This document covers the poem: 'At Home' by Christina Rossetti . I studied this poem for my A Level, Edexcel English Literature Exam as part of the poetry module.
By constructing these summarises and notes these provided me with ideas and themes which I could for my essays and thesis. It was th...
• Belonging, comfort, security
• No specific place
• Escapism from the outside world
• Familiar
• Literally a place or a person
• Memories
• Use of ‘at’ could foreshadow that despite being at the home, it does not feel like that anymore
• No longer belongs at home
• Transcends her home
• ‘house’ instead of home later on. Lack meaning now
Language:
• ‘When I was dead’. Speaker introduces a spiritual presence. Sets action of poem in the past and
importance of maintain an identity. Abrupt beginning to sentence. Personal pronoun ‘I’ perhaps
disturbing that it is wrote from the perspective of women who is dead.
• Lyric Poems usually written in first person in order to convey emotion directly to the reader. The
‘I’ can be described as lyrical in that it is direct and concentrates more on conveying a particular
emotion than on the event that gave rise to it. Used more frequently as poem progress.
Asserting himself while her friends forget her
• ‘Much frequented’ suggests this is the home of when she was alive. Now in death she is
detached from it. While the common noun ‘house’ alters from the home mentioned in the
poem. Suggests that in death the persona cannot reach the same level of closeness
• Both the dynamic verbs ‘passed’ and ‘saw’. Ironic as cannot physically be there. Unusual and
isolating experience as he can see them but they cannot see her. Only there in presence.
• The dynamic verb ‘feasting’ suggests the personas criticise of her friends' indulgence of such
superficial and artificial food. Sees is as offensive in the grotesque way in which it is suggested
that they are eating the food. Suggests that while they are full on this ludicrous meal, she is
empty isolated from them.
• ‘Orange boughs’ could reference exotic wallpaper which was popular in the gothic revival.
Normally grow in tropical climates indicates that the feast that the friends are enjoying is
artificial. Suggests it is unnatural and artificial to solely enjoy the present with having no regard
for the past. Imagery suggests that the persona is reminiscing on the world in which she no
longer physically exists and experience
• ‘Hand to hand they pushed’. Isolating in the pronoun ‘they’ suggesting that she has been
forgotten about. The physicality of the concrete noun ‘hand’ becomes sensory imagery
suggesting the personas inability to have a physical connection with any other again. The
dynamic verb ‘pushed’ suggests the haphazard way in which the food and alcohol were
consumed
, • ‘Wine’. Symbol suggests that this is being done carelessly, and indicates a haphazard attitude to
life, one another and society. Drinking often affects the mind and makes an individual forget or
put aside troubles. Effects can be damaging. Equally could be seen as the eucharist or an anti-
communism. Instead of eating the food for religious reasons that are doing it selfishness. Do not
appreciate that they still have the ability to eat food. Could suggest that it is only in death can
you truly appreciate what was so readily available in life
• ‘Sucked the pulp of the plum and peach’. Represents the physical pleasures of life. Nothing more
that the persona can do but watch. The fruits also suggest the idea of birth in the idea of the
growth, production and consumption of fruit
• Personas is potentially jealous as she judges their feast. Their dynamic verb ‘laughed’ reflect the
joy in which she can no longer be included in an is envious of
• Persona signifies the ‘honest chat’ in an almost sinister fashion. The irony in the abstract noun
‘honest’ could highlight the revelation of the selfish nature of her friends who have forgotten
her. In a sense could equally express guilt that this is listening in where she was not meant to.
Breach of Privy with the persona judging them. Informal, the lost relationships and closeness
since death. Souls infiltrating life
• Cannot make herself heard so must continue to only listen to their ‘honest conversation’
• ‘Miles and miles of sea’ suggests the freedom of the friends that the speaker wants for herself.
She is unable to use her body, make an effort and be rewarded by something ‘more sweet’
every day.
• Rossetti's uses of the concrete noun ‘tide’ creates irony in the everlasting nature of earth in
comparison to the Transcience of human life. The ‘tide’ will constantly be there while their
persona is reminded that in death she is isolated from her friends and family
• ‘eyrie’ is an elevated position or a high vantage point. Ironic here as the persona asserts herself
in the fact that she has transcended earth she has a much better perspective than they do. She
gets perspective that’s surplus to them, that they have to put in effort to achieve. ultimate
viewpoints back on their lives while her friends are describing the ‘eyrie’. Looks upon the days
that they have lived.
• Rossetti's use of the adjective ‘sweet’ is perhaps used to juxtapose the harsh and bitter realities
of death which isolates her from these experiences.
• ‘tomorrow’ the friends continuing to reach forward for something more, something new in the
future. Speaker looking on in envy for the lives the friends still have left to lead. Hurts the
persona who realises that she is being forgotten about. Now she is dead she has no claim in the
present or the future. No one wants to stay in one place as she has to. Knows the world will
move on without her and there is nothing she can do about it
• Abstract noun ‘hope’ suggests that for the persona this has been lost for the corruption and
death. They cannot ‘hope’ for a better future or a ‘tomorrow’ because it is not a promise for
them.
• ‘no one spoke of yesterday’. Full stop helps reflect that the persona has been forgotten about
and is unable to join them in their future experiences. Signifies the divide between them.
• The adjectives in stanza three such as the abstract noun ‘hope’ and ‘blessed’ could highlight the
theme of love in optimism and passion that occurs between them that she is no longer able to
experience
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