The Inevitability Of Death In Remember And Remember By Christina Rossetti

In the poem ‘Remember’ by Christina Rossetti, the speaker feels that as their death is inevitable, they must focus on the loved one that they are leaving behind and ensure that they will not waste their lives grieving. Likewise, in the poem ‘Song’, the speaker feels similarly to that of ‘Remember’, as they try to ensure that their loved on will not be afraid or distraught once they have died. Rossetti expresses these feelings in both poems by her use of language features such as sibilance, as well as structural devices such as regular iambic rhythm.
Rossetti presents the idea of the speaker’s focusing on their loved ones in both ‘Remember’ and ‘Song’. In ‘Song’, the speaker focuses on their loved one and convinces them not to grieve once …show more content…
The poem ‘Remember’ begins with the speaker asking their loved one to ‘remember me when I am gone away, / Gone far away into the silent land.’ The conjunction ‘when’ indicates that the speaker knows that their death is approaching, as they are sure that their loved one will have to remember them. As well as this, the repetition of the phrase ‘gone away’ with ‘gone far away’ emphasises the distance between life and death, as it indicates that they will no longer be with their loved one. Furthermore, the ‘silent land’ is a symbol of death which further emphasises the speaker’s acceptance of their inevitable death as they clearly state that they will be ‘gone far away into the silent land’, meaning that death will take them away. Similarly, in ‘Song’, the speaker also immediately acknowledges that their death is inevitable. The first line of the poem involves the speaker telling their loved one that ‘when I am dead, my dearest, / Sing no sad songs for me.’ Again, the conjunction ‘when’ suggests that the speaker is aware of their approaching death, as they are not unsure about whether it will happen. The sibilance of ‘sing no sad songs’ creates a soothing tone, which emphasises the speaker’s acceptance of the inevitability of death as they remain calm. Finally, the iambic trimeter in both of these lines further emphasises the speaker’s calm feelings, as the regular rhythm appears soothing. The idea of the speakers’ acknowledgement of the inevitability of death could also be linked to Rossetti’s religious views, as although the speaker’s know that death is unavoidable, they are not afraid as they believe that they will be going to heaven. Rossetti uses ideas about the inevitability of death to explore feelings of death and loss in both ‘Song’ and