The first poem I am going to study is "Remember" by Christina Rossetti. This is a Petrarchan sonnet, which means there are two quatrains then a sestet. The lines in the sestet look like they are all over the place with the rhymes but this because this style of sonnet was first written in Italian, and they had a lot more words which rhymed in their language. As this is a sonnet it has fourteen lines each with ten syllables. In this poem Rossetti is talking to her husband and asking that he remembers as she is about to die, but then she says she would rather he is happy and tells him that it is ok for him to forget her if it means he can carry on with his life. This tells us that Rossetti was a very caring and selfless person as she puts others needs before her own.
The second poem I am going to study is "My Mistress Eyes" by William Shakespeare. This is an Elizabethan sonnet, which is more structured then a Petrarchan sonnet. It contains three quatrains and then a final rhyming couplet to sum everything up. Shakespeare criticises his mistress for the first three quatrains but then in the final couplet he says that even though she isnt the most beautiful women in the world and she isnt perfect, he still loves her anyway. This shows his love to be true and genuine, instead of just an infatuation with looks. He wrote this poem because he was fed up with other poets describing their lovers as the best, when really they were nothing special. He decided to show that you could love someone without exaggerating their qualities.
The first poem I am going to investigate is "Remember" by Christina Rossetti. She starts off the poem by straightaway saying "remember me". She uses this command to tell her lover to do this because she desperately wants him to remember her. The word "me" emphasises that it is a personal conversation. This tells us that the poem is about her and that he should remember her, from this we can see she is desperate to be remembered. The reader feels like they are eavesdropping on an intimate and private moment. The phrase "gone away" instantly makes you think that she is going to die, but it is not as harsh a way of saying it, this helps to reassure her lover.
The second line is emotional because she is talking about her death. "Far away" tells us that where she is going is too far for her to come back and that shell never be able to return. It also sounds like where she is going is mysterious and an adventure, she is trying to be brave and use positive words and phrases so that she can comfort her lover. Another reference to death in the second line is "the silent land" which describes where she will be and how her and her lover will feel as they will no longer be able to talk to each other, which shows they will both feel lonely after her death as they are used to spending so much time with each other. But it also makes it sound like a peaceful place where she can relax, which creates a positive image for her lover and makes it sound less daunting.
"When you can no more hold me by the hand" shows that they are really in love because they still hold hands. It is a sign of love seen as cute, sweet and romantic, which shows us the sort of relationship Rossetti had wit her lover. Rossetti also uses personal pronouns such as "you" and "me" which shows she is talking to just one person and it is a personal conversation. "No more" makes the sentence negative and regretful because the things they like to do together wont happen anymore and they will both miss being with each other. Not being able to hold her hand also represents that her husband will have nothing physical left, only the memories in her head.
On the next line the word "go" is another reference to her imminent death, without actually mentioning the word "death". "Half turn" shows that she is not yet ready to go and that she desperately wants to stay with her lover. "Yet turning stay" tells us that even though she wants to stay she knows she cant prevent herself from dying. At this point the reader feels sorry for Rossetti because they know she cant escape what she realises is about to happen.
At the start of the second quatrain she uses repetition and repeats the command "remember me" which shows that she desperately wants to be remembered. The reader can tell that she is getting more panicked about him forgetting her so she repeats it to make sure he really remembers. "Day to day" represents that her lovers day to day life will change when she has gone. "No more" is a negative phrase which tells us that his life will change and it wont be a good change.
The next line uses enjambment, which means the sentence is written over more than one line. Again Rossetti uses the pronouns "you", "me" and "our" to show it is a very personal poem. Those pronouns are also stressed because this is written in iambic pentameters where every other syllable is stressed. Because these pronouns are all stressed syllables they are emphasised so that the reader subconsciously takes more notice of them. The word "plannd" is contracted so that the line only has ten syllables and fits in with the pattern of the poem. "Of the future that you plann'd" shows that she wanted to have a future with her lover and was looking forward to it but now has to face the fact that she won't be around for the rest of his life. She knew he had plans for them and wants to know before she dies so that she can have a chance to appreciate them.
Rossetti starts off the next line repeating the command "remember me" for the third time. She adds the word "only" in front of it which emphasises how despairing she is as she is writing it because it seems at that point it is critical to her for her lover to remember her. From the amount of times she repeats herself we know that being remembered by her lover is very important to her. The semi-colon creates a small pause where the reader stops and takes notice of what she is saying; this helps Rossetti to get her point across better. "You understand" is her showing that she desperately wants him to remember her and is trying to make sure he knows that and gets the message that is important to her, because she is scared of being forgotten completely. She uses enjambment again, making the sentence written over two lines, so she can say what she really wants to freely. On line 8 the fact that she is going to die soon is clear because she says "it will be too late" which shows she is going somewhere her lover will never again be able to talk to her. "Pray" is a link to her strong religious beliefs. As a Christian she would believe that after she died she would go to heaven and her lover would be able to pray for her. Because she mentions "pray" it shows that she is expecting him to remember her and want to pray for her.
