1) What is the poem about?
The poem is, in essence, a message from a deceased person to the living they have left behind. At it's core, the poem is about death, however it departs from most death-related poetry in it's more optimistic tone. Rossetti writes, rather atypically, in a way meant to inspire hope and optimism, as opposed to the usual grief and mourning. This is a strong juxtaposition over the traditional Christian attitudes of the period, which encouraged mourning and focus on the afterlife.2) The meter is iambic trimeter. Choose one line that perfectly reflects this. What's the impact of this?
One line that perfectly reflects the meter of this poem is:
"Sing no sad songs for me"
This impacts on the flow and rhythm of the poem, providing some stability and familiarity in the first stanza, which is an otherwise metrically atypical stanza.
3) Now find lines that don't fit the pattern. Why don't they? Explain in depth.
One line that does not fit is in the second stanza:"I shall not hear the nightingale"
This doesn't fit the metric of iambic trimeter due to the added syllable at the end of the word 'nightingale'
These are quite brief. Your discussion on the meter of the line you quoted needs to deal with the way meter and meaning reflect each other in much more depth.
ReplyDeleteE.G how does the rhythm show the speaker's attitude to the 'sad songs' of ritualistic death ceremony? How does the rhythm help to convey her feelings towards this to the reader? Why does she want to do this?