Christina Rossetti, selected poems Contents
- Social / political context
- Religious / philosophical context
- Literary context
- A Better Resurrection
- A Birthday
- A Royal Princess
- At Home
- Cousin Kate
- Despised and Rejected
- Echo
- Goblin Market
- Good Friday
- Jessie Cameron
- L.E.L
- Maude Clare
- Remember
- Shut Out
- Song (When I am dead, my dearest)
- Summer is Ended
- The Convent Threshold
- The Lowest Place
- To Lalla, reading my verses topsy-turvy
- Twice
- Up-hill
- Winter: My Secret
'A Birthday'- Language, tone and structure
Language and tone
Repetition
There is a marked amount of repetition in A Birthday
- Each alternate line in the first verse begins ‘My heart is like' (lines 1, 3, 5, 7). This emphasises the speaker's struggle to find the language to describe her emotions and serves as a link between her own subjectivity and the external nature she observes
- The poem ends, ‘Is come, my love is come to me' (line 16). By drawing attention to the word ‘come', the speaker expresses her joy at the return of her lover and highlights the arrival of the fulfilment of the time of waiting that she has undergone.
Alliteration
The frequency of alliterated words in A Birthday emphasise its flowing pace and the rhythms of the natural world.
Investigating language and tone
- Think about the voice that emerges through the poem.
- Does this voice bring out any particular emotions?
- How far are you able to identify with the poetic speaker?
- What evidence is there to suggest that either speaker is actually a woman?
- Would a difference in gender mean that you read the poems any differently?
- Do you consider that the speaker displays traits traditionally ascribed to a male or female voice?
Structure and versification
Metre
The first verse of A Birthday is written in strict iambic tetrameter. This creates a song-like rhythm and means that a stress consistently falls on the word ‘heart'.
In the second verse, 4 out of the 7 lines begin with a trochee. Here, the stress falls on the verbs ‘Raise', ‘Hang', ‘Carve' and ‘Work' (lines 9, 10, 11, 13). By breaking out of the regular metrical scheme of the first verse, these trochees highlight the urgency of the speaker to create something new to celebrate the return of her love.
Investigating structure and versification
- Read the first verse again closely, thinking about its rhythm. Which other words does the poem emphasise through the rhythm that the metre creates?
- Which words are linked to one another through the metre?
- Like Song (when I am dead, my dearest), the poem is written in a 16 line form, divided up into 2 stanzas. Can you identify any further similarities in form?
- Can you identify any differences between Song and A Birthday?
- How does the metre in each differ?
- What does the structure contribute to the poem?
- Does it affect the tone in which the poems are read?
A term used of speech rhythms in blank verse; an iambic rhythm is an unstressed, or weak, beat followed by a stressed, or strong, beat. It is a rising metre.
A line of verse consisting of four metrical feet (in modern verse) or eight feet (in classical verse).
In all languages, some syllables are pronounced with more of an emphasis than others. In poetry of many languages, this becomes a significant means of patterning. The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables within a line of verse is called its
A metric foot in a line of verse, consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed. It is thus a falling metre.
In all languages, some syllables are pronounced with more of an emphasis than others. In poetry of many languages, this becomes a significant means of patterning. The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables within a line of verse is called its
The particular measurement in a line of poetry, determined by the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables (in some languages, the pattern of long and short syllables). It is the measured basis of rhythm.
The particular measurement in a line of poetry, determined by the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables (in some languages, the pattern of long and short syllables). It is the measured basis of rhythm.
In literature, the way a text is built up and formed.
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