At the start of the sestet the message she is giving starts to change. At the beginning of the sestet she uses enjambment again. This is used to make one sentence which has two opposites in it, "forget" and "remember", these two words create contrast. In these two lines she tells him that if he does forget her for a while then he shouldnt feel sad about it because she loves him so much and doesn't want him to feel bad. The word "yet" makes the sentence sound softer and more gentle, as well as telling us that she would really prefer it if he didn't forget her. Rossetti is trying to make the poem as gentle and reassuring as possible because she is trying to painless as possible for her lover, as she is a very selfless person. Rossetti emphasises her point with an internal rhyme between "yet" and "forget", this adds effect to the word "forget" which is a contrast to the whole theme of remembering.
On the next line, the comma after "remember" creates a pause so that the reader takes notice of the next part of the sentence, "do not grieve" which sounds like she is giving her lover instructions on what to do and telling him what is best for him, like a mother telling a little child what to do. This shows her caring and compassionate side.
Rossetti is acknowledging that life will go on without her and that her lover needs to move on, even if that means she won't be remembered. This is the first indication of a different message in the poem. The next line contains the negative words "darkness", "corruption" and "leave". Darkness is often seen as frightening because in the dark you can't see what is really happening and the unknown is scary, this relates to how Rossetti feels as she doesn't know what will happen when she dies. Corruption is bad because when something is corrupted it is broken and doesn't work, which shows she thinks her lover's love for her will be broken when she is no longer around, which would scare her. The word "leave" is often associated with negative feelings and also death.
In the last two lines she sums up her whole poem by using two sets of contrasting phrases, these are "forget and smile" and "remember and be sad". Smiling and being sad and forgetting and remembering are the complete opposites of each other and show that she is giving her lover a choice about how to react when she dies, instead of telling him exactly what to do, but she also makes it clear how she wants him to feel. This shows her compassionate side and makes the reader admire how much she cares for him. She is saying that she would rather he forget about her completely and be happy if remembering things about her made him sad. We can tell from her choice of words throughout the poem though that she would be deeply upset if he forgets about her completely because he obviously means a lot to her and she wants that to be reciprocated. She is very selfless and is putting her lover's feelings before her own because her love for him is true love and she wants the best for him. Her selflessness came from suffering a lot through her life and becoming used to putting others before her self.
This is a very emotional poem which makes you feel sorry for Rossetti, firstly because she is going to die and secondly because she obviously truly loves the person she is writing to and it is tragic that she suffered throughout her life and when she was finally happen it was snatched away from her. She is sacrificing her remembrance and all the time she has spent in this relationship so that someone else can be happy. Throughout the poem the reader is constantly given the impression that Rossetti is kind and giving. The whole poem is very solemn and serious because death is a daunting theme.
The purpose of this poem is for Rossetti to express her love for the person she is writing to and give them an important message. The message she wants to tell him is that she wants him to remember her and all the good times they shared, but if remembering is too painful and makes him sad then he should forget her completely in order to carry on and enjoy his life.
The tone of this poem is that of an extremely intimate conversation. It also a very solemn poem and the reader can imagine how desperate Rossetti would have felt when writing it. Words and phrases such as "silent", "no more", "grieve", "darkness" and "corruption" create a despondent atmosphere.
Rossetti uses the rhyme scheme A,B,B,A A,B,B,A for the first two quatrains then for the sestet she uses a scheme of rhyming lines that seem much less structured. This is because "Remember" is a Petrarchan sonnet, this type of poem was first written in Italian and in the Italian there were lots more words that rhymed.
The rhythm of the poem is slow because it deals with a sad and serious subject. Also, it has to be slow so that the reader takes notice of what the poet is saying and can understand instead of rushing through fast and missing the real meaning.
It is an extremely personal poem; Rossetti includes a lot of romance and passion in this poem which shows there is a lot of chemistry between them, even though we are only reading from her point of view. "Hold be by the hand" is something personal that Rossetti and her lover do, and by including it in the poem she makes it very personal as it is giving is a glimpse of the things they would normally do. It is such an intimate poem because it is a message from a woman to a man who she loves deeply. The reader feels like they are intruding on a private moment.
The poet uses repetition a lot throughout the poem. The purpose of this is to emphasise certain points and to make sure the reader remembers what she is saying. Repeating the command "remember" shows us that she is desperate to be remembered. The recurring theme in this poem is that she loves the person she is writing to and is asking him to remember her when she dies. This carries on till the end when she tells him to forget if it means he can be happy.
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