The persona in ‘Salcombe(1948)’ obviously remembers the day well as he describes it perfectly, such as in the line “How the sea came washing to our feet.” This tells us that the persona treasures the day as he is able to recall it well. This outlines the importance of the first meeting with his love. However, in the poem ‘Sonnet’ the persona cannot remember the day at all, we see this in the line “So unrecorded did it slip away.” Despite this we again see the importance of the first meeting, Christina Rossetti displays this through the personas anguish at forgetting it. This is displayed in the line “If only now I could recall that touch.”
Gareth Owen continually repeats the word ‘and’ throughout the poem. This effectively portrays the fullness of the day to the persona. This again tells us of the importance and joy that the persona experienced that day. In the poem ‘Sonnet’ words that portray the theme of emptiness are continually used, such as “Dull” “Blind” and “traceless” These words are in contrast with the fullness of the day in ‘Salcombe(1948)’. This again shows us how unimportant the day seemed to the persona, but her grief proves to us the important the day really was.
In the poem ‘Sonnet’ we see that the persona slowly fell in love at an older age than that of the persona in ‘Salcombe(1948)’ . We know that the persona in ‘Salcombe(1948)’ was a child when he fell in love with Anne from the line “And how amongst…strand.” This was also a spontaneous ‘love at first sight’ scenario, as we see in the lines “Suddenly broke through… and the world turned.” This is the exact moment when the persona fell in love with Anne. On the contrary, the persona in ‘Sonnet’ cannot even remember the first time she set eyes on her love. We see that her love developed and matured slowly as she grew older. Christina Rossetti uses the transition between the “budding of my tree” to the “blossom(ing)” to represent her love maturing and developing slowly.
These poems are both similar as they are both romantic poems. Both poems have strong references to love and Nature. In the poem ‘Salcombe(1948)’ references such as “the gulls cried” and “how the sea came washing to our feet” are used to describe an idyllic summers day. These images help the reader to identify with the persona. In ‘Sonnet’ references such as “thaw of bygone snow.” Cleverly depict how insignificant the first meeting was to the persona.
These poems are also use the image of hand touching hand to represent the beginning of the love developing. However in the poem ‘Salcombe(1948)’ the persona realizes the birth of the love, we know this from the line “And the world turned.” This tells us that in that instant the persona fell in love with Anne. In the poem ‘Sonnet’ the first touch is not remembered by the persona, as we see in the line “First touch of hand in hand - Did one but know!” This again portrays the loss of the persona and the punctuation ‘!’ emphasizes her desperation.
Both the poem ‘Salcombe(1948)’ and ‘Sonnet’ are well written poems that discuss the importance of the first impressions, and my first impression of these poems was that they were poles apart, but upon delving deeper into the core of the poems I realized the subtle similarities they share. In my opinion these poems are well written and when examined thoroughly, are thoroughly rewarding.
