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'may' Christina Rossetti - Coggle Diagram
'may' Christina Rossetti
what is the poem about?
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TRUNCATED SONNET
rosetti has purposely cut off the fourteenth line, she has augmented it to suit her purpose
reflects the curtailing of life, the idea we might hop to have a long life, but meeting this expectation is no guaranteed. THE SONNET LITERALLY DISSAPEARS TO REFLECT HOW LIFE CAN DISSAPEAR .
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structural points
opening lines of both stanzas are refrain, mirroring, parallel.
the whole poem is an extended metaphor, the idea that the month of may represents a span of life, to choose one moth out of the twelve suggests how life is short, how the time we have is fleeting.
all about the idea of transience and fleeting time. AFTER VOLTA: shift from losing forward into life about to come into existence to a more negative look backwards. (stanza break represents life being lived, shows how quickly life and time passes)
the volta in this poem is a physical break between stanza, the ONLY SONNET WITH WITH A STANZA BREAK, reflects the passing of time- a literal separation between 'then' and 'now'.
IAMBIC TETRAMETER- again reflects the idea of being cut short, as meter has one less foot than traditional iambic pentameter of a Petrarchan sonnet.
END STOPIING throughout final stanza, mirrors finality, life coming to a close.
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language points
octave
use of positive connotation adjectives with natural imagery 'bright and breezy' creates sense of fondness, the idea that the speaker is reminiscing ALITERATION of plosive 'b', exultant delight.
NEGATION of 'not born' 'not hatched as yet', creates anticipation of new life which is coming into fruitiion
TRIPLET of things that are going to take place 'as yet the poppies were not born', 'the last egg had not hatched as yet' 'nor any bird foregone its mate'. POPPIES are known as 'emblems of evanescent pleasure'-- the idea that new things will arrive, but these will soon dissapear'.
WRITING ABOUT FUTURE EVENTS IN THE PAST TENSE, seasons are cyclical- so the speaker knows what will happen. within a cycle of new life, there will inevitably be death. constant anticipation of death- LIFE IS TRANSIENT MUCH LIKE THE SEASONS. (ephemeral, temporal)
truncated sestet
repetition of first two lines of octave but with ALTERATIONS. shift from 'how it was' to 'what it was'. 'how' expresses a condition, while 'what' relays specific information.
lost connection/understanding of the event even more. has the speaker completely lost access to the memory, perhaps because time has passed and MEMORY IS FICKLE.
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FINAL LINE 'and left me old, and cold, and grey'
'cold' and 'grey' have connotations of winter, the concept of 'the winter' of someones life, the final stages of it.
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