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Rossetti
Summary and Analysis of "Remember" (1862)
Summary:
The narrator, who presumably represents Rossetti, addresses her beloved and encourages
him to remember her after her death. She asks him to remember her even when his memory
of her begins to fade. Eventually, the narrator gives this person (it is unclear if he or she is
real or imagined) her permission to forget her gradually because it is better to "forget and
smile" than to "remember and be sad."
Analysis:
Remember is a Petrarchan sonnet in iambic pentameter, consisting of an ABBA ABBA
octave and a CDE CDE sestet.
Rossetti repeats the word remember throughout the entire poem, as if the narrator fears
that her beloved will not heed her request. Rossetti also uses repetition to underline the vast
boundary between life and death, writing gone away, and later, gone far away. The
silent land is a symbol of death, emphasizing the narrator's loneliness without her beloved
rather, which is stronger than her fear of death itself. Acceptance of death is common in
Pre-Raphaelite philosophy. Pre-Raphaelites believed that material troubles pale in
comparison to the struggles of the mind.
The tone of the octave is contemplative and reconciliatory on the topic of death. The
narrator can finally be at peace because she has renounced her desire for earthly pleasures,
such as the physical presence of her beloved. She is even accepting of death, content to
exist only in her beloved's memory. However, she has not yet made peace with the
possibility that her lover will forget her; this form of death would be more painful than her
physical expiration.
Even though the narrator seems to reach peace with her death at the end of the octave, the
Pre-Raphaelite belief system demands a further renunciation of human desire. The
narrators tone changes with the volta, which is the break between the octave and the sestet.
The volta typically accompanies a change in attitude, which is true in this poem. The
narrator even renounces the need to be remembered, which is ironic because the poem is
titled Remember. She wishes for her beloved to be happy, even if that means forgetting
her. The narrator sacrifices her personal desire in an expression of true love.
"Remember" ultimately deals with the struggle between physical existence and the afterlife.
Rossetti grapples with the idea of a physical body, which is subject to decay and death, and
how it relates to an eternal soul.
Tragic love
The Pre-Raphaelite school of thought placed a high aesthetic value on the idea of
unattained love, harkening back to medieval notions of courtship. The underlying belief
was that unrealized love preserves an unsullied state of purity. A knight would contemplate
the virtues of his beloved from afar, with the distance serving to further safeguard her
virtue. This distance between the knight and his maiden could be voluntary or forced, but
regardless, the boundary is impenetrable. Rossetti uses this trope several times: Maude
Clare is separated from Thomas because he marries another woman, while the young
woman in Deaths Chill Between is separated from her beloved because he dies. Longing
for an impossible love creates an emotional image that easily lends itself to powerful art.
Acceptance of Death
Christina Rossetti's life was plagued with death. Her father died when she was only twentyfour. In addition, tuberculosis was common in the surrounding London homes and infant
mortality rates were high. Rossetti's isolated adolescence and zealous devotion to the
church led her to spend long periods of time contemplating human mortality. Accepting
death is part of the Christian message, especially since Christians believe in the afterlife. In
addition to her faith, Rossetti's Pre-Raphaelite companions discouraged material wealth and
earthly connections. Rather, Rossetti dwelled on intellectual and religious pursuits,
contemplating the soul and the eternal hereafter. Several of her poems reflect her rejection
of physical bodies, most notably Remember, in which she instructs her lover to forget her
so that he can be happy.
Renunciation of Desire
Pre-Raphaelite philosophy held that the fulfillment of earthly desire was transient, if not
impossible. Instead, the movement encouraged followers to renounce desire altogether,
even the desire to live. This belief resulted in melancholy languor and lugubrious
contemplation amongst the Pre-Raphaelites. Rossetti believed that the only lasting
fulfillment comes from the acceptance of Christ, which will be complete at his Second
Coming. She considered any other pursuits, like love, lust, money and fame, to be vain and
fruitless.
Divine Love
Divine love is Jesus Christ's love for his people, which Christians believe manifested itself
when he was born as a human baby. Divine love is most evident in the nativity and the
crucifixion. Rossetti grew up as a devout Anglican and even contemplated becoming a nun.
She took religion very seriously and wrote about her existential experiences in depth.
Rossetti expounds upon the wonder of divine love in most of her devotional literature,
including Love Came Down at Christmas and In the Bleak Midwinter. For Rossetti,
divine love gave purpose to her existence and a reason to continue living. Rossetti refers to
the crucifixion, which illustrates Christ's unconditional sacrifice, in Goblin Market."
CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI (1830-1894) was a poet of EnglishItalian descent whose primary focus centered around romantic, devotional, and childrens
poetry. She started writing poetry as a young child, composing and reciting her own
original poetry as early as age six. Rosettis first published poem, To My Mother, was
written when she was only 11 years old (although it was not published for several years). In
her teens, Rossetti began writing for the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood literary magazine The
Germ, which was operated and edited by her brothers. Although she wrote under the pen
name Ellen Alleyne during this period, it is nonetheless generally considered to be the
beginning of Rossettis public career. Rossetti published her first collection of poems,
Goblin Market and Other Poems, in 1862 under her own name. The collection was
praised highly by reviewers, but produced disappointing sales figures. Three more
collectionsThe Princes Progress and Other Poems, Sing-Song: A Nursery Rhyme
Book, and Collected Poemswere published in 1886, 1872, and 1875, respectively. After
the death of poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning in 1861, Rossetti was looked to as
Brownings successor, and her reputation remained strong following her own death from
cancer in 1894.
