Inital assessment

Nature through poetry.


Christina Rossetti, a Victorian poet and High Anglican often expresses her views on 'Religion and spirituality' and 'Life and death' through her naturalistic imagery. This is evident in the cleansing of the soul through baptism in, 'A Birthday' and the question of life after death in the poem, 'Song'. Rossetti uses the theme of nature to represent the fact that Rossetti does not express her faith though tradition and rituals but finds her spirituaolity through the sensuality of nature and is not inluenced by contemporary religion.
Firstly, religion and spirtuality is a key topic for Rossetti, being a devout Anglican herself. She expresses her ideas and beliefs about her very personal relationship with God through her metaphoric description of nature, For example, the third simile, 'My heart is like a rainbow shell that paddles in a hacylon sea'' could be a link to baptism and the purity and cleansing of ones soul. This could infer that the title, 'A Birthday' could be a metaphor for the fact that through baptism, she feels born again in Christ and therefore has a new 'Birthday'. Another key reference to baptism is predominant in Rossetti's other poem, 'Paradise; In a dream' in which Rossetti uses the phrase, 'the fourfold river flow'.This depiction of an abundant river flowing could be a reference to the Bible where it states that God will "Repay devoted tithes fourfold for what they give onto God." The fact that Rossetti doesn't directly refer to baptism or tithing could suggest the influence of Keats. The Romantic period of which Keats was alive was a time of disbelief or doubt in God and Religion, especially the religous rituals of the church, therefore, people found their spirituality through other things, and for Rossetti this was nature which is similar to Keats. Rossetti was heavily influenced by Keats' litrature and could therefore be the reason why Rossetti despises rituals but finds her spirituality through nature and uses metaphors of naturalistic depictions to represent her deeper beliefs. This can be also suggested from Rossetti's other poem; Song, when in the third line of the first stanza, "Plant thou no roses at my head." A "rose" normally represents death and because the speaker is telling their loved one not to use rituals and traditions to cope with their death. Victorian attitudes to death were very much representational and ritualistic as religion was a big influence into the Victorian era. This further illustrates the fact that Rossetti shows her views on religion through a metaphor of nature and not the normalities of Victorian religion.
Secondly, Rossetti also uses the theme of nature to represent life and death. This is more prominant in the poem; "Song", when in the last coupke of verses of the first stanza it says, "And if thou wilt, remember, And if thou wilt, forget." This poses the question that, is one really dead if theyre still remebered in peoples mind and souls? Rossetti also uses nature as a link to death in the second stanza when it says, "I shall not hear the nightingale." This line doesn't fit with the rhythm of iambic trimeter that Rossetti is following. This represents how spontanious nature is but how death is also. Another poem where life and detah is expressed through nature us in the poem, "Paradise; In A Dream". Rossetti uses the words, "bud and bloom", this alliteration emphasizes Rossetti's representaion of nature being a metaphor, in this line, for youth and a promise of life.