Summary
Summary Notes on 'Remember' by Christina Rossetti
- Module
- Unit 3 - Poetry
- Institution
- PEARSON (PEARSON)
Notes on 'Remember' by Christina Rossetti, including summary and analysis.
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Christina Rossetti PoetryRemember
In the poem ‘Remember’, Rossetti explores the theme of death and remembrance
through the use of language and form. She uses the sonnet form with an included Volta
to depict a change in attitude towards mourning and remembrance. Indeed, in the first
half of the sonnet (Octave) the speaker seems ask her loved one to remember her at all
costs ‘only remember me, you understand’ but there is a shift in attitudes in the second
half of the sonnet (Sestet) as the speaker changes their mind, telling their loved one to
forget them if it will make their life happier not to mourn. In fact, the speaker appears to
undergo quite a drastic change from selfish to self-sacrificial.
‘Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:’
The direct address used by the speaker, and in particular the use of imperatives
commands portrays the speakers want, however the poet also uses them to again
emphasise this shift in attitudes. For example, in the Octave half of the sonnet
‘Remember’ is used as a commanding imperative in which the speaker is evidently
desperate to not be forgotten once they have died. However, following the use of Volta,
the recipient of the poem is told ‘do not grieve’, which juxtaposes the speaker’s attitude
previous to the Volta. Indeed, direct address is used particularly in an emotive sense as
we immediately realise the personal quality of this poem, and there is a suggestion that
the speaker is talking to a loved one, most likely a romantic partner, which adds all the
more to the melancholy tone towards death used at the end of the poem. However, the
poem’s conclusion is equally emotive, as the speaker sacrifices being remembered for
the happiness of the one that they love.
‘Better far that you should forget and smile
Than you should remember and be sad.’
Rossetti does not ever explicitly state death as a concept but rather uses a euphemism in
order to describe heaven ‘Gone away into the silent land’. Moreover, this description of
a ‘silent land’ could be interpreted in the multiple different ways, firstly as ominous and
daunting, but equally as peaceful in such silence. Certainly, there is a lack of clarity
surrounding the concept of heaven and where people go when they die. To some extent
this ‘silent place’ could be interpreted as some form of purgatory between earth and
heaven known as ‘soul sleep’ in which souls would have to wait for Christ to return and
his judgement before they could be sent to heaven.
The use of caesura on line seven ‘only remember me; you understand’ in which Rossetti
divides the line by the use of a semi colon, is used to emphasise the direct nature of the
speaker’s words. First, there is this statement in which the speaker simply states using
the adverb ‘Only’ that their loved one must remember them exclusively above anyone
else; and then the use of the following clause ‘You understand’ uses direct address to
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