The Raphealite Movement in the Poem My Sisters Sleep by Dante Gabriel Rossettis

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Recommended: Society in the Victorian era

The pre raphealite movement was a group of young men and women in the mid nineteenth century who challenged the trends and thoughts of Victorian society expressing thier ideas freely in poetry. They responded to the dominant social issues of the time. Clear references of the pre raphaelite movement are evident in dante grabriel rossettis poem "my sisters sleep". It descirbes the occasion of a brother describing his sisters death, and his mothers denial of the situation as it occurs on christmas eve. The persona critiques his mothers irrational devoutness to god and Christianity through her insistence on Christmas as a day of birth and blessing. Thus preventing her from knowing the rational truth that her daughter has died.

The poem begins "she fell asleep on Christmas Eve. At length long ungranted shade/ of weary eyelids overweighed/ the pain nought else might yet relieve". These initial lines though indefinite, with "shade" and "the pain nought else might relieve" . comnontations of death express that the sister is already deceased. Irony is presented in "she fell asleep on Christmas Eve", as Christmas is symbolic in the celebration of new life, yet this is not the case contrasting to the responders perception on the passing existence of the sister.

Yet throughout the poem the persona watcheds his devout, prayerful mother who "had lean'd all day over the bed from chime to chime... did pray/ to work some distance from the bed". Through alliteration in 'chime to chime' demonstartes the only audible disturbance the mother makes as she is cautious of waking the long held vigil by keeping a reasonable distance from the bed.

Following the trace of the title "my sister" the persona speaks from the perspective of first pe...

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...e last stanza, "then kneeling upon Christmas morn" suspiciously having an decorative function symbolizing the beginning of a new graceful day that is Christmas. "Christs blessing on the newly born!". Through exclamatory expression emphasis to the irony of the sisters death is added by the obscure and unusual statement that ends the poem creating again a rich allusion to the Birth of Christ. Margaret has faded away, however god has replaced her with the birth of a newborn.

Thus, there is no doubt that the poem "my sisters sleep" composed by Dante gabriel Rossetti, consists of typical pre-raphaelite stylistic elements. The poem is characterized by the complex interlinking of thought and feeling through its sensually descriptive language . The poem ends with the family acknowledging the sisters death. The poem meeting the creed of the pre-raphaelite

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