything else
- ‘do not grieve’- deviation from the Victorian - at the Volta→ speaker relents and changes
norm, subversive ideas, granting forgiveness to the listener for
forgetting her, ‘do not grieve’
- For Rossetti- love released a melancholy
desire for death- an intermediate condition
between the conscious and the unconscious
Use of form Use of form
- Petrarchan sonnet [traditional connotations to a - uses Petrarchan convention for rhyme
love poem], adheres strictly to the rhyme scheme scheme [abba,abba,cddece] but disruption of
and overall structure the sestet suggests the emotion of the
speaker
- first person speaker- addressing her lover
Use of structural devices (include key terms) Use of structural devices
- ‘you understand/ It will be late to counsel then or - the tone becomes more tentative
pray’- powerful, demanding nature of ‘you throughout the poem as Rossetti shifts from
understand’ = softened by the enjambement the imperative ‘remember’ → conditional
Initial Responses Development of ideas and interpretations (red)
Meaning / Ideas / Themes constructed and explored Meaning / Ideas / Themes constructed and
by the poet explored by the poet
- love, death and memory - despite Rossetti's Christian belief in the
afterlife- there still remains a conflict to be
- sonnet exploring the relationship between two resolved between faith and the natural grief
lovers as one of them faces their impending death occurring when losing a loved one
- palpable tone of finality throughout as confronted - from the perspective of dying
w death
- speaker can be seen as demeaning, ‘Only
- two possible interpretations- death vs the end of remember me’- emphasising futility of trying
a relationship to do anything else
- ‘do not grieve’- deviation from the Victorian - at the Volta→ speaker relents and changes
norm, subversive ideas, granting forgiveness to the listener for
forgetting her, ‘do not grieve’
- For Rossetti- love released a melancholy
desire for death- an intermediate condition
between the conscious and the unconscious
Use of form Use of form
- Petrarchan sonnet [traditional connotations to a - uses Petrarchan convention for rhyme
love poem], adheres strictly to the rhyme scheme scheme [abba,abba,cddece] but disruption of
and overall structure the sestet suggests the emotion of the
speaker
- first person speaker- addressing her lover
Use of structural devices (include key terms) Use of structural devices
- ‘you understand/ It will be late to counsel then or - the tone becomes more tentative
pray’- powerful, demanding nature of ‘you throughout the poem as Rossetti shifts from
understand’ = softened by the enjambement the imperative ‘remember’ → conditional
