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.

"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

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.
 

Poem Analysis: "Shut Out"