Intro

We are not human beings until we experience human experiences. Experiences

such as love and betrayal are those that we may encounter and live through in our
day to day lives. These human experiences are illustrated by the 19 th century poet
Christina Rossettis in specific her poems, After Death, Maude Clare, Light love,
L.E.L. This essay will discuss the way in which Rossettis poems encourage viewers
to consider issues which affect humanity experiences such as tragic love and
betrayal. It will further explore how Rossetti has depicted these universal human
experiences through the use of poetic devices and language construction and
features. These strategies are employed by Rossetti to allow the reader to visualize
her values and hidden messages in a skilful manner within her time, making her
poems significant in the Victorian era and easily relatable to 21 st century audiences
because her themes are still relevant today.
Context
Christina Rossetti was one of the greatest female Victorian poets who expressed her
personal life and spiritual life through her literary work. Rossetti heavily focused on
different themes and wrote more than a thousand poems based on her morals and
upbringing. Her Christian faith, her gender and her personal experiences where
heavy influences on her work. Add a perspective quote ". Her poems are considered
timeless in that the themes that manifest in her poetry are themes of human
experiences and thus make her work relevant in todays society and a reason why
her poetry is popular and studied. Rossettis manipulation of form, metre & rhyme
and her prolific use of dialogue as well as her creation of female persona, all serve to
give a public voice to women which transcends over 3 centuries.
Theme: tragic love (LEL & AFTER DEATH)
To begin with, human experience of tragic love and isolation are experiences
portrayed dominantly through Rossetti poem LEL. In L.E.L tragic love is shown
through Rossettis use of juxtaposition, metaphors and repetition as the persona in
the poem is struggling with her love life and puts on a facade of happiness however
in reality she is completely heart broken by the lack of affection being received by
her lover. This internal conflict is visible through the use of language construction in
stanza 2 line 1 & 2 were Rossetti writes Downstairs I laugh, I sport and jest with all;
But in my solitary room above This introduces the reader to her internal conflict of
the facade of being happy & content, but in reality she is disconnected with the
outside world i turn my face, reinforcing the notion of isolation. Rossetti uses words
such as jest to illustrate this happy pretence however the word solitary is then
used in the same stanza as a juxtaposition to emphasize the personas true feelings
of isolation and sadness in her relationship illustrating the notion of tragic love. More
so in stanza 3 line 1 i feel no spring, while spring is wellnigh brown this line
represents a metaphor of how spring and warmth of the season are associated with
love and because she receives little love from her lover thus she feels no spring. In

addition Rossetti uses repetition of My heart is breaking for a little love as it is

deliberately positioned in the first 4 stanzas to reinforce to the reader the
personasdesperate plea for love by her lover. However Rossetti then uses a change
of words from My heart to Her heart and this techniques is executed to illustrate to
the reader that the persona vulnerability is not only felt and seen by herself but now
is on display for the public to witness and see. The change of word from my to her
indicates that there are people talking about the personas heart breaking for a little
love. Rossetti also uses rhythm throughout the poem to create visual imagery. For
instance in stanza 4 line 1,2,3,4 the word construction rhymes, and contains verbs
such as deck and plum to help the reader visualise her facade of happiness and her
sorrow and heart break allowing the reader to feel the notion of tragic love.
Tragic love is further explored in After death. The poem is centred on a male
character who visits the personas death bed to farewell his lover. The poem is
spoken through the perspective of the persona who is dead and she explains how
her lover barely showed much affection during their time together however after her
death the only love and affection that was shown was through pity, shame and guilt
of not loving her to the fullest extent. Rossetti uses emotive language; repetition and
consistent dialogue to depict the essence of tragic love. For example he pitied me
emphasises how the male characters love and affection was shown through pity for
his dead lover and the use of repetition through Poor child, poor Child reinforces
this pity to the reader. Pity carries strong connotations of looking down on a person
rather than placing yourself on the same level. It shows the mourner does feel
something for the speaker however it was too late as he did not show her much
affection while being alive ending in tragic love. Rossetti deliberately constructs the
speakers tone as matter of fact and cold which shows the reader the personas
attitude towards the mourner and the acknowledgment that he did not love me
living suggesting that the speakers understandings of the mourner was that he
didnt appreciate her but rather pitted her existence. Rossetti creates an overall cold
tone to the poem which shows the reader that the mourner is unable to participate in
the most simplest acts of affection. He is as it appears through visual language
construction, unwilling to interact with the speakers death in any physical way thus
the poem demonstrates the notion of tragic love.
Betrayal (Maude Clare & Light love)
In addition to tragic love, betrayal is another human experience that Rossetti
illustrates in her many poems in specific Maude Clare & light love. Maude Clare
centres on scornful Maude Clare who is a spectator at the wedding of her ex lover &
his newly wife Nell. Rossetti makes apparent Maude Clares feeling of betrayal
through the tone, dialogue and construction of language. For instance her sneering
tone and the level of rudeness is made apparent in stanza 8 line 1 he strove to
match her scorn with scorn. More so in stanza four, the speaker who is Thomass
mother describes a pale Maude Clare which may indicate to the reader that Maude
Clare is not contempt with the marriage. The notion of jealousy and betrayal are

