(Poem #8) Song When I am dead, my dearest,
Sing no sad songs for me;
Plant thou no roses at my head,
Nor shady cypress tree:
Be the green grass above me
With showers and dewdrops wet;
And if thou wilt, remember,
And if thou wilt, forget.
I shall not see the shadows,
I shall not feel the rain;
I shall not hear the nightingale
Sing on, as if in pain:
And dreaming through the twilight
That doth not rise nor set,
Haply I may remember,
And haply may forget.
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A lovely if somewhat sentimental poem. Not perhaps as famous as 'Goblin
Market', it is nonetheless a nice example of Rosetti's style - somewhat
melancholy, and permeated by the twilit boundary between life and death,
waking and sleep. It is interesting to contrast her poems with those of
Thomas Hardy, who took a similar but far harsher view of death and oblivion.
Biographical Note: Christina Rosetti, like her more famous brother Dante
Gabriel Rosetti, belonged to the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Her 'Goblin
Market' was the first major success of the Brotherhood, and one she never
quite equaled.
Perhaps she realized that she was unable to write anything better than
"Goblin Market," or perhaps her "failure" to surpass herself is explained by
her turn away from poetry to children's stories and religious materials.
-- David Cody, on The Victorian Web
See <[broken link] http://www.stg.brown.edu/projects/hypertext/landow/victorian/crossetti/rossetti5.html>
Martin
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