Summary
Summary A* analysis of Christina Rossetti's Who hath despised the day of small things?
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This A* poetry revision sheet includes: THEMES, SUMMARY OF THE POEM, STRUCTURE AND IMAGERY ANALYSIS.
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Poem Analysis for Christina Rossetti’s Who hath despised the day of smallthings?
Themes:
Self –abnegation
Joy
Comfort
Innocence
Nature
Summary:
In Rossetti’s ‘Who hath despised the day of small things?’, she has directly taken this
line from the Bible, essentially meaning those who have despised earthly life will
rejoice. The poem seems one of hope and joy as the persona takes comfort in such
bible teachings.
Structure:
Lyric poem- highly personal and devotional. Two equal stanzas with an alternate end
rhyme- does this peaceful rhyme equate to the speaker’s own piece of mind, yet
equally does the alternate rhyme represent all she has denied herself in order to
reach a sublime state.
More A* analysis on page 2!
Imagery:
The poem begins with pastoral imagery of “violets”, connoting vibrancy and life, yet
the speaker uses a metaphor of such flowers to describe her own state, “sweet” yet
“I recluse”, in which she closes herself up. This brings about ideas of self-denial of
the earthly world- echoing the title of the poem. Rossetti further equates the speaker
to be as “cheerful as daises”, a thoroughly positive image yet the line is balanced as
these daises are “unaccounted rare” suggesting such women who deny all earthly
pleasures are such rarities. The peaceful sibilance in “still sunward-gazing from a
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