Text analysis
“Song”
by Christina Georgina Rossetti
Approaching Literary Genres p. 53
Millennium
FOCUS ON THE
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.
MEANING
1. Which situation does the poet imagine?
Whom does she address?
•
She imagines being dead and addresses her
lover, asking him not to sing sad songs for her
nor to plant roses on her tomb.
2. Is the woman sure about her lovers
feelings?
• No, she isn’t. She says “If thou wilt,
remember / and if thou wilt, forget”.
• She considers the possibility that her lover
might decide to forget her.
3.
Highlight in red the natural elements
present in the poem. Do they communicate
happiness or not?
•
“roses” (l.3), “shady cypress tree” (l4), “green
grass” (l.5), “With showers and dewdrops wet”
(l. 6), “the rain” (l.10), “the nightingale” (l. 11),
“Sing on, as if in pain” (l. 12), “the twilight” (l.
13). All these elements communicate a subtle
sadness, which pervades the poem.
•
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.
FOCUS ON THE
MEANING
4. What time and season are described?
Do they contribute to the overall tone of
the poem?
• The time of day is twilight, when light and
darkness are confused and not easily
distinguishable and the season might be
either autumn (which can be inferred from
the reference to rain/showers); or spring
(as the poet mentions “roses”, and “the
green grass”). All these elements
contribute to the tone of gentle sadness of
the poem.
FOCUS ON THE
GENRE
5.
Death is the main theme of this
poem. Highlight in blue all the expressions
in any way connected with it.
•
“When I am dead” (l.1); “roses at my
head” / Nor shady cypress tree “(ll.3-4);
“the shadows” (l.9); “the twilight”/ That
doth not rise nor set” (ll. 13-14).
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.
FOCUS ON THE
GENRE
6. Both the poet and her lover are involved
in the process of remembering and
forgetting, but with a different attitude.
Can you define it?
•
The poet thinks that for her lover
remembering and forgetting is a result of a
deliberate decision. (“if thou wilt”)
whereas for her it is the result of a chance
(“Haply I may remember / And haply may
forget”). Notice that the doubt is here
reinforced by using an adverb and a modal
of possibility
7.
•
Highlight in pink one more
anaphora.
Another anaphora is in ll. 9-11: “I shall not”
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.
FOCUS ON THE
7.
•
•
GENRE
Highlight in green one more
parallellism.
Another parallelism is in ll. 7-8: “And if thou
wilt, remeber, / And if thou wilt, forget”.
The effect of this figure of speech is to
create an atmosphere of detachment from
reality and of eternity.
8. The tone of the poem is (give resons for
your choice/s).
 Dramatic
 Desperate
 Sad
 Dreamy
The tone of the poem is slightly sad because it
deals with death and remembering and
forgetting love. There is also a dreamy aspect
given by the indefinite atmosphere of shadows
and twilight.
Parallelism= In rhetoric, parallelism refers to using elements in sentences that are grammatically similar or identical in
structure, sound, meaning, or meter. In other words, it means giving two or more parts of the sentences a similar form so
as to give the passage a definite pattern. This technique adds symmetry, effectiveness and balance to the written piece.