Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Rossetti- Goetschel (Memory pt 1 (Language, Ending, Opening), Memory pt 2,…
Rossetti- Goetschel
-
-
Twice
Language:
- "as you set it down it broke- broke, but I did not wince;" - may relate to her nervous breakdown when she was younger.
- The caesura may be the beat of her heart when it breaks by breaking the rhythm of the poem.
- It also draws attention to disruption and hurt her beloved has caused her.
- the repetition of "broke" = the destruction of male love.
- Broken like the societal expectations
- "my hope was written on sand" - Biblical metaphor of Matthew verse about building on sand, transience.
- Sand has connotations of disappearing, isolation, loneliness etc but God is eternal.
- Her desolation and directionlessness without a love.
- "refine with fire its gold / purge thou its dross away" - eager to do penance, guilt for her sins and her previous quasi-idolatry of the men she loved.
- Shows her devout faith, apologising for dating James Collinson, a catholic.
- The purity of God's love.
- "gold" vs "dross" implies the potential of her devout faith, and the corruption she endured due to earthy pleasures.
- Images of purgatory and punishment, her repentance and her final finding of God.
Opening:
- Twice - written in 1864, could be referring to her love for James Collinson, who proposed twice.
- "I took my heart in my hand/ (O my love, O my love)" - active verb "took", taking control.
- the caesura represents the contrast between genders and the separation in their relationship.
- She bracketed herself here - caged herself, apprehension around romance. Suggests she's trapped, that she's reliant on men.
- "O" passion, a cry, intimate relation and devotion.
- "my" - possession, ownership, she has control over herself at the start.
- "you took my heart in your hand" - the placement of "you" before "I" is important- the man before her. Surrender of self possession, to be a woman in the Victorian era.
- "yet a woman's words are weak; you should speak, not I" - the role of women, it's unclear whether she's critiquing it or enforcing it. Explores the tensions between the behaviour of women and the societal expectation.
- Irony considering she's a poet?
- Subject placement is important as it places him before her again, showing how women were expected to be below men or were expected to obey them.
Ending + structure:
- " I take my heart in my hand" Refrain at the beginning, shows she has regained her sense of self through God however it's paired with a sense of purpose "i shall not die, but live" vs "Let me live or die" This is the biblical idea of entering new life by Jesus or faith - death to their past life.
- "I, for Thou callest such:" The subject placement is important too as she places herself before Thou, finally some self empowerment.
- "But shall not question much" She's still going to question stuff, just never question God in the same way, she will simply the nature of humans.
- She wanted to speak out but has been forced to submit to men. However now she doesn't WANT o speak, naturally subservient to God because she loves him.
- Ambiguous final line - shall not question God's judgement but the persona's questions man's judgement. Could be criticism of the patriarchal society.
- Rhyme scheme: aba, cd, bd, c
- Masculine rhyme occurs in final stressed syllable - stresses the speaker's passion.
- Stanzas of 8 lines each. Could be symbolic of the 7 deadly sins and humans or the seven sacraments and humans.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-