Christina Georgina Rossetti
Song
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Biography
• Rossetti was born in London and educated at home by
her mother.
• In the 1840s, her family was stricken with severe
financial difficulties due to the deterioration of her
father's physical and mental health.
• When she was 14, Rossetti suffered a nervous
breakdown and left school.
• This was followed by bouts of depression and related
illness. During this period she, her mother, and her sister
became seriously interested in religion and the Church of
England.
• Marsh notes, "she was opposed to war, slavery (in the
American South), cruelty to animals (in the prevalent
practice of animal experimentation), the exploitation of
girls in under-age prostitution and all forms of military
aggression."
© Teachable and Mary Sharples. Some rights reserved. http://teachable.net/res.asp?r=2546
Biography
• In the later decades of her life, Rossetti suffered
from Graves Disease. In 1893 she developed
cancer, and died the following year, on 29
December 1894; she is buried in Highgate
Cemetery.
• In the early 20th Century, Rossetti's popularity
faded and she remained largely unnoticed and
unread until the 1970s, when feminist scholars
began to recover and comment on her work.
• In the last few decades, Rossetti's writing has
been rediscovered and she has regained
admittance into the Victorian literary canon.
© Teachable and Mary Sharples. Some rights reserved. http://teachable.net/res.asp?r=2546
Relevant Context – Pre-Raphaelite
Women
• Sentimentalized depictions of the tragic death of
women occupied many Pre-Raphaelite poems
and paintings.
• Many of these place women at the mercy of the
men in their lives. These works come from a
male vantage point. Christina Rossetti provides
a unique answer to these works in her poem,
"Song".
• In this poem, Rossetti voices the inner thoughts
of a dead Victorian woman.
© Teachable and Mary Sharples. Some rights reserved. http://teachable.net/res.asp?r=2546
Discussion
Read the poem - SONG
In groups discuss…
What are the woman’s feelings
about being separated from her
lover?
© Teachable and Mary Sharples. Some rights reserved. http://teachable.net/res.asp?r=2546
Analysis
For each of the points below, find a quotation from the
poem as evidence for the analysis (and apply the
appropriate terminology)…
1.
2.
3.
4.
The woman in the poem seems to feel no pain or loss
at being separated from her lover, but only peace.
She asks her lover not to mourn her.
She asks him to continue to live his life without her and
not to waste his time in grief.
She does not pine for her lover; she states that she
might actually forget him altogether in time.
"Song", exposes the inadequacy of earthly love when
compared with the peace and fulfilment experienced
by the woman upon death.
© Teachable and Mary Sharples. Some rights reserved. http://teachable.net/res.asp?r=2546
Imperatives
Parallel Structure
Repetition of
(archaic form of)
Modal verb
Dynamic
Verb
Repetition of
adverbial of
manner
When I am dead, my dearest,
Sing no sad songs for me;
Plant thou no roses at my head,
Nor shady cypress tree.
Be the green grass above me
With showers and dewdrops wet;
And if thou wilt, remember,
And if thou wilt, forget.
I shall not see the shadows,
I shall not feel the rain;
I shall not hear the nightingale
Sing on as if in pain.
And dreaming through the twilight
That doth not rise nor set,
Haply I may remember,
And haply may forget.
© Teachable and Mary Sharples. Some rights reserved. http://teachable.net/res.asp?r=2546
Adverbial of
place
Alliterative premodified noun
phrase
Antithesis
What other
features can you
annotate on
here?
Repetition of
Modal verb
Antithesis
More Analysis
– from www.victorianweb.org
• The first half of the poem appears to reflect the P-R
idealized notion of women who pine for their beloveds,
as the female narrator begs her lover not to be
distressed by her death.
• The lines — "And if thou wilt, remember, / And if thou
wilt, forget" is not to ask her beloved to stop mourning
her death in an attempt to embody "the Victorian view of
female selflessness" (Landow).
• It instead invokes feelings of growing indifference
towards her partner - the woman seems to feel a sense
of happiness in her inability to remember her beloved.
• "haply" can be interpreted as either "possibly" or a
shortened version of the word "happily." This wordplay
also helps destroy the feminine ideal as portrayed by
Pre-Raphaelites that the woman perhaps realizes
contentment and peace while without her beloved.
© Teachable and Mary Sharples. Some rights reserved. http://teachable.net/res.asp?r=2546
Comparative Task
Read (and listen to) the lyrics to Elton John’s
‘The Letter’ from Billy Elliot…
YouTube - Billy Elliot - The Letter
What similarities and differences can you draw
with the themes of Rossetti’s poem?
Annotate the song lyrics, looking for techniques
which provide evidence for your arguments.
© Teachable and Mary Sharples. Some rights reserved. http://teachable.net/res.asp?r=2546
Dear Billy,
I must seem a distant memory
Which is probably a good thing
And it will have been a long, long time
And I will have missed you growing
And I'll have missed you crying
And I'll have missed you laugh
Missed your stamping and your shouting
I have missed telling you off
But please, Billy, know that I was always there
I was with you through everything
And please, Billy, know that I will always be
Proud to have known you
Proud that you were mine
Proud in everything
And you must promise me this, Billy
In everything you do
Always be yourself, Billy
And you always will be true
Love you forever
Love you forever
Mam
© Teachable and Mary Sharples. Some rights reserved. http://teachable.net/res.asp?r=2546