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Summary Notes on 'The World' by Christina Rossetti
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Notes on 'The World' by Christina Rossetti, including summary and analysis.
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Christina RossettiThe World
Meaning:
In this poem Rossetti explores the negative aspects of life on earth, suggesting the
dangerous nature of tempting earthly desires. She draws contextually from her own
belief that human life on earth is temporary and should be lived respectfully, without
temptation, in order to experience eternal paradise in the afterlife. Indeed Rossetti
draws contextually on her own strict religious belief that there are very strict
boundaries between heaven and hell, and that if you indulge earthly sins then you
will end up in hell with Satan; hence the prevalent use of beastial satanic imagery.
Contextually speaking, Rossetti had recently became ill with Grave’s disease in
1849, five years previous to the writing of this poem along with losing her dad a few
years previous. This could explain the poet’s exploration of heaven and hell, as she
considers her own death and the afterlife. Equally, in 1848 the poet had been
married to James Collinson but broke off their engagement due to religious
differences, it could be equally argued that Rossetti’s negative depiction of earthly
enjoyments such as love are reflective of the sacrifices made by the poet on earth,
to ensure her passage to the afterlife.
Structure/form:
‘The world’ is written as a Petrarchan sonnet, divided in to octave and sestet by the
Volta on the ninth line. However, the poem does not entirely conform to the
traditional form as it could be argued that though a problem is established in the
octave; the issues of temptations, this is not solved in the sestet. It could be said
that the problem is actually amplified in the sestet as the speaker’s tone becomes
more concerned as to the outcome of succumbing to this temptation. Rossetti
perhaps constructs her sonnet in such a way in order to portray the powerful nature
of temptations, suggesting to the reader the harmful effect of following desires
instead of realising the ‘truth’ of their dangerous nature.
Anaphora is used throughout the poem as the line ‘by day’ is repeated at the start of
the first, fifth and ninth line which is in particular juxtaposition to notions of ‘night’.
The poet structurally transitions between the contrasting dark of night and light of
day in order to suggest the difference between appearance and reality. She implies
that temptations can appear very lovely and innocent and then presents this
structural shift in order to undermine this notion. In the second half of the sonnet
however, following the Volta on line ‘by day she stands a lie: by night she stands…’
the focus looks solely upon the dark connotations associated with earth. More
structural weight is given to the light in the second quatrain in comparison to the
first, it could be argued that the poet purposefully increases the amount of pleasure
associated with earthly pleasures to imply the addictive and consuming nature of
temptations.
Language:
The use of pronoun ‘she’ throughout the poem connotes this image of the femme
fatale common in many of Rossetti’s poems , the female in this sense is personified
as sin. This could be seen as a certain amount of female prejudice on Rossetti’s part
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