Writing an Intro...

Your introduction should...

• be 2 complex sentances. 3 at most.
• focus on the question,
• the ways language shows *question*,
• contextualise the poem, (main poem if comparison essay)

For example,

Discuss how Rossetti portrays men in "Maude Clare" and other poems.

1st sentance =      
Maude Clare is a poem in which a women confronts and embarrasses her ex-lover on his wedding day, taking away his power.
             
 -Then illustrate the ways in which the poet does this. (which is what the essay will focus on)...

2nd (and possibily 3rd) sentance =
Rossetti presents the male character as weak and unconvincingly powerful by giving him minimal or broken dialogue. The lack of direct adresss ,when he is spoken to by other characters and by the narrator, also reinforces the suggestion that he is feeble and unworthy.

REMEMBER: The first time you introduce a new poem for comparison, contextualise it like you did with the 1st.

Ext. Write a sentance contextualising each poem within the anthology.

Twice (Rossetti)

Final 3 Stanzas:

• The narrator has 'her' heart broken by a character in the poem.
• She then devotes her love to God instead.
• There is a repition of "O my God", which replaces "Oh my Love"

The idea of rejection:

• Reactions:
• Isolation,
• Lashing out,
• Lose confidence,
• Move on,
• Turn to someone else for support,
• Unmovitated,
• Disheartened,
• Self-judgement,
• Trying to improve/better yourself.

Narrator/persona has experienced romantic rejection.

Twice has parralleism. The first line of the stanzas mirrors eachother. Eg. "I TOOK my heart in my hand", "You took my heart in my hand" and "I take my heart in my hand".

COMPARISONS OF "TWICE":

•  Shut Out - The idea of the narrator being rejected.
• Maude Clare - A form of romantic rejection but contrasts with the reaction to the romantic rejection.
• No, Thank you, John. - Idea of male dominance and being in control of the relationship. Romantic rejection, but contrasts with the attitudes of the narrator.
• Song (When I am dead my dearest) - Religious imagery/ideology, same tone of confiedence and inner strength.
• Echo - Repitition and impossiblity of moving on. Contrasts because in Twice she turns to God.

Rossetti: Echo.

Echo:

Narrative: Mourning a death? - a child? - a lover?
                  "soft rounded cheeks" "whose awakening should have been in paradise"

Language: Repitition in all stanzas.
                  Rhyme Scheme: ABABCC.

Not a narrative poem as such, more a poem that is telling emotions.
-A lyric poem.



Language Analysis:

STANZA 1: 

• Imperative of "come" - not commanding but more of a pleading tone. Sets the tone of desperation and longing.
• Repititon of "come" - shows speaker is persistent and again emphasises her desperation and pleads. A soothing, constant.
• Smilie (figurative language) - creates a clear image of the contrast of the "sunlight on a stream" The sunglight on a stream gives it a figurative comparison to nature - Romantic Poets influence.
• Triplet - Abstract nouns which mirror the title as they are echoes. "Memory, hope, love" - addressing her lover, represents her lover.
• Sibilance - "sound" sensual.
• Alliteration
• Oxymoron - "speaking silence"
• "Come back in tears" - ambiguity.

STANZA 2:

• Repititon of "sweet" - oxymoron of "bittersweet", growing madness, nostalgia.
• "Paradise" - capitalised, heaven?
• wants to meet in heaven- ambiguity- who is dead, if anyone?
• "Thirsting, longing eyes" - reinforces pleading tone.
• "lets out no more" - A dark undertone to being in heaven. In heaven, waiting for their lover, isnt an idyllic state. Person who is alive, calling for their dead lover.
• Water imagery - again, Romantic poets infulence on Rossetti.

STANZA 3:

• Lyrical - traditional to be set to music.
• "My very life again tho' cold in death" - wantes to relive their life, an echo of it. Literal meaning and figurative as she thinks she is "cold in death" without her lover.
• Structure/layout -reinfoces an echo on the page.
• "Pulse for pulse, breath for breath" - Speaker dies instead of lover? Closeness of loves? Rhythm is like a pulse/breath. Ambiguous.
• "As long ago, so long ago" - literally long ago- poignant or feels so long ago.
• Complex punctuation - syntax. Slows down the poem, each stanza is a sentance.

Comparisons:
1) Song is a lyric poem and refers to a period after death and a lover dying. However, it is clear it is her own death she is referrring to in Song.
2) Remember is also a lyric poem and has the same quiet, persuasive tone.
3) Shut Out addresses the concept and feelings of 'distance', both figuratively and literally, also.

STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE

Most important moments:

1. Poker night
2. Blanche's arrival
3. The end
4. When Blanche confesses to Mitch
5. When Stanley is telling Stella about Blanche.
6. Birthday party
7. Stanley rapes Blanche
8. Blanche threatening Stanley with the broken bottle.
9. Blanche and Mitch meeting

What's the dramatic purpose of these scenes?

1. Blanche being dragged away by doctors - Extreme pity.
2. Stanley rapes Blanche (off-stage) - Puts audience in Stella's position, ambigiuity and uncertaintity and is the climax of the play therefore, creating tension.
3. Birth of Stanley and Stella's child - changes the dynamic of their relationship, Stella would pick her child and the father of her child over Blanche.
4. Stanley hits Stella - disgust/shock, and foreshadows later violent events.
5. When Mitch tries to have sex with Blanche - changes opinion of mitch (character development)
6. Blanche and Stella's meeting - characterisation (learning about them)
7. Stanley exposing Blanche - tension/suspense.
8. Stanley and Stella finding out about Blanche losing the family home - backstory.
9. Blanche telling Mitch about her past husband - backstory, also.

BLANCHE:

• Fragile 
• Lost
• Lonely
• Lively
• Insecure
• Delusional
• Guilty
• Flawed
• Ashamed
• Confident (A false confidence, perhaps?)
• Vulnerable
• Unstable
• Haunted
• Desperate (for love, attention)

Reaction as an audience: Sympathetic, no stable emotional attachment however and frustrated.

STANLEY:

• Confident
• Unhinged
• Arrogant
• Powerful (power struggle with Blanche due to his low social status)
• Superior
• Violent
• Affectionate towards Stella.

STELLA:

• Fairly stable
• Rebel
• Forced to stay with Stanley (baby, money, home, stigma attached to single parents)
• Strong sexual desire for Stanley
• Vulnerable

MITCH:

• Sensitive
• Caring
• Shy
• Changes - becomes angry and slightly violent. (like Stanley)

Maude Clare

Attitudes and Characters shown in Maude Clare:-

Narrator: The Narrator seems to prefer Maude Clare, and may have a bias view because of this.
                  -"Maude Clare was like a queen"

Maude Clare: Maude Clare's language is abrupt and shows that she is resentful towards Nell and Thomas.
-"Lo" Lo is used to draw attention to something and Maude Clare says this before scornful dialogue, which shows she is interrupting with digust, emphasising her bitterness.

Thomas: Thomas is ashamed and seems to be embarrassed by Maude Clare's outburst as he speaks in faltering tones.
-"and hid his face." This is also reinforced in the caesure in his speech. It gives a sense of confusion and apprehenson by:

•  By not knowing how to address Maude Clare, he demonstrates his anxiety about their relationship.
• In hiding his face, he makes a feeble attempt to avoid responding to her insults.
• By remaining silent, he gives Maude the freedom to address Nell with her seemingly prepared speech.

Nell: Nell is proud, which may come from the fact she is marrying Thomas and not Maude Clare. She isn't naive and understands that Maude Clare is "more wise and more fair, but is determined to make their marriage work and demonstates this as her courage increases.
"I'll love him till he loves me best, Me best of alll Maude Clare".
In this final verse she also

Thomas' mother: Thomas' mother expresses her sympathy and concern for the couple by attempting to hide her tears with smiles and blessings.

Maude Clare & Round Tower at Jhansi

-Both poems are narrative; they tell a story.

Comparison:

• Themes of conflict, love, power.                                        

                        NB: Love is an abstract noun- use a statement instead.

• Protagonist.
• Structure- both are moments of a narrative, a climatic narrative.
• Both involve 'attacks'. In Maude Clare, the attack is emotional, where as the attack in Round Tower is literal.

Dialogue in Round Tower at Jhansi:
"Is the time come?" We can presume, it is the wife who said this because her husband, "Skene", is named which shows he has more power and he is also the one who is in possesion of the "pistol".
It is interrogative and shows her anxiousness and trust in her husband.
"The time is come!" As his wife questioned him, we can presume that Skene replies. It is a declarative statment with an exlcamatory tone to show his fear, concern and worry.

1st person narrative elements of the poems:

Maude Clare: The repition of "My lord" is in first person. The "lord" they are reffering to is Sir Thomas. This may mean that the narrator is a servent of his, or perhaps just someone with a lower status in society.

