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Summary Rossetti Piteous My Rhyme Is Analysis
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In-depth analysis of Rossetti's language, structure, form and meaning
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Rossetti – PiteousInitial Responses Development of ideas and interpretations
(red)
Meaning / Ideas / Themes constructed and explored by Meaning / Ideas / Themes constructed and
the poet explored by the poet
- highlights the human condition- as we all die, all love - human love will die alongside her
is pointless relatives, however if she loves them
through her ability to love God → her
- ‘Time is but a span,/ The dalliance space of a dying love will be more powerful
man’- again, highlights the human condition and
mortality, the idea that life lacks meaning as we will all - ‘Is this all mortals can?’- there is no
eventually die- depressingly nihilistic view of life lasting meaning in life- all mortals can od
is casually engage in life until death
- ‘Love loves forever’- love can be eternal through God,
as He himself is eternal→ idea that God loves for us - how love transcends the lives it touches
- ‘Love laughs at “never”,/ Outlives our life, exceeds the - morality, existentialism, love, loss
span/ Appointed to mere mortal man’ → love is a way
of getting past the mortal idea- we will all die - poem presents two antithetical views of
love- negative vs positive
- God’s love is everlasting- it outlives earthly love and
time
Use of form Use of form
- rhyme scheme- ABBCCADDDC, EBCBCEDDDC - masculine rhyme of ‘pain’ and ‘vain’-
suggests a harshness- love and torment
- lyric poem- contains personal emotional message-
equal structural weight given to ideas about mortal - metre- not unified throughout BUT
love and religious love- suggestive of a conflict? consistent pattern in relation to the
indented lines
- each indented line (lines one, five, six,
and ten of both stanzas) contains five
syllables —> remaining lines have 8
Use of structural devices (include key terms) Use of structural devices
- repetition of love in the first stanza- each line - anaphoric repetition in ‘Of love’-
highlights a hopeless vision of love- nihilism/ exaggerates the emotions the persona
pessimism associated with love
- repeated assonance in ‘pain’ ‘vain’ ‘again’ - shift from trimeter to catalectic trimeter
between stanzas to reflect joyful change
- ‘And this is all then?’- rhetorical question has in tone
existential undertones- suggestive of a lack of
satisfaction- Rossetti perhaps reflecting on her past - anastrophe in ‘Piteous my rhyme is’
attitude towards love now she is confronted with (starting with the adjective) used to
death alone emphasise ‘piteous’
- structural shift between first and second stanzas- - first stanza- the speaker lists loves that
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