Winter: My Secret

Winter: My Secret

Analysis of the title…

•          “Winter” – alerts the reader that the poem is seasonal
•          The use of the word ‘My’ tells us that the speaker of the poem will also be its subject
•          “Secret” – arouses curiosity

Form and rhyme scheme…

•          Rhyme, rhythm and stanza form in this poem are irregular.
•          There are a variety of different iambic rhythms
•          Rossetti has created an irregular form and rhyme scheme with intent and she is purposely ‘violating’ the common poem structure

Themes…

•          Identity - “The use of the personal pronouns ‘my' and ‘I' throughout the poem point to the speaker's sense of her individual identity.”
•          “The first line both begins and ends with the pronoun ‘I'. This suggests that the speaker encloses her secret within her own individual identity and that nothing can break through and disturb the concealed interior.”
•          Nonsense – “The speaker suggests that she may be only teasing the listener when she declares that her secret may be ‘just my fun'.”
•          “The revelation that there may in fact be ‘no secret after all' (line 8) suggests that the poem is more about the act of concealment and the practice of secrecy than it is about a particular secret itself.”
•          Curiosity – “Reprimanding the reader for being ‘too curious' (line 4), the speaker emphasises that the secret is hers to give away or to conceal as she wishes.”

Language analysis…

•          “The speaker's sense of being under attack from the curiosity of others is conveyed through a series of words which suggest animals of prey, such as dogs ‘nipping', ‘biting', ‘bounding' and ‘buffeting' her, then birds by which she is ‘pecked at'.”
•          “Whilst veils, cloaks and wraps (line 12) may protect the speaker from the fierce and biting winds of the winter season, they also serve to hide her from curious onlookers who seek to find out her secret.”
•          “Suggesting that she wears her ‘mask for warmth' (line 18), the speaker indicates that it is, for her, a form of comfort.”
•          “The speaker uses the metaphor of enquirers knocking on a front door as they seek to gain entry into her innermost thoughts”

In the Round Tower at Jhansi

In the Round Tower at Jhansi -

• Narrative poetry
• Themes of love and loss
• Language techniques used affect the narrative
• Attackers are described using animalistic language
• Third person narrative
• Narrator shows emotion towards the protagonist
• Clear narrative structure - beginning, middle and end

Remember

Remember -

• Iambic pentameter
• "Gone far away into the silent land" - referencing death - most likely heaven/afterlife (religious connotations)
• "Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay" - when she dies
• No mention of the word death - avoiding it (preventing sadness and grief)
• 1st person narrative
• Direct address
• Sonnet - 14 lines and rhyme scheme - associated with romance/romantic poetry
• Poem goes against it's context (mourning)
• Recognition of death (morbid)

Song (When I Am Dead, My Dearest)

1st stanza -

• "My dearest" - direct address
• Metrical variation
• Natural imagery - associated with romantic poetry
• "Sing", "plant, "be" etc- imperative verbs/orders - implies a forceful tone

2nd stanza -

• "Twilight" - reference to death/afterlife
• "Haply I may remember" - another reference to the afterlife - religious ideology
• Repetition of "I shall" and "haply" - similar to a lyric poem (popular during Victorian times)
• "Haply" is archaic
• Assumption that there is an afterlife - accepted at the time

Overall -

• 1st person poem 
• No gender pronouns 
• Assume female narrator voice (roses, dearest etc.)
• Quiet confidence in the imperatives

"Discuss how Rossetti writes about nature" (example question)

Practice paragraph (Shut Out) -

Rossetti's narrator refers to nature in order to express her true feelings and emotions without referring to them directly. She does this by using natural imagery as a metaphor for something she has lost.

Other points:

• Symbolic representation of the ferocious and harrowing side of nature
• Cold and unforgiving
• Fears of not getting into heaven are shown

Language analysis

To write a paragraph using language analysis...

• Have a topic sentence highlighting an interpretation of an aspect of the poem linking to the question
• Highlight something about how the language is used
• Use good written expression
• Have a complex and sophisticated idea
• Do accurate language analysis and link to an effect

Winter: My Secret

Analysis of Winter: My Secret

1st stanza -

• "I tell my secret?" - rhetorical
• Seems self obsessed
• "Perhaps" used as an adverb
• Internal rhyme - humorous
• Direct address
• 3 rhetorical questions - recreate other speakers' voices - high frequency
• "Fie!" - exclamatory - used to express disgust and outrage
• "Mine" and "I" - possessive

