Introduction of Poet
Christina Rossetti born in London in 1830. She became one of the finest poet of the Victorian age. She wrote romantic, devotional and children’s poems. She also wrote two Christmas Carols well known in the UK. She started her journey of poetry in 1842, in which the influence of her favoured poets was evident.
She was best known for her ballads and her mystic religious lyrics. Also, most of her poems revolve around the theme of death. Marya Zaturenska believes that Christina has been primarily “the poet of death, the poet of the death-wish”. Her well-known works are Goblin Market, Remember, Love Came Down at Christmas and other poems.
Poem After Death by Christina Rossetti
The curtains were half drawn, the floor was swept
And strewn with rushes, rosemary and may
Lay thick upon the bed on which I lay,
Where through the lattice ivy-shadows crept.
He leaned above me, thinking that I slept
And could not hear him; but I heard him say,
‘Poor child, poor child’: and as he turned away
Came a deep silence, and I knew he wept.
He did not touch the shroud, or raise the fold
That hid my face, or take my hand in his,
Or ruffle the smooth pillows for my head:
He did not love me living; but once dead
He pitied me; and very sweet it is
To know he still is warm though I am cold.
Summary of After Death poem
The poem talks about after death – where the speaker hears and sees the reaction of a man who is probably either her lover, husband, or father. The man does not touch her nor show any physical display of love even on the death of the Speaker. He shows a subtle reaction of pity and a silent weep.
She states that he never showed any kind of love while she was alive. She craved his love while she was alive but she never received it and even on her death he only shows her pity.
The poem ends with setting back the theme of death. The Speaker states that she is dead while he is alive. She accepts her death and dismays the fact that he never used the opportunity to love her while she was alive.
Central Theme in the poem After Death
The central theme is death and love. It is about how the speaker in the poem craved the love of a man who is probably her lover or father. The man never showed his love towards her while she was alive. On the death of the speaker, the she hears and watches the reaction of the man to her death.
The man does not touch her nor shows any sign of commitment but pities and silently weeps for a small moment. The poem revolves around how the speaker yearned for love while she lived not after her death. She is anguished on the fact that he never showed his love while she was around and even on her death, she is unsure if his pity hints towards the feelings she craved for.
After Death poem Line by Line Interpretation
The curtains were half drawn, the floor was swept
And strewn with rushes, rosemary and may
The opening lines set the mood of the poem by giving a fine description of the death room where the speaker is lying on the bed dead. The curtains being half drawn and the strewn flowers show not just the room’s condition but also the speaker’s mental state.
Lay thick upon the bed on which I lay,
Where through the lattice ivy-shadows crept.
Flowers being offered to a dead person is the commonly held practice. Here, speakers say flowers kay thick on her, which can be interpreted as many people have already visited her. The choice of the word shadow upholds the theme of death.
He leaned above me, thinking that I slept
And could not hear him; but I heard him say,
Speaker introduces a personality whose association with the speaker is not revealed. His gestures in a funeral seem unusual according to the speaker’s description. One thing to note here is, in the second line, the speaker says she could not hear but yet heard him speaking. This furthermore emphasizes that this can be the imagination of the speaker where she lives like a dead woman and only her feelings are alive.
‘Poor child, poor child’: and as he turned away
Came a deep silence, and I knew he wept.
Another interpretation could be that a man, supposedly the father or lover, of the speaker in the poem leaned towards the narrator thinking that she is unable to hear him. He wasn’t aware that the soul was still present and could hear and see around. The soul heard him mutter ‘Poor child, poor child” and he turned away with deep silence and she was sure that the man wept in sadness.
He did not touch the shroud, or raise the fold
That hid my face, or take my hand in his,
Or ruffle the smooth pillows for my head:
He did not touch the cloth that hid the speaker’s face or held the hand or even smoothen and adjust the pillow for her head. In the lines, ruffle and smooth are opposite which can also show the differences between the speaker and the man. There was no physical display of love or sadness over the loss.
He did not love me living; but once dead
He pitied me; and very sweet it is
To know he still is warm though I am cold.
She recalls how the man didn’t love her while she was alive and now that she is dead, he pities her. The Speaker finds it very sweet that the man is warm while she is cold. It can be an expression of sarcasm displayed by the speaker.
It can either mean two things – Firstly that she is happy that the man is still alive even though she is dead. It is a point of realization and acceptance of her death and fate. Secondly, it could also infer that the man is not as cold as the speaker had thought he was and has a soft side to him hidden well behind all the coldness and she is glad to have seen the secret love hidden for him within.
After Death Poem Analysis
After Death is one of the poems of Christina Rossetti which has death as a major theme. Most of her poem themes revolve around death and religion. Nesca Robb writes that ” Christina is pursued, as she was all her days, by the thought of death”.
In this poem, death is undescribed but as the title suggests, it speaks about after death. The poem seems like the speaker narrating the situation to readers. She describes the setting of the situation, where half-drawn curtains, scattered flowers, and shadow instill the feeling of uncertainty and death.
The man in the poem shows no love towards the speaker when she was alive and he does not even will to touch her death. This could be because he was guilty and filled with sadness of her death who couldn’t accept her death, or he does not feel anything to the speaker.
In the last two lines of the poem, the speaker says sarcastically that it was sweet to know that he still is warm though she is cold. The ending note gives readers the complete feel of anguish that the speaker feels which continues even after the poem ends.
This poem has two interpretations, firstly, the speaker might be putting forth the image of her death and its consequences. This explains to us the pain that the speaker is undergoing when she is alive. Or it can be a soul wondering after death in its funeral witnessing the mourn. Overall, the poem has a passive-aggressive and resentment tone that the speaker shows towards the man.
According to Georgina Battiscombe, William Rossetti said of Christina that “she was compelled, even if not naturally disposed of, to regard this world as a ‘Valley of the shadow of death”. This we can conclude that Christina’s few poems are extraordinarily created with death as the predominant theme.
Poem structure and Poetic Devices in After Death
This poem is an Italian sonnet formed of fourteen verses. It has two quatrains and two tercets, which have a rhyme scheme pattern of ABBA ABBA CDEEDC. Therefore it was written in iambic pentameter, which means that there are five iambic feet in each verse.
*Assonance:
” He pitied me, and very sweet it is”.
” The curtains were half drawn, the floor was swept”.
* Alliteration:
“And strewn with rushes, rosemary and may”.
“And could not hear him; but I heard him say,”
*Enjambment:
“The curtains were half drawn, the floor was swept,
And strewn with rushes, rosemary and may
Lay thick upon the bed on which I lay,
Where through the lattice ivy- shadows crept.”
