Remember by Christina Rossetti - English Lit A/L - Poetry 6

 Remember 

Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you plann’d:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.

Themes

1.     Physical body Vs eternal soul

2.     Remembering Vs forgetting

3.     Heartfelt genuine love

4.     Self-sacrificing, Selfless love

5.     Thoughtfulness – The poetess wants her lover to move on his life without her

6.     Death (Inevitable death)

7.     Memory (can be a source of comfort but at the same time it could be a giver of sadness and regret.  

Techniques 

·       Euphemism

·       Metaphor

·       A Petrarchan Sonnet, iambic pentameter

·       Alliteration

·       Use of pronouns

·       Tone – Power of the requesting is fading, tone is changing with the Volta.

·       Repetition

·       Symbols – “Silent land” – “the symbol of death emphasize the narrator’s loneliness without her beloved rather, which is stronger than her fear of death itself”

·       Mood

·       Irony – By the title “Remember” She wishes her beloved to be happy, even if that means forgetting her. 

References: 

AL resource book provided by NIE, www.poemanalysis.com, www.owlcation.com