![when i am dead my dearest christina rossetti analysis when i am dead my dearest christina rossetti analysis](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2V9c7yTUwuY/VhZzq0xjhsI/AAAAAAAAAAY/1xbb6Zafc64/s1600/scan0001.jpg)
Her poem Song was first published in her 1862 volume, Goblin Market and Other Poems, largely considered her most successful work, especially at the time of its publication. It is treated as such in the text, but that first verse that speaks of not mourning death, but moving on with life suggests that while the speaker is not entirely prepared to conceive of death as a good thing, it is certainly inevitable, and so they are choosing not to think of it as a bad thing either.Ĭhristina Rossetti lived between December 5th, 1830, and December 29th, 1894. The verse and poem concludes with an inverse of the theme that ended the previous verse this time it is the speaker who may be remembering or forgetting, but it is unclear exactly what they have focused their mind on - life? Their companion? It is ambiguous vague.
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The image of a dream calls to mind the idea of something that is simultaneously real and imagined, while the image of twilight is one that is both light and dark at once. This time, the images are ambiguous and vague they consider it to be like dreaming of an infinite twilight. In the second half of this verse, the speaker does touch slightly on what they believe death will be like. The unfathomable nature of death to the living is another strong theme echoed throughout this poem, and just as the nature of grieving can be embodied by “if thou wilt,” the abstract nature of death can be embodied with “I shall not.” Once again, repetition is used to great effect, influencing what the speaker “shall not” know of, without really understanding what they “shall” be. Each word creates an image of dark, with the rain especially emulating the image of tears. There will be no “shadows ” no “rain,” and no “painful” songs from the nightingales.
![when i am dead my dearest christina rossetti analysis when i am dead my dearest christina rossetti analysis](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e4/83/48/e48348ac4584505dd964eb963c925bae.jpg)
Instead, they focus on what they will not experience, and in each example, a sense of sorrow is instilled in the poem. In the second verse, the speaker discusses their own experience after passing, but there is not much for them to say, as they are still alive. By changing only one work in those lines, Rossetti creates a sense of calm and creed “and if thou wilt” very much embodies this idea that grief is personal and that it is important for their companion to think about what they would like, rather than what the dead would like. The last two lines use repetition to emphasize the idea that whether their companion wishes to remember or forget the speaker, it is all the same. “Being the grass” is a likely metaphor for enduring, and continuing to move forward with life. Instead, they ask their companion to “be the green grass above me.” Grass is a plant that can be stepped on, drowned in rain, or put through drought and continue to grow. They cite off some of the things that people do in remembrance, such as placing flowers at a gravesite, writing sad songs, and planting trees, and asks that these rituals are not observed. The speaker is saying to someone important to them that they should not grieve once the narrator passes away. The verse uses alliteration heavily to create pleasant sounds the “dead” and “dearest” in the first line and the “sing,” “sad,” and “songs” in the second lie, for instance, give off a simple and calm atmosphere to the work. The content of the poem follows an unnamed narrator speaking to another individual identified only as “my dearest,” a strong word choice that instills deeply-felt emotion into the first line of the poem.
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There is a clear rhythm and beat to this work, and it is structured so as to flow in the most natural way for the reader. Song is divided into two verses, each with eight lines, each of which could be further broken down into two quatrains, rhyming off an ABCB pattern. Song: When I am dead, my dearest Analysis Verse One We enjoyed ‘Song: When I am dead, my dearest’ so much, we had two of our team of poetry experts analyze the poem for you.