Month: December 2012

Christina had various of themes within her poems and lyrics, the one that was the most interesting to me was the death themed poems; this stood out for me as it is not common for someone to think about death so often enough to write poems and poems on it, she seems to look at the negative side of situations as well as the positive which is another uncommon theme I personally see. A death themed poem of Christina Rossetti I found the most appealing is “Remember”, my favourite line is as follows; “Remember me when I am gone away, / Gone for away into the silent land”. I chose these two lines as this is not something a typical human being would think about from time to time, although I can relate that there are days where I think about death and the “silent land”.

She also wrote about real life every day activities situations, either her life or just a well known person in general; the difficulty between love and fame. This is something that other famous people could relate to and feel comforted as they may not be the only person in the situation, as Christina continued to write poems such as that; she continued to inspire many people.

As time went by Christina Rossetti started to break away and went against some of the literal rules, showing her unprofessional manner; in the 19th century this may had been something that was frowned upon so she started to get judged. As a modern day audience this is something I personally see as inspirational, not because she broke rules, but it showed her true self and she still came out successful despite the trouble she may have gone through. She was neglecting the world and holding everything inside her, making people become suspicious and curious of how unprofessional this for a poet; however she then came out with a breakthrough poem book that included Goblin Market which I have studied in class. This shows how committed she was in to her job and poems, neglecting what most people find difficult to neglect to come out bigger and brighter than ever before.

An Victorian critic Edwin Hood described Goblin Market as “Rare delight and refreshment”, this is something I can relate to as I would agree with him; even in today’s society this poem would be seen as rare, the whole Goblin association would be common especially to fairy tales and children’s TV but it is unusual for it to be in a poem that sounds and looks like would be a 18+. However the reviewer also mentioned “delight”, this could imply that he actually saw the eating fruits actions and words actually eating fruits and nothing sexual; making it easy for people to relate to it as most people do eat fruit often and enjoy eating it.

Some people see the Goblins, in the poem is symbolism for men in society; and the sisters are women that sacrifice themselves for less fortunate, for pointless reasons or because of men. This would’ve been appealing to the 19th century audience as men and women were a lot different to how they are in today’s society, a few things they were treated different would be that it was expect for the husband to go work whilst the wife stays at home.

Limerick.

Limerick has been described as kind of witty, humorous or nonsense poem. It has a strict rhyme scheme which is AABBA; this can be seen as the humorous intent.

Limerick was found in England in the early 18th century however was only popularized in the 19thcentury.

In Limerick’s there is a stanza of five lines, in the first, second and fifth line; they usually rhyme with one another having three feet of three syllables each. The shorter third and fourth lines also rhyme with each other but only having two feet of three syllables.

Limerick was found in the early 18th century but was only popularized in 19th century by a English man named Edward Lear. Limerick was named after the city in Ireland. The famous Limerick that most people know today is

Hickory Dickory Dock
A mouse ran up the clock
The clock struck one
And down he run
Hickory Dickory Dock.

The first line of Limericks normally establish the subject without giving the story away; for example introducing a person and a place, setting the tone for the poem. It is consist of five lines with the rhyme scheme of “aabba”. All of the “a” would have the same syllables as each other, and so would the “b”. However syllables are not too important in most Limericks, focuses more about the rhyme and rhythm.

Most Limerick Poets liked using the style because of its simplicity, nothing too complicated and not too simple with enough to entertain both children and adults. They also thought that it was easy to write as there are always five lines with very short sentences, making it not only easy to read but to remember as well. Another thing they felt that it was effective even though it is short but the rhythm and rhyming words would help emphasize it on it too, especially for the last line as it is commonly to be the most humorous out of the whole poem.