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Summary Notes on 'Up-Hill' by Christina Rossetti
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Notes on 'Up-Hill' by Christina Rossetti, including summary and analysis.
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By: egeonu81 • 1 year ago
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Christina RossettiUp-Hill
Meaning:
In this short devotional poem Rossetti explores the difficult struggle of Christian
salvation yet with an overall positive tone, she explores the process of devoting
one’s self to god in order to reach the ultimate goal of heaven in the afterlife.
Like many of Rossetti’s poems, there is a particular emphasis put on the contrast
between the struggle of life on earth and paradise of heaven. As the poem was
written in 1861, Rossetti likely drew on her own struggle between devotion to
god and commitment in earthly relationships whilst writing this poem.
Particularly, we can look at the fact that the poet had rejected proposals from
James Collinson, as well as a man thought to be called John Brett on religious
grounds, previous to this. This is perhaps why Rossetti has chosen to write a
poem which confirms the importance of religious devotion and suggests that
suffering on earth is simply part of the journey to a perfect afterlife. The title
itself ‘Up-hill’ connotes the difficulty of a struggle which requires endurance,
perhaps that from birth to death, or that from purgatory to heaven. If we accept
the notion that we follow the speaker from birth to death, this could suggest the
influence of family loss on Rossetti, such as the death of her sister and father;
she may explore the philosophical question of the nature of the journey to the
afterlife, in order to comfort her own worries about the experience of her family
members who have passed on.
Structure/Form:
There is a certain ambiguity surrounding who the speaker is talking too, perhaps
it is god who she questions as to the journey she must undertake; possibly it is
herself she is encouraging. In any case the question-answer format followed
throughout the poem, in which a long question ‘Does the road wind up-hill all the
way?’ is followed by a short and clear answer ‘yes, to the very end’ provides this
expectation of doubt in the long, rambling question, which is immediately solved
by surety of the sort and confident response. This is added to by the poet’s use
of iambic rhythm and the use of the abab rhyme scheme in order to portray
this sense of regularity and monotony; a feeling which physically portrays the
slow footsteps taken whilst walking a long path, however also connotes
familiarity and therefore reliability in god. It could be argued that Rossetti has
constructed he poem in such a way in order to portray a sense of assurance
throughout the poem, which is then confirmed by the language The poet is able
to create this pleasant feeling of reassurance for the reader in order to convince
them that if they follow the path set out for them by god, they will pass on to
heaven, which is the ultimate goal.
Language/ Religious imagery:
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