Poem:
Double Identity in Rossetti's Poems
This posting guides students about "The Double Text in Christina Rossetti's 'After Death' and 'Remember.'" It also addresses this claim:
"Margaret Reynolds notes what she calls the doubleness of Christina Rossetti's poetry. She argues that her poetry characterizes the kind of life that Rossetti led. Society required a woman to be demure, but Rossetti subtly expressed powerful individuality. On the surface, Rossetti's work, exemplified in these two poems, seems "neat, polite, and 'simple,'" but that surface hides an attitude that is "perverse, caustic, and complex" (27). Many critics have noticed the doubleness and complexity of Rossetti's poetry, but would you agree with Reynolds that Rossetti's work is caustic or perverse? What does Reynolds mean by those terms, and is it fair to apply them to Rossetti's work? Compare Reynolds very careful readings of "After Death" (from the Norton Anthology, page 1461) and "Remember" with your own and determine whether Reynolds's characterization of Rossetti is accurate. Can you also add an understanding of Rossetti's other poetry that can be added to this argument?"