Lauren Hillstrom
MW 2:30
12/17/12
Option A
Final Paper: Remember

“Remember” by Christina Rossetti is a sonnet written in iambic pentameter. Her poem follows the structure of an Italian sonnet, one divided into an octave and sestet. The author’s thought process is portrayed through the rhythmic divide of her poem. The octave rhyming ABBAABBA directly pleads a loved one to remember her when she is gone. Then the following sestet rhyming CDDECE creates a shift in atmosphere, where she realizes the mortality of memory and would rather her love one be happy than mourn in the misery of her death. The fourteen lines altogether portray themes of love, fear, and death. With dark and sad undertones, the words “you” and “I” are used frequently showing that the poem is a dialogue speaking directly to a loved one. Throughout the poem she uses anaphora, such as repeating ‘remember’ at the beginning of several sentences. In the first line “Remember me when I am gone away”, she is speaking to someone in a direct form asking to be remembered when she is no longer here. Thus, the idea of separation is introduced here. At this point, we cannot tell if she is embarking on a journey, leaving a relationship behind or what calls for this separation between her and the person she is speaking to. Following, in the second line, “Gone away into the silent land”, the word ‘gone’ is used as a euphemism for death by using silent land as a metaphor for heaven. This imagery of heaven reveals the separation will be due to death, her own death, which rationalizes why she wants this person to remember her when she departs from earth to heaven. The colon at the end of the second line creates a strong pause, calling the attention of the reader to the third line, “When you can no more hold me by the hand”. She raises awareness that there will be no more physical contact when she is gone, using