Christina Rossetti's Poetry: Controlled and Passionate
Rossetti's poetry has been described as both controlled and
passionate. Making clear what you understand by the terms discuss
which of these two views you have more sympathy with and why. Refer
closely to at least three of the set poems.
Christina Rossetti poetry uses concise structures but through these
she expresses immense emotion; in this respect her poetry can
accurately described as "both controlled and passionate" yet the two
words are almost a paradox as passion is frequently seen to be at odds
with controlled tight structures. Other poets have also followed in
Rossetti's footsteps by combining tight structured poetic forms with
emotion e.g. Dylan Thomas.
L.E.L is a prime example of Rossetti's technique; it combines a
complex structure with a very emotive outcry. The structure is very
precise with each verse not only rhyming within itself, in an A, B, A,
B, C, C, C pattern, but also within pairs of stanzas containing a
pattern between them on the 5th to 8th lines. The 2nd and fourth lines
provide visually rhyming lines throughout the poem connecting each
verse although when the poem is read aloud the lines do not rhyme
verbally. Rossetti also plays with structures in the poem, beginning
with an elegiac stanza form ("a Quatrain of four iambic pentameters
rhyming A, B, A, B" - Pears Cyclopaedia) before diversifying into her
own version ending with C, C, C. The elegiac stanza form helps
contribute to the passion by setting the tone for the poem while at
the same time Rossetti alters the form to suit her needs showing
creativity within her "control". The latter section of each stanza is
in a different tone relating and contrasting the emot...
... middle of paper ...
... with more flair in
her earlier poetry, with later works settling into more conventional
forms. Thus it is difficult to decide which argument to have more
sympathy with as both control and passion are constantly intertwined
and also changed as Rossetti grew older.
Work Cited
Rossetti, Christina. The Poetical Works of Christina Georgina Rossetti. With Memoir and Notes &c. Ed. William Michael Rossetti. London; New York: Macmillan, 1904.
Works Consulted
Armstrong, Isobel. 'A Music of Thine Own': Women's Poetry. in: Joseph Bristow, Victorian Women Poets. Emily Bronte, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Christina Rossetti. Basingstoke and London: Macmillan Press Limited, 1995, 32-63.
Harrison, Antony H. Christina Rossetti in Context. Brighton: The Harvester Press, 1988.
Marsh, Jan. Christina Rossetti. A Literary Biography. London and Sydney: Pimlico, 1995.
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Famous poets and poems. “Emily Bronte Poems” famouspoetsandpoems.com. Famous Poets and Poems. 2006-2010. Web. 4 Dec. 2011.
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Barnstone, Aliki, and Willis Barnstone. A book of women poets. New York: Schocken Books, 1980. Print.
Leonard, K. D. (2009). African American women poets and the power of the word. The Cambridge Companion to African American Women's Literature, 168-187.
Moore, Marianne. “Poetry” 1921. Approaching Literature: Reading + Thinking + Writing. Ed. Peter Schakel and Jack Ridl. 3rd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2013. 843-844. Print.
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