POEM ANALYSIS CONTEXT
some ladies themes: women + society written when she was 18
petrarchan sonnet - octave and sestet // volta victorian muslin dress:
satirical sonnet criticising victorian society - light fabric
“some ladies dressed in muslin full and white” - anaphora → dismisses people who - white was seen as appropriate for
dress for vanity young women
“if all the world were water…” - volta → becomes more dark + satirical - ideal women was not too tall
“certain old ladies dressed in girlish pink” - mocking tone // makes the older women carriages:
sound juvenile + frivolous - only wealthy people could afford to
‘back’ / ‘hack’ / ‘right’ / ‘sight’ / ‘back’ / ‘sack’ - rhyme scheme → lyrical + emphasises her keep carriages
youth
remember themes: life, death, loss, memory written in 1849 - rossetti was 19
petrarchan sonnet - octave - emotional detachment and grief of being lost in memory - she was engaged to collinson in 1848
// sestet - resolution and calm who was a founding (but minor)
rhyme scheme: ABBAABBACDDECE member of the pre raphaelite brothers
“remember me” - repetition → definite // imperatives - command - declined proposal cause he was a
‘when you can no more hold me by the hand” - physical/emotional/spiritual detachment catholic convert and she was an
// hand holding is intimate anglican
“...do not grieve” - volta - new imperatives → the sestet loses its imperatives and the
tone becomes more gentle and calm
“you tell me of our future that you planned” - past tense: loss
“gone far away into the silent land” - extended metaphor - journey of life
the world themes: temptation and the fall of man written in 1854 - published with goblin market
petrarchan sonnet - the is no clear volta so no change of thought anthology
women = temptation // fall of man - genesis // narrator - likely male (?), patriarchy - after her 1st broken engagement
“by day she wooes me” - anaphora → justification of his temptation // ‘day’ → lie - just before r’s famous religious struggle
“subtle serpents gliding in her hair” - sibilance → ‘s’ of hiss of serpent // could also refer where she was attempting to come to
to medusa // ‘hair’ - seductive mentioned in goblin market terms with the demands of her faith
‘serpents’ / ‘monster’ / ‘prayer’ / ‘horns’ / ‘hell’ → lexical field of biblical images of the - subject of the poem surrounds
devil temptation and sin and the struggle to
“with push horns and clawed and clutching hands” - ro3 - demonic imagery uphold strong christian values
echo themes: separation, isolation, loss published with the 1854 goblin market
“come to me” - trochee // anaphora - beseeching + longing tone anthology - written when r was 24
“as sunlight on a stream … come back in tears” - iambic pentameter is separated: loss keeping in tradition/trend of writing about dead
, and isolation - rhythm is disturbed // water could be a reference to narcissus and him lovers. it’s enough of a romantic trope but we
being in love with his reflection don’t need to attach a particular experience to it
“pulse for pulse, breath for breath” - meter changes because of plosive alliteration +
repetition
‘Paradise’ / ‘souls’ - religious semantic field / Paradise = heaven
may themes: love, loss + nature (apple gathering, may, maude clare, goblin market)
truncated sonnet → 13 lines long, 1 line missing = sense of unfulfillment // octet =
promise, life and potential sestet = disappointment, death and coldness
“MAY” - extended metaphor: transience (change of seasons)
“i cannot tell you how it was” - ambiguous // ‘you’ - direct address, dark undertone of
secrecy → distance between the reader and narrator
“bright and breezy” - plosive alliteration: danger? +ive imagery + end of spring
“i cannot tell you what it was” - anaphora: reminder in the change of tone
“old and cold and grey” - internal rhyme: melancholy → assonance
a birthday themes: love, passion + nature peacocks with 100 eyes
“my heart is like an apple tree” - simile: tree of knowledge → potential [LINK] “thickest - according to ovid, argus the giant had 100
fruit” - rich image eyes
‘raise’ / ‘hand’ / ‘carve’ - trochee → tone is forceful/passionate - argus was tasked by hera to watch over a
‘silk’ - originated from china. luxurious image nymph so that her husband zeus couldn’t get
‘purple’ - royalty: it was the most expensive dye close
“because my love is come to me” - final line = joyful celebration - zeus sends hermes to kill the giant - he does
so by making all 100 eyes fall asleep so he
could kill argus
- hera had argus’ 100 eyes preserved forever in
a peacock’s tail to immortalise herself as a
faithful watchman.
