Explore the way Rossetti presents nature in her poems.

Nature is a staple in Rossetti’s poetry, and is used frequently, to great effect.

In many of her poems, rather than explicitly, Rossetti uses nature euphemistically to reference other concepts and ideas. One example of this is in the poem ‘A Birthday’. In this poem, Rossetti uses natural images as similes to express her feelings, and her ‘heart’. An example of this is the third and fourth lines in the stanza: “My heart is like an apple-tree                  Whose boughs are bent with thickset fruit;” This simile is used to liken her heart to a fruit-laden tree. This is used to convey images of plenitude and fertility. On the next line she says: “My heart is like a rainbow shell That paddles in a halcyon sea;” This image carries connotations of; plurality and almost a sense of magic, in the word ‘rainbow’, an image of deep, rich blue with the word ‘halcyon’.

Another way in which Rossetti has been known to use natural images is in reference to Religion, or God. These images are, too, present in the poem ‘A Birthday’. The religious symbolism is focussed in the second stanza. First is, in the second line, the image of a dais: “Hang it with vair and purple dyes;” vair is a pattern often used in the middle ages to decorate royal possessions, and purple being the colour of regality, in context, God, the king of all. The next line states: “Carve it in doves and pomegranates.” In the Bible, doves are symbolic of the presence of the Holy Spirit, and pomegranates are representative of the rebirth and eternal of life of Christ. Its seeds can also be represented as the royalty or the church. In the next line, the poems references “peacocks with a hundred eyes” Peacocks, too, are religiously symbolic of the omniscience and omnipresence of God. In the third from last line, Rossetti makes a reference to the holy trinity of son, father and Holy Spirit, with mention of the symbol of the Fleur-De-Lys.                                                                                         Rossetti has also been known to reference a ‘Tree of Life’, which can be interpreted as symbolic of the crucifixion of Jesus, she does so in the poem ‘Paradise: In a Dream’.

Another way in which Rossetti uses images of nature in her poetry is simply in reference to the latent beauty of nature. In the poem ‘Shut Out’, Rossetti tells of a person who has been shut out of their ‘garden’. In this poem, she describes nature as something incredibly desirable, yet unattainable by way of the voice of the poem. She also uses the garden as a metaphor for such concepts as: Womanhood, escapism, religion, freedom and poetry.           Rossetti also uses nature descriptively in the poem ‘Paradise: in a dream’. In the poem, Rossetti mentions different stimuli that nature can provide unto the senses. For sight, she talks about ‘seeing’ the flowers in her dream. She frequently uses the hearing of birdsong as a metaphor for expression, poetry and creativity. She references smell with the “perfume-bearing rose’. On occasion, Rossetti was also known to use nature in reference to death. One example of this is her use of the phrase: "A violet bed is budding near" Violets being an often-used flower in graveyards.