Common themes in Rossettis poetry include death, gender and sexuality, the sublime,
tragic love, and religious doubt. A number of twentieth-century scholars have also analyzed
Rossettis poetry through a Freudian lens, looking for signs of guilt and repressed sexuality.
The poem Remember was published by Rossetti in 1862 as a part of her collection
Goblin Market and Other Poems. It is a Petrarchan sonnet with a rhyme scheme of
ABBA ABBA CDE CDE and is one of her better known poems. The word remember is
repeated five times within the poem, which expresses the desire of a (presumably female)
speaker whose hope is that her beloved will keep her memory alive beyond death. The
repeated use of remember and remember me indicate the strength of the speakers
desire to not be forgotten, although this forceful plea is relaxed at the end of the poem when
the speaker acknowledges that the happiness of her beloved is ultimately the most
important thing. While most of the poem is spent trying to ensure that she will be
remembered after she dies, the speaker realizes that keeping her memory alive must not
occur at the price of anothers happiness. She does not want her beloved to be sad that she
is gone, but wants him instead to understand that the afterlife and a physical existence are
two separate realms, and, moreover, to rejoice in the memories of the good times they have
spent together.
Christina Georgina Rossetti was born in London in December 1830, into a family of
poets and artists. She was the youngest of four children.
Her father was an Italian poet.
She was educated at home by her mother.
Rossetti suffered a nervous breakdown at the age of 14. In later years this was
followed by bouts of depression.
She was close to her brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and was linked through him
with an art movement that studied nature.
She lived a secluded life. She died of cancer in December 1894.
Rossetti was one of the most important women poets of the 19th Century,
Much of her poetry is religious, though she wrote some passionate love-poetry.
Rossetti refused two offers of marriage because of religious differences.
In her late teens she became engaged to the painter James Collinson but this
relationship eventually ended because of religious differences when Collinson
became a Catholic.
Rosetti wrote the poem Remember when she was 18 or 19 and engaged to
Collinson.
Some readers of this poem think it is concerned with the nearness of death and the
unimportance of earthly love. They say that lots of Rossettis poems show that
being in love tended to remind her of death.
Other readers think Rosetti wanted to end the relationship as her fiance was
crowding her out, trying to control her. Also there was a growing religious
difference between them as Collinson was about to become a Catholic. In other
words, it is a poem about a womans plan to regain her personal freedom.
Summary
Its a bit like saying, Sure, dont let any of my thoughts, or any thoughts of me,
bother you after Ive left you!
If you want to skip this view of the poem and think of it as a poem about a simple
girl dreaming of death then here is a different view of the final four lines.
But if you like the view of the poem that youve just read, stop here to avoid
confusion!
In the final four lines, the poet changes her mind about wanting beloved to
remember her. She states that by remembering her death, he may recall her dark
thoughts regarding death. If thats the case it will be better for him in the long term
to completely forget her. The poet would prefer her beloved to have happy thoughts
after her death. So she will allow him to forget her and smile rather than remember
and be sad.
Themes
Love
The poet after falling in love wants her boyfriend to promise to keep her in mind
after her death. She already sees their young relationship as something to remember
rather than to experience. To expand on this theme, just follow the early points in
the summary and the very last point in the summary.
Death
The poet cannot be in love without thinking of death. Instead of making plans for a
house like a normal couple today, the poet is planning the memories she wants her
husband to have. She portrays death as a place of silence that you cannot return
from. She wants to think of death as a spiritual state rather than as a physical
process of corruption. In the final lines the poet, gives her beloved a means of
letting her go after she dies. She wants him to be happy and forget her rather than
sad because he remembers her.
A womans sense of freedom
For this theme use the points in the second interpretation in the summary above.
Style
Paradox [apparent contradiction] Though the poem is called Remember and the
poet seems to demand that her boyfriend remember her in the first eight lines [the
octave], she changes her mind in the final six lines [the sestet] and encourages him
to forget her.
Tone The tone may at first seem sad as the speaker is imagining death. But after
reading the poem a few times, the tone appears to be sarcastic. The speaker is
mocking her husbands plans and ideas about their relationship.
Repetition Note how gone is repeated in line two. List other words that are
repeated in the poem.
Assonance [similar vowel sound repetition] Note how the three repeated o sounds
in line three appear to emphasise the sad mood. Find other vowel repetitions and try
to state what effect they have on mood or tone.
Alliteration [repetition of consonant sounds at the start of nearby words] There are
some examples of alliteration, like h in line three, though they just occur naturally
and are not there to emphasise anything. See how many you can find yourself.
Sibilance [repetition of s sound] Note how the eight s sounds in the last four
lines create a soft effect for the reading voice.