SONG

by: Christina Rossetti

WHEN I am dead, my dearest,

Sing no sad songs for me;

From the first sentence, we can see the topic of this poem is death. In the second sentence, Rossetti is telling her loved ones not to mourn over her death, either because she is trying to cheer them up and tell them to forget about her or she has already accepted death and she doesn’t need sad songs.

Plant thou no roses at my head,

Nor shady cypress tree:

Be the green grass above me

With showers and dewdrops wet;

These four lines contain words that are related to nature such as roses, trees, grass, showers and dewdrops. Since these words are related to nature and life, and when Rossetti says I don’t need any of this, it’s to strengthen her point in the second line, that she accepts death and is telling her loved ones to forget about her.

And if thou wilt, remember,

And if thou wilt, forget.

These two lines are interesting because they contradict each other. One of them says to remember and the other says to forget, but I’m not really sure what message the author is trying to convey here.

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,

The second stanza is different from the first stanza. The first stanza used words relating to nature and life, but in the second stanza we see darker words, such as shadows, rain, pain, and twilight. I think the author is trying to describe how it’s like to be dead because “she is dreaming through the twilight” and she’s forgetting her loved ones, who are the shadows, who are singing in pain and maybe the rain is referring to tears.

Haply I may remember,

And haply may forget.

Here we see the contradiction again with the words remember and forget.