Christina Georgina Rossetti (December 5, 1830 – December 29, 1894) was an English poet and the sister of artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti as well as William Michael Rossetti and Maria Francesca Rossetti. Their father, Gabriele Rossetti, was an Italian poet and a political asylum seeker from Naples, and their mother, Frances Polidori, was the sister of Lord Byron's friend and physician, John William Polidori. Rossetti was born in London and educated at home by her mother.
Although Rossetti began writing at an early age, her poetry didn't gain notice until the publication of Goblin Market and Other Poems in 1862. The collection garnered much critical praise, and according to Jan Marsh, "Elizabeth Barrett Browning's death two months later led to Rossetti being hailed as her natural successor as 'female laureate'." The title poem from this book is Rossetti's best known work.
The subject matters in both poems are both about people the poets love, both the poems are written for these people, In ‘A Red, Red Rose’ Burns uses mainly nature to strenghten his love. In ‘A Birthday’ Rossetti also uses nature as well as animals to strenghten her love.
In ‘A Red, Red Rose’ the opening sentence says, ‘O my luve’s like a red, red rose’ this is a good opening because it is very direct and meaningful, in this case a dark red rose symbolises very deep, passioniate love.
In ‘A Birthday’ the opening sentence says, ‘My heart is like a singing bird’ so straight away Rossetti uses a metaphor to describe her heart, this quote shows she is happily in love as a singing bird symbolises happiness.
In ‘A Red, Red Rose’ Burns uses references to nature, saying his love is like a newly sprung dark red rose, this shows that this is a new relationship but is very strong. As the poem goes on the poet starts to use bigger things to show his love, ‘And I will luve thee still, my Dear, Till a’ the seas gang dry.’ Burns uses impossible things to show the magitude of his love. The last stanza is Burns saying that he is going for a while but will be back, ‘And I will come again, my Luve, Tho’ it were ten thousand mile!’ this shows that no matter what happens he will come back because of their love.
In ‘A Birthday’ Rosetti also uses references to nature and animals, saying her heart is like many things that symbolise happy things such as ‘singing birds’ and ‘apple-trees’ which means that she is very happy to be in such a strong relationship. As the poem goes on the poet refers quite alot to fruit. At the end the poet says, ‘Because the birthday of my life Is come, my love is come to me’ the birthday of her life could be when her lover comes back to you which is why she says ‘my love is come to me’
The ending of ‘A Red, Red Rose’ is ‘And I will come again, my Luve, Tho’ it were ten thousand mile!’ this is a good ending because it ends with him having to leave but telling his lover not to worry because he will return even if he has to travel thousands of miles.
The ending of ‘A Birthday’ the poet says, ‘Because the birthday of my life Is come, my love is come to me’ the birthday of her life could be when her lover will return to her.
‘A Red, Red Rose’ may have been written because his relationship was a new one and the poet may have wanted to show this women how strong he feels about her. ‘A Birthday’ may have been written because even though her lover has been away for awhile he will come back, and she wants to show how much she is looking forward to it.
There are four stanzas in ‘A Red, Red Rose’ Burns has spilt the poem this way to make it even, There are repeated lines,’ O my luve’s’ and ‘Till a’ the seas gang dry’. The whole of ‘A Birthday’ is one stanza, there are repeated lines,’My heart’ the poem is a ballad and rhymes.
Burns uses references to nature to create images in ‘A Red, Red Rose’ such as, ‘O my luve’s like a red, red rose’. And ‘red, red rose’ is an example of alliteration. An example of a simile is ‘my luve’s like a red, red rose’. An example of opposites is ‘seas’ and ‘the sun’
Rossetti uses references to nature to create imagery in ‘A Birthday’ such as, ‘My heart is like a singing bird’. An example of simile ‘My heart is like an apple-tree’. An example of repetition of is ‘My heart’. An example of opposites is ‘gold’ and ‘silver’.
In my opinion ‘A Birthday’ is a better poem, because it is quite sad, that this woman has waited so long for her lover to come to her, and she has watched apple-trees grow and die whilst waiting for him, yet after all that sadness she is still really happy about him returning to her. I think I like this poem because of her personal sacrifice for her lover.