Round Tower at Jhansi: "Young, strong and so full of life" suggests it is a first person narrative as it has personal elemants and suggestions that makes the reader feel sympathy for the two characters.
"God forgive them this!" gives a first person suggestion also. It is an exclamatory tone to it and reflects Rossetti's strong Christian beliefs, as it was seen as a sin to commit suicide or kill someone, when not in war.

In the Round Tower at Jhansi

Types of Metric Feet

TABLE OF METRIC FEET:
Binary:
             
             Iamb:       O-O       da-dum       eg. divine, alert, confined.
             Trochee:   O-O      dum-da       eg. metre, rhythm, never, touching.
             Spondee:  O-O      dum-dum    eg. full stop, no way.
             Pyrrhic:     O-O     a-da             eg. in the, of a.

Ternary:

            Anapest:             O-O-O     titty-tum       eg. understand, Japanese.
            Dactyl:                O-O-O    tum-titty        eg. lavender, fantasy.
            Amphibrach:      O-O-O     ti-tum-ti        eg. imperfect, desiring.
            Amphimacer:     O-O-O     tum-ti-tum    eg. hand to mouth, up to you, waiting game.


Stressed syllable

Untressed syllable

(For more metric feet, see table in folder)

"Shut Out" and "Winter: My Secret"

Shut Out:- mournful, depressing, desperate, full of grief, powerless, nostalgic, regretful, isolated.
Winter: My Secret:- Playful, sadistic, powerful, coy, perky, slightly flirtacious, conversational, teasing.

Tone is different in each of the poems which may be due to the narrator's status change. In "Winter: My Secret", the narrator is the one in control, where as in "Shut Out" the 1st person persona is the one being denied access and therefore is powerless.

Shut out notes:-

• 2nd stanza: list, complec, repetition, imperative, dialogue.
• Juxtaposition between the lexical choices in stanza 2 & 3.
• Complex sentance- complex feelings - form reflects content.
• 3rd stanza: spirit described as "shadowless" (fear of spirit). "Blank and unchanging like the grave"- choice of similie shows fear and hatred towards the spirit.
• "peering" - specific word choice and the connotations the verb has, ie. looking at something you can't have.
• 4th stanza: pleading tone of imperative, simple sentance, "small twig" -feeling of desperation.

Winter: My Secret notes:- (Language Analysis)

• Perhaps (Adverb and playful tone)
• Over-confidence (To hide the fact she doesn't have a secret, an insecurity)
• Rhetorical question ( High frequency, reinforce flirtacious tone, recreate the speaker's voice)
• Internal rhyme (Playful)
• "Fie!" (Playful disgust, pretend outrage)
• Ambiguous title (Is winter her secret? Is winter her listener? Is winter a metaphor?)

Symbolic nature: society, relationships, afterlife. Ie. Narrative used as a 'vehicle' for...

Rossetti has common stylistic techniques:

• 1st person narrative.
• Recreation of a spoken voice.
• Self-obssessed narrators

Essay writing features

Things examiners are looking for:
1) Written expression.
2) How sophisticated the point is.
3) Language analysis.
4) Is the language analysis linked to an effect.

Essay writing features and tips:

• Succinct topic sentance.
• Narrator's attitudes highlighted.
• Intergrated quotes.
• Specific links to other poems
• Complex language analysis ie. Hyperbole.
• Explorative language, not explanative.
• Specific links to context.
• Word type ie. Adjective, Verb, Abstract noun.
• Developed understanding.
• Complex, developed vocabulary.
• Use triplets ie. triple adjective in the topic sentance.
• How the reader responds to the poem.
• Quote breifly.
• Avoid repetion.
• Metre/Rhyme scheme/structure and link to how the narrator feels.
• Topic sentance should answer the question.
• Show that you understand the complexity of the poems.

Nature in Rossetti's poems

-Discuss how Rossetti writes about nature.

• Nature in "Shut Out" seems to be a metaphor for the narrator's love.
• Aspects of nature such as "violet bed" and it's comparison to other natural imagery seems to be used symbollically to show her new love is not as special, deep or meaningful as the previous.
• The use of nature in "Winter: My Secret" seems to be a metaphor for the narrator's feelings and mood. There is a mournful tone to the narrator's voice when focusing on nature as a symbol for lost love.

Notes on both poems:

Winter: My Secret:- Aggressive side of nature, (Ferocious and harrowing)
                                 Winter is cold and unforgiving,
                                 Nature is used as an obstacle.
                                
Shut Out:- Not getting into heaven (symbolic),
                  Nature has healing properties.


Every essay has a topic sentance that tells what I think of the poem linked to the question.
-Quotation.
-Highlight how the language is used in the quotation.


