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.

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.

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.