Remember by Christina Rossetti

The Poem

About the Author:

Born:   Christina Georgina Rossetti.
            5th December 1830 London, England.
Died:   29th December 1894 (aged 64)
Occupation: Poet
Language:    English
Nationality:  British
Parents :  Gabriele Rossetti, Frances Polidori
Works:  "After Death", Another Spring", "At Home", An Echo from Willowwood", A Ballad of Boding" etc.




Analysis

It almost reads like an Instruction Manual with many conditions. Let us take a deep look into the poem.

Lines- 1-2

“Remember” opens with an instruction by the speaker. She is a woman addressing someday may be her lover or boyfriend or husband. She tells person who is a shadow to the readers to remember her when she is no more, means death.  When she dies, she would go into a silent land where she could not see his loved ones.  She wants him to remember her when she is not in this world.  After her death the speaker will no longer able to communicate with her beloved.

Lines 3- 4

The speaker is very emotional, she tells her beloved to remember her when he could no longer hold her hand as she would be in the silent land. The speaker moves the readers by her expressions which are full of her expectations.  She wants him to understand that once she goes far away into the silent land, it is not possible to come back.  Death is a one-way path.  There is no turning back.

Line 5-6

In case the speaker’s beloved forgets to remember her, she tells him again. She reminds him to remember her when he is no longer able to tell her every day of the future, he planned for them.  They plan their future together.   They make sweet plans for their bright future.  They expect to have a meaningful future but now all turns into an emptiness.

Lines 7-8

The speaker tells him to just remember her one more time. It is just a serious plea.  He must remember her because, by the time she’s dead and gone, it will be too late to counsel or pray.  she wont come back as death is a one way path.

Line 9-10

The sonnet’s tone will shift now, this important moment is called the turn. The speaker has used the word “remember” three times. All of sudden she introduces the word “forget” she gives some vent to that idea and saying, “hey its OK if he forgets about her for just a little bit.  she didn't mind if he forgets her for a while.

Lines 11-12

‘darkness and corruption” sound really a bad reference to death, after one dies the body decays or rot or “corrupts”. Darkness refers to the fact that nobody knows what happens after the death. After life is metaphorically refers to dark. It could also refer too the emotional state of a person who loses his dear one. “leftover” refer to things the speaker once said that her beloved must recall her after she dies. The speaker seems bit worried that her beloved will not remember her. She thinks of the left over for she implies this is how she will live on earth, after her death. She would be a left over after her death.

Lines 13-14

The speaker says that if some of her thoughts survives it is much better that her beloved forgets her and be happy rather than remember her and be sad. The whole time she has been demanding him to remember her. After sometime with a different thinking, she tells him to forget her for a short time but then remember her. And finally, she concludes by saying its better to forget and be happy rather than remember her and her death might be painful. It would bring back painful memories.

The poem is a sonnet and sonnets are often divided into parts (an octave and sestet), “Remember” is a command repeated three times in the poem. But speaker’s tone is recollection of a tender feeling.

Alliteration in the first stanza soften the commanding tone. /H/ sound in “when you can no more hold me by the hand, /Nor I half turn to go yet turning to stay” ‘H’ makes the lines less sharp and demanding.

Remember is a simple title. It summarizes the poem’s major theme is remembrance. It is spoken by a woman who is thinking about her death and she is obsessed with making sure her beloved doesn’t forget her. But by the end of the poem she changes her mind and says remembering may cause too much pain.  “Remember” seems a death wish. It gives us an idea of what kind of ‘place death is. It is a silent land where couples can no longer share their dreams of future. She calls their relationship as a bases on memory and keep her memory alive in spite of her passing. “Remember” sounds selfish but by the end the speaker shows how be happy. This poem is about love, about dying, about forgetfulness.

It follows iambic pentameter and Sonnet. Each line is composed of five (“pent means five). It contains unstressed syllable followed by stressed syllable.  “Remember Me when I am gone away the poem is 14 lines – sonnet; Sonnets have 14 lines and they come in two basic types such as Shakespearean and Petrarch. The poem can be divided into a group of 8 lines (octave) and group of 6 lines (sestet).  First 8 lines are about Remembering her second part that is line 9 the speaker shifts her focus from Remembrance to forgetfulness, both are two opposite.

The octave follows ABBA ABBA rhyme. Sestet follows CDD ECE. A cyclical rhyming pattern going away is a metaphor for death. Holding hands symbolizes physical presence and life. “Darkness” and “corruption” stand in for death. “vestiage” means leftover after the speaker has gone away. It is a symbol of life.

Thus the poet end her feelings with a neutral tone where there is a compromise when all goes according to the will of the Creator.  This sonnet is written in a very simple language for all of us to realize the universal truth which we should apply to our lives to balance our lives.  

thank you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F36Px96X6Ic