Shut Out paragraph: Rossetti's narrator seems to believe that nature has healing properties as they ask for "some buds" to cheer their "outcast state". This part of the poem is in dialogue which makes the reader feel more empathy for the narrator because they have memorised the upsetting conversation they had and can recite it. Suggesting that it is the only thing on their mind and has deeply troubled them.

Winter: My Secret paragraph:  Aspects of nature in "Winter: My Secret" are portrayed as an obstacle as the narrator is unable to tell her secret "today" because "it froze, and blows and snows". These signs of winter are joined in an internal rhyme which emphasises the fragility and reserved nature of the narrator during this season.
 

Linking form to effect

Form: How the writer writes.
Effect: How the reader responds/why the writer did that.

• Highlights...
• Foregrounds..
• Draws attention to...
• Suggests...
• Emphasises...
• Implies...

When Rossetti says "sing no sad songs for me" she is highlighting her views of the values of mourning in the Victorian Era. Rossetti uses an imperative to emphasise the calm yet commanding tone of her poem and to highlight her acceptance of death.

Rossetti's first person narrative uses the adjective "shady" to draw attention to how the narrator doesn't want to be protected after death.

The poet uses the term of address, "my dearest" which highlights the poet's love for the recipient and that he/she is her main concern after death.

The first two feet of the poem are iams, and the third is an amphibrach. This perhaps draws attention to "I", "dead" and "dearest", which are significant words in the poem regarding the topic and purpose.

Remember: -Repitition of the poem= persuasive tone
                    -Rhyming scheme=persuasive tone (quietly confident)

Song & Remember comparison:

-Both poems begin with a request for someone who is left behind, she asks the person not to forget her when she dies.
-To prove her love for the one left behind, the speaker wants the other one to go on with their life. All she asks is that the listener remembers her, the person, and not any negative connotations.

Poem Analysis: "Winter: My Secret"

Poem Analysis: "Shut Out"

Poem Analysis: "Remember"

Poem Analysis: "Song (When I am dead, my dearest)"

Studying Christina Rossetti

How to approach poetry:
Read the poem aloud.
Look up words/phrases you do not understand.
What is the poem about- (Literally and figuratively)
Language Analysis.
Context (her atttitudes towards what shes talking about)
Common links between poems.


Echo:
-Mourning a death/stillborn child?
-"Soft rounded cheeks" "Whose wakening should have been in paradise"
-Links to No,Thank you,John- being haunted by someone.

Remember:
-Talking to people she will leave behind after death.
-Rather be forgotten, than make people feel sad when mourning her death.

Song:
-Theme: death/how she is remembered.
-Telling people not to grieve for her.
-Acceptance of death.

From the Antique:
-Would rather be dead (or a man) than  a woman- women were oppressed.
-Theme: Feminsim and oppression in victorian era.
-Theme: After death rememberance.

A birthday:
-In love, more happy than other poems.
-Sensual.

Shut out:
-She has lost something.
-Garden is symbolic for someone/something.
-The "Garden" is re-growing but it's not as good as it was, "not so dear", "not the best"

RE-ACCURING THEMES THROUGHOUT ROSSETTI'S POEMS:
-Life after death- doesn't want people to mourn.
-Death- peoples' attitudes towards it- she was ill for much of her life, suffered a lot of bereavements in her lifetime, death was more common.
-Loss/Absence. -Not having someone/something- (Isolated) -Never married, never had children.
-Personal Identity:- female/gender identity. How it feels to be a woman and how she fits into society.
-How she would be considered after her death, as a poet.
-Emotional pain.
-Religion.
-Uses direct address, often to men. (Patriachal society)
-Natural imagery- influenced by the romantic poets.

Links to context:                


*Persona, narrator, voice (1st person) *
-Rossetti writes from the persepective of a persona, often biographical.

Christina Rossetti- Background. (Context)

19th Century poet, born in London in 1830 (Victorian era).
First had her poetry printed at 12 years old, then published poems under the name "Ellen Alleyen" at 19.
The women in her family were comitted High Church Anglicans and as a teenager, Christina suffered from a nervous breakdown that was diagnosed as 'religious mania'.
Rossetti fell in love with several suitors, but rejected them because they failed to share her precise religious convictions.
Rossetti devoted 10 years of her life as a volunteer at St.Mary's jospital for prostitutes and unmarried mothers.
Religious themesd dominate her work, but Rossetti never preaches. Instead, exploring the tensions between earthly passions and divine love.

No, Thank you, John notes:
We 'hear' some of his comments through reported speech.
One sided conversation.
Mechanical and cold view of younger Rossetti's love life.