2nd stanza -

• "But only just my fun" and "suppose" - teasing
• "Nipping" and "Biting" - personification - secret could be eating away at her
• "One" - pronoun
• "Cannot ope to anyone who taps" - doesn't want to open up to anyone
• Couplet increases the pace of the poem
• "I wear my mask for warmth" - figurative connotations
• "Shows", "blows" and "snows" - rhyming triplet
• "Believe" - imperative - telling them to trust her 

3rd stanza -

• "Yet I don't trust" - playful paranoia
• Personification of the seasons
• Focus is on the negatives

4th stanza -

• Juxtaposition of "languid" and "summer day"
• "Not too much sun nor too much cloud" - perfect conditions necessary to tell secret - possibly means there is no secret or there is no way she will ever tell anyone
• "Or you may guess" - guess may be better than reality or may not have a secret - teasing
• Gives hope to the person being addressed

Overall -

• Title - ambiguous
• Complex punctuation used throughout - not actually explaining anything
• Woman is asserting power over a man - pushing boundaries
• Irregular rhyme scheme
• Undermining the power of a woman

Analysis of Rossetti's poems

Echo -

• Reference to death
• "Paradise" = heaven
• "As long ago" - past, death, memories

Remember -

• Theme of death - she doesn't want any grief
• "For if the darkness and corruption leave" - doesn't want to be remembered for bad things
• Focus on death and afterlife - religious connotations

Song (When I Am Dead, My Dearest) -

• Doesn't want to be remembered - "plant thou no roses at my head" and "sing no sad songs for me"
• Theme of death is prevalent
• "Wilt" - double meaning - ambiguous (flowers)
• Does not fear death - accepting her fate

From the Antique -

• "I wish I were a man" - possible reference to oppression
• Theme of not feeling cared about/not wanting to be cared about
• Weary life

A Birthday -

• More positive (unusual for Rossetti's poetry)
• In reference to other poems - emphasises and over exaggerates emotions and situations

Shut Out -

• Had something and lost it - never the same again
• Death references - "shadowless spirit"
• "It had been mine and it was lost" - love?
• Garden could represent happiness and/or love
• "A violet bed was budding near" - happiness returning but not as good as before

Overall -

• Her persona is not scared of death
• Self pity
• Doesn't want people to mourn her death
• Depression - consolidating herself (illness)
• Coping mechanism
• Death was very common/prevalent in Victorian times
• Writes about things that concern her
• Loss in a sense of absence
• Never married or had children - expectations at the time
• Cut herself off from society
• Identity - female/gender issues
• Didn't believe in herself - thought she would be forgotten
• Emotional pain
• Writes about religion
• Direct address
• Natural Imagery - flowers, trees, birds etc (possibly symbolism of life)
• Rossetti was a feminist

Shut Out

Analysis of Shut Out

1st stanza -

• "The door was shut" - a simple sentence/one idea (defensive)
• "Iron bars" and "flowers bedewed and green" - contrast/juxtaposition
• "Iron bars" - what she wants is in reach but the bars are acting as a barrier
• "My garden" - possessive "my" and "i" throughout
• "Bedewed and green" - adjectives - reinforces the narrators attitude
• "Garden" - love? death? person/relationship?

2nd stanza -

• Repetition of "from", "bough" and "flower" - reinforces nostalgic tone
• Entire stanza is a complex sentence = complex feelings/thought process
• Sentence variety from 1st stanza
• "Lost" - positioning in the stanza draws attention to it

3rd stanza -

• "Shadowless spirit" - inhuman, scary, frightening - reference to death
• "Blank and unchanging" - reinforces previous point
• "Like the grave" - simile
• "Let" - imperative dialogue - desperate not forceful

4th stanza -

• "He answered not" - blunt tone and simple sentence
• "One small twig" - reinforces desperation
• Lack of dialogue from the spirit

5th stanza -

• "Spirit" - afterlife - another reference to death
• "Build a wall" - wall and garden are symbolic
• "He" - masculine pronoun - possible link to a relationship
• "Straining eyes" - reinforces desperation and frustration

6th stanza -

• "So now" - past to present tense - less anger - more resigned - realisation
• "Blinded with tears" - hyperbole
• "Delightful land" - reference to land = hyperbole

7th stanza -

• "And good..." and "And dear..." - parallelism

Overall -

• 1st person narrator/voice/persona
• Regular rhyme scheme 
• May have lost something/someone
• Iambic tetrameter - 4 beats in each line
• Title "Shut Out" - sentence fragment - incomplete - terse and aggressive tone
• Lexical choices - 2nd and 3rd stanza
• 1st stanza - impression of rhythm and rhyme 
• Choice of verbs and connotations 
• Pleading and desperate tone