This document covers the poem: 'Memory' 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 this...
• Difficulty she faces in struggling with the connection between earth and heaven
• Rossetti feels the love on earth, she decides to reject the part of her human connection, instead
of devoting herself to God
• She suffers from this choice, a part of the love she feels never dies.
• Poem is written across 8 years; the first part being written in 1857 and the second in 1865
• Although 8 years have passed, the love Rossetti felt still lives on ‘buried yet not dead’. Poem
explores Rossetti’s faith, and the length she will go to devote herself
Language:
• Immediate reaction and emotions after deciding to give up her love. Memory with ‘I’ instantly
the poem takes on personal sentiment, Rossetti uses this pronoun to reflect the intimate nature
of the poem
• Verb ‘nursed’, Rossetti takes on the form of a career, looking after love and holding it close
• Beginning the poem in an intimate matter, instantly told how dear she considers her love
• Air of mystery and rejection I explored within the first stanza
• Instead of naming her love, she instead uses the object pronoun
• Rossetti has this layer of distancing to her love, having rejected ‘it’ and therefore trying to
dissociate form it
• Talking about a metaphorical love. Juxtaposes between ‘nursed it in my bosom’ in compassion
to ‘hid I in my heart when it was dead’. Creates a realistic tone suggesting that despite the loss
of this love the persona continues to emphasise the importance of this internally. Perhaps hints
at the regret and remorse for the love which she ultimately had to end.
• Rossetti uses ‘alone’ 4 times. Repetition of the lonesome state permeates through the poem by
direct naming ‘alone’ and also the tone which Rossetti's writing evokes
• Use of ‘silent’, ‘not a word’, ‘I stood alone’, ‘shut the door’, all culminate to paint the
atmosphere of the poem as one is depressing and lonely
• Rossetti, although feeling she has done the right thing in housing her faith, it is not a decision
without a consequence
• ‘Shut the door’ could equally metaphorically represent the ending of the love the persona had
with her lover. The common noun ‘door’ could become symbolical of heaven and hell
• The persona being forced ‘to face the naked truth’ reflects the exposure and realism on their
relationship. ‘naked’ creates a vulnerability to the persona in the ending of the relationship she
faces
• ‘I stood alone, --’. Through Rossetti's use of the caesura creates a Signiant bases to the pace of
the poem. By slowing this down creates this pause of reflection which the persona took to
reflect on her relationship. She was ‘stripped bare’. This exposure acts as a revelation for the
persona in the relationship that she shares with her lover.
• Rossetti creates the idea of looking at something, a relationship, with a bird's eye view almost
makes a list of the ‘perfect balances and weighed’. Both the dynamic verb ‘balances’ and
, ‘weighed’ creates this idea of perfection that precision that has been taken in the nuanced
decision to end her relationship with her lover
• Feels she alone bears the weight of her choice in ‘broke my heart’. She isolates herself further
through the contextual background of the spinster within Victorian society. Placed her faith
before love and before the expectations of her society
• Follows through with her rejection of love, seeming to only bring her despair.
• Final double repetition of ‘grows old’ is a reflection of her depressive idea of growing old as a
woman without love. Dedicated herself to her religion and suffers
• Time passing and cannot see her solitary and depressive state changing. Final word of this part is
‘grieve’, one that compounds the sentiments of the section into a singular entity
• Part 2:
• Section takes place 8 years after Rossetti wrote the first part
• Poet comes to terms with the love she rejected, but still thinks about what could have been. No
longer feels the pain of Part1, and looks with excitement to the possible future she could have
• Shift from past to present tense. Rossetti writing and reflecting within the moment. The
personal pronoun ‘I’ equally suggests that the relationship with her lover is now nothing more
than a distant memory.
• Room she devoted to love is one ‘whereinto no one enters’, against displays her complete
commitment to her fate. Rejected all forms of love, rejecting three proposals throughout her
life, and has decided to be alone forever.
• Describes how she has constructed a tiny place within her heart that the love can reside in, the
‘room’. Yet ‘save I myself alone’ creates the idea of the personal grief the persona feels. Build
into the confessional tone for the guilt and remorse that is felt by the person
• Descriptive ‘blessed memory’ sitting atop a ‘throne’ gives a sense of majesty to the love she
rejected. Obvious to see how much she valued the love, which makes her show of faith all the
more impressive. Rossetti did not make the choice lightly, and in keeping her faith she has
memorialised her past love
• Her ‘life centres’ on this notion of love locked away within her heart. After all this time, there is
still an important part of Rossetti in which this love continues on
• Rossetti presents the passage of time ‘winter comes and goes’, ‘lavish summer’, to display that
the love died indeed live on. Her heart, love is unaffected by the seasons and external change.
Chose's faith but acknowledges the impact her love had, and continues to have
• The symbolic ‘bloodless lily and warm rose’ could emphasis the expectations that are pinned on
women. While the adjective ‘bloodless’ becomes an oxymoron to suggest that because of the
personas rejection of love she remain eternally virginally. However, the distinction of the
common noun the ‘rose’ suggests the future romance that will pray despite the innocence she
prevails now.
• ‘If any should force entrance’. The dynamic verb ‘force’ perhaps reflects the aggressive nature in
which the persona is attempting to revisit the love she once has. The emotions that are
resurfacing despite attempting to conceal them. Linking to ‘summer’ becomes ambiguous.
While she could be moving on from the relationship it could equally connote a sense of realism
as the persona recognises the emotions that she has subverted.
• ‘One buried yet not dead’ represents Rosetti’s feelings about her now lost love. Decided to
forsaken love, it continues to live on ‘buried’ deep within her heart- ‘not dead’. Love no longer
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