the singing bird
- several 19th century poems are celebrations
of bird songs + have as their central figure
- by tradition and connotation, the image of the
bird embodies the poet’s idealisation of his art
halcyon days
- ancient greek myth of h is a tender story of
love + commitment → halcyon sunny days
- the phrase halcyon days refers to prosperity,
joy, liberation and trandquility
an apple gathering themes: sexual double standards, fallen women, abandonment composed in 1857. written when r lost her 1st
some ladies themes: women + society written when she was 18
petrarchan sonnet - octave and sestet // volta victorian muslin dress:
satirical sonnet criticising victorian society - light fabric
“some ladies dressed in muslin full and white” - anaphora → dismisses people who - white was seen as appropriate for
dress for vanity young women
“if all the world were water…” - volta → becomes more dark + satirical - ideal women was not too tall
“certain old ladies dressed in girlish pink” - mocking tone // makes the older women carriages:
sound juvenile + frivolous - only wealthy people could afford to
‘back’ / ‘hack’ / ‘right’ / ‘sight’ / ‘back’ / ‘sack’ - rhyme scheme → lyrical + emphasises her keep carriages
youth
remember themes: life, death, loss, memory written in 1849 - rossetti was 19
petrarchan sonnet - octave - emotional detachment and grief of being lost in memory - she was engaged to collinson in 1848
// sestet - resolution and calm who was a founding (but minor)
rhyme scheme: ABBAABBACDDECE member of the pre raphaelite brothers
“remember me” - repetition → definite // imperatives - command - declined proposal cause he was a
‘when you can no more hold me by the hand” - physical/emotional/spiritual detachment catholic convert and she was an
// hand holding is intimate anglican
“...do not grieve” - volta - new imperatives → the sestet loses its imperatives and the
tone becomes more gentle and calm
“you tell me of our future that you planned” - past tense: loss
“gone far away into the silent land” - extended metaphor - journey of life
the world themes: temptation and the fall of man written in 1854 - published with goblin market
petrarchan sonnet - the is no clear volta so no change of thought anthology
women = temptation // fall of man - genesis // narrator - likely male (?), patriarchy - after her 1st broken engagement
“by day she wooes me” - anaphora → justification of his temptation // ‘day’ → lie - just before r’s famous religious struggle
“subtle serpents gliding in her hair” - sibilance → ‘s’ of hiss of serpent // could also refer where she was attempting to come to
to medusa // ‘hair’ - seductive mentioned in goblin market terms with the demands of her faith
‘serpents’ / ‘monster’ / ‘prayer’ / ‘horns’ / ‘hell’ → lexical field of biblical images of the - subject of the poem surrounds
devil temptation and sin and the struggle to
“with push horns and clawed and clutching hands” - ro3 - demonic imagery uphold strong christian values
echo themes: separation, isolation, loss published with the 1854 goblin market
“come to me” - trochee // anaphora - beseeching + longing tone anthology - written when r was 24
“as sunlight on a stream … come back in tears” - iambic pentameter is separated: loss keeping in tradition/trend of writing about dead
, and isolation - rhythm is disturbed // water could be a reference to narcissus and him lovers. it’s enough of a romantic trope but we
being in love with his reflection don’t need to attach a particular experience to it
“pulse for pulse, breath for breath” - meter changes because of plosive alliteration +
repetition
‘Paradise’ / ‘souls’ - religious semantic field / Paradise = heaven
may themes: love, loss + nature (apple gathering, may, maude clare, goblin market)
truncated sonnet → 13 lines long, 1 line missing = sense of unfulfillment // octet =
promise, life and potential sestet = disappointment, death and coldness
“MAY” - extended metaphor: transience (change of seasons)
“i cannot tell you how it was” - ambiguous // ‘you’ - direct address, dark undertone of
secrecy → distance between the reader and narrator
“bright and breezy” - plosive alliteration: danger? +ive imagery + end of spring
“i cannot tell you what it was” - anaphora: reminder in the change of tone
“old and cold and grey” - internal rhyme: melancholy → assonance
a birthday themes: love, passion + nature peacocks with 100 eyes
“my heart is like an apple tree” - simile: tree of knowledge → potential [LINK] “thickest - according to ovid, argus the giant had 100
fruit” - rich image eyes
‘raise’ / ‘hand’ / ‘carve’ - trochee → tone is forceful/passionate - argus was tasked by hera to watch over a
‘silk’ - originated from china. luxurious image nymph so that her husband zeus couldn’t get
‘purple’ - royalty: it was the most expensive dye close
“because my love is come to me” - final line = joyful celebration - zeus sends hermes to kill the giant - he does
so by making all 100 eyes fall asleep so he
could kill argus
- hera had argus’ 100 eyes preserved forever in
a peacock’s tail to immortalise herself as a
faithful watchman.
the singing bird
- several 19th century poems are celebrations
of bird songs + have as their central figure
- by tradition and connotation, the image of the
bird embodies the poet’s idealisation of his art
halcyon days
- ancient greek myth of h is a tender story of
love + commitment → halcyon sunny days
- the phrase halcyon days refers to prosperity,
joy, liberation and trandquility
an apple gathering themes: sexual double standards, fallen women, abandonment composed in 1857. written when r lost her 1st