made obvious by the fact that her ex lover has chosen a village maid over her
which she sees herself like a queen. Rosettes use of contrast between the two
women and the use of similes like a queen are techniques that work to exemplify
Maude Clares feelings of jealousy. Jealousy and betrayal are also explicitly shown
through the construction of dialogue and repetition in stanza 5 where Maude Clare
presents a gift to the couple ie Lo, I have brought my gift my lord, have brought my
gift. The dialogue in this line indicates a tone of sarcasm and jealousy of the
couples relationship. More so by Maude Clare claiming that she wishes to bless
the marriage bed this line indicates that she wants to inserts herself between the
intimacy between Thomas and Nell which again facilitates her feelings of jealousy
and her feelings of betrayal by Thomas. Rossetti use of the term The marriage bed
is constructed to symbolise Maude's presence as a threat to disrupt the couples love
for one another and threaten the well-being of any future children they may have.
Moreover, betrayal as a human experience is highlighted in the poem Light love.
The woman in love who appears in the poem is betrayed on a number of levels;
by false ideals of love and by false lovers. The persona is concerned exclusively with
her own situation and is bewildered at her loss of love and betrayal. Rossetti
encapsulates these human feelings and experiences through the use of extended
metaphors. For example FIND STANZA for cold thy bed to rest upon, and cold the
falling year is a extended metaphor of the mans love as being summer and when
he betrays her by leaving, it causes summer to end. Furthermore In Stanza 3 line 10
and turn thy twilight back to day this line also leads to the metaphor of love as being
linked to warmth, light and summer while the lack of love tends to winter, dark and
night. The mans dialogue in stanza 3 to warm thy coldness to a flasuh, and to turn
thee back to may suggests to the reader that the women is so heartbroken and
betrayed by the loss of her lover that he is the only one that can bring back warmth
into her life. With this said, feelings of betrayal are further reinforced in the fourth
stanza line 1 & 2 where she did not answer him again, but leaned her face aside.
The construction of words in these lines indicates to the reader that the woman feels
defeated by love, rejected and betrayed. In addition betrayal & rejection is
highlighted through Rossetti uses of dialogue in stanza 3 line 3 only but hast thou
neer another love creating a sense of rejection by her lover as he tells her to moves
on and find another man. Her false lover leads to her feeling abandoned and
ultimately betrayed. Rossetti further uses repetition of his baby in line 6 and 7 to
constitute that the baby is a burden as well as a consolation for her sadness over the
lost love. Rossetti creates a tone and idea that the baby may have been conceived
out of wed lock. This idea is represented in stanza 3 line 1 where Rossetti uses the
words mateless dove as a metaphor of the women. This depicts the women as
being alone suggesting that the lovers were never married and hence the child was
conceived out of wed lock and may be a hidden secrete which is why the women
feels so betrayed by him. She trusted her lover by being intimate with him but the
trust was broken and she was left betrayed when he left her and her child.

Conclusion :
FIX CONCLUSION
Christina Rossetti was one of the greatest female Victorian poets who
Connected her personal life and spiritual life. Christina Rossetti is a poet who heavily
focuses on different themes within her writing. Two of the major themes that
Christina Rossetti has focused on are acceptance of death and love.