Christina Rossetti
Memory
Meaning:
In this two part poem, Rossetti explores the speaker’s mourning for a love she has
sacrificed in order to commit herself to religious devotion in god. The two halves take
on different tones, the first half (1857) the speaker appears distraught about her
sacrifice. Whilst in the second half, written eight years later (1867), the speaker
appears to have renewed hope about her love, believing that she will be with the one
she loves again in heaven. Contextually speaking, this change of heart could reflect
Rossetti’s own initial decision to sacrifice her love of James Collinson and Charles
Cayley who proposed to her in the years leading up to 1857; they were both serious
relationships however Rossetti refused each man’s proposal, choosing instead to
devote herself to religion. Indeed, this decision (which is weighed up in the first half
of the poem) , depicted by the image of the balance, is reflective of the poet’s own
decision making which eventually caused her to prioritise faith in her tractarian
beliefs over that of earthly pleasures such as love. Hence Rossetti emphasises this
feeling of death in the first half of the poem, the pain of having made a decision
which feels wrong. Yet, as in many of her poems, in the second half she presents this
contrast between earth and heaven, in which her hope seems to lay in the afterlife
and the enjoyment that will be found there. Again, this could be linked to her
renewed friendship with Charles Cayley many years after their relationship had
ended; this still provided her with companionship and human connection, with the
hope of their love flourishing again in the afterlife. This emotion is buried, but not yet
dead and is something she still holds dear, but it is now completely private and
hidden from the world.
Structure/form:
The most obvious structural point that can be made about this poem is the poems
division into two halves which are very much divided by time, attitude and tone in
order to reflect the speaker’s changing attitudes about her decision to sacrifice love
in the name of god. Such change could be described as a ‘Sea-Change’, an idiom
which originated in Shakespeare’s Tempest in order to connote a broad and
transformative change. The poet suggests the effect of time, and in some ways
mourning in a sense other than literal death.
There is a noticeable change in pace between the stanzas in the first and second half
of the poem with the first half being dominated by pauses and much more regular,
longer clauses which creates this sombre and slow feeling. Whilst in the second half
of the poem, the poet appears to increase the pace, with a more frequented use of
caesurae and shorter, snappier clauses which initially create this feeling of
Memory
Meaning:
In this two part poem, Rossetti explores the speaker’s mourning for a love she has
sacrificed in order to commit herself to religious devotion in god. The two halves take
on different tones, the first half (1857) the speaker appears distraught about her
sacrifice. Whilst in the second half, written eight years later (1867), the speaker
appears to have renewed hope about her love, believing that she will be with the one
she loves again in heaven. Contextually speaking, this change of heart could reflect
Rossetti’s own initial decision to sacrifice her love of James Collinson and Charles
Cayley who proposed to her in the years leading up to 1857; they were both serious
relationships however Rossetti refused each man’s proposal, choosing instead to
devote herself to religion. Indeed, this decision (which is weighed up in the first half
of the poem) , depicted by the image of the balance, is reflective of the poet’s own
decision making which eventually caused her to prioritise faith in her tractarian
beliefs over that of earthly pleasures such as love. Hence Rossetti emphasises this
feeling of death in the first half of the poem, the pain of having made a decision
which feels wrong. Yet, as in many of her poems, in the second half she presents this
contrast between earth and heaven, in which her hope seems to lay in the afterlife
and the enjoyment that will be found there. Again, this could be linked to her
renewed friendship with Charles Cayley many years after their relationship had
ended; this still provided her with companionship and human connection, with the
hope of their love flourishing again in the afterlife. This emotion is buried, but not yet
dead and is something she still holds dear, but it is now completely private and
hidden from the world.
Structure/form:
The most obvious structural point that can be made about this poem is the poems
division into two halves which are very much divided by time, attitude and tone in
order to reflect the speaker’s changing attitudes about her decision to sacrifice love
in the name of god. Such change could be described as a ‘Sea-Change’, an idiom
which originated in Shakespeare’s Tempest in order to connote a broad and
transformative change. The poet suggests the effect of time, and in some ways
mourning in a sense other than literal death.
There is a noticeable change in pace between the stanzas in the first and second half
of the poem with the first half being dominated by pauses and much more regular,
longer clauses which creates this sombre and slow feeling. Whilst in the second half
of the poem, the poet appears to increase the pace, with a more frequented use of
caesurae and shorter, snappier clauses which initially create this feeling of
