In the Victorian era the roles of the women and men were very different from today. The women were expected to be weak, innocent, have no sexual appetite and if they were led astray they would be a fallen woman. The men were expected to be fallen, sinful, and lustful and if they took advantage of a woman they could not be blamed as it was in their nature. In 1848 the Pre-Raphaelite movement was founded by Dante Gabriel Rosetti (Christina Rosetti’s brother). Their aim was to rebel against Romantic Movement and they were going to do that by rejecting modernity, mass production and urbanization. They wanted to replace it with natural and biblical imagery, love, archaic diction and visual imagery. This relates to ‘Remember’ because it uses words which are biblical e.g. ‘silent land’ and ‘pray’. It also uses archaic diction e.g. ‘vestige’.
In Christina Rosetti’s ‘How do I love thee?’ she starts it off with a rhetorical question, “How do I love thee?”, and then she answers the question with a list “Let me count the ways”. She’s saying it’s immeasurable and that she can’t quantify love, “I love thee to the depth and breadth and height”. She says “My soul can reach”, and souls can go everywhere so she’s saying there’s no end to her love for him, no matter where she is. It was expected for women to be seen and not heard in her time so she says “Most quiet need”. The poet then goes on to “By sun and candle-light” which means she loves him during the day and night so her love doesn’t stop. Elizabeth Barret-Browning continues “Right” and “Praise”, these words are important to Browning because she’s striving to maintain her beliefs/religion against the tide of belief in evolution. The poet then goes on to “I love thee purely”; meaning virginity or she hasn’t strayed. Elizabeth Barret-Browning continues “passion” and it’s a powerful and appropriate word to the form (sonnet), because it’s a strong way or describing the love you have for someone. The poet then goes on to “In my old griefs”, which means problems so she’s saying that being with Browning has changed her life around. Browning continues “With my lost saints”, so she’s saying she has given up her religion and her family to be with him. She also says “I shall but love thee better after death” which means in the afterlife she will have no worries and will concentrate on loving him.
In Elizabeth Barret-Browning’s ‘How do I love thee?’ Barret-Browning is the voice speaking and she’s speaking to her husband Robert Browning. The rhythm is 10 syllables per line because it’s a sonnet. The rhyme scheme is A,B,B,A,A,B,B,A,C,D,C,D,C,D. The first line is “ways”, the second line is “height”, the third line is “sight” and the fourth line is “grace”. The first and fourth lines rhyme and the second and third lines rhyme. It’s a love poem so the tone is positive. ‘My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight for the ends of being and ideal grace’. She becomes more excited and passionate as the poem progresses as you can tell by the exclamation mark and dashes when she says “I love thee with the breath, smiles, tears, of all my life!” The language is positive as there is a constant use of love, “I love thee”. It’s religious because she’s talking about her Christian beliefs and it’s archaic because she says things like “thee”, “being” and “grace”. She uses simple monosyllabic words as it adds and innocence and purity to her love. She uses an oxymoron as she says “smiles, tears” and she uses similes as she uses the word “as” a lot. In the octet she’s talking about the present and in the sestet she’s talking about the future and she has transferred all the effort she put into her religion into her husband.
In Christina Rosetti’s ‘Remember’, Christina Rosetti is the voice and she’s speaking to her fiancé or her family. The rhythm is 10 syllables per line as it’s a sonnet. Thee rhyme scheme is A,B,B,A,A,B,B,A,C,D,D,E,C,E. The first line is “away”, the second line is “lands”, the third line is “hand” and the fourth line is “stay”. The first and fourth lines rhyme and the second and third lines rhyme. The paces are slow as there is a lot of punctuation, “And afterwards remember, do not grieve”. It’s a love poem which deals with the death of a loved one and it portrays death in a more positive way so it’s positive and negative. The language is positive because it’s about love and she says “Remember me”, which is positive. It’s also negative because she’s talking about death and she says “silent lands” and that’s negative and also religious because it means heaven. It’s also archaic because she says “vestige” and “nor” and they’re old fashioned. She uses an oxymoron as she says “forget and smile” and she uses euphemisms because she says “gone away” which is a nicer way of saying death, she says “corruption” which is a nicer way of saying evil and she says “silent lands” which is a nicer way of saying the afterlife.
