Poetry by Rossetti

Meter:

Rhythm of a poem

Important element in the structure of poetry

Analysed in terms of feet- a small number of consecutive syllables

Stressed/unstressed- a foot is classified according to the pattern of stresses

Rhyme:

Regular pattern of rhyme only- rhyme scheme

Rhyming poems can have no regular pattern

According to rhyme sounds and uses letters of the alphabet to identify

End rhyme: when the most noticeable rhyme is at the end of the line

Internal rhyme: when words rhyme with other words within the rhyme

Half rhyme: when only the vowels or consonants are identical

Eye rhyme: when the spelling of the word is identical but pronunciation is different

Masculine rhyme: rhyme of one syllable

Feminine rhyme: rhyme of two or more syllables

Blank Verse:

Regular meter

No rhyme

Most common- iambic pentameter

Free Verse:

No rhyme or structure

Relies solely on words to create emotional and aesthetic effect

Tries to put 'the right words in the right places'

More experimental than formal verse

Born in London- educated at home- brother was artist- father was a poet and political asylum seeker- suffered from a nervous breakdown aged 14- left school

Bouts of depression- became interested in the Anglo-Catholic movement- engaged to painter James Collison- ended because he reverted to Catholicism- engaged to linguist Charles Cayley- also did not marry for religious reasons- volunteer worker for 11 years at St Mary Magdalene 'house of charity'- a refuge for prostitutes

Began writing at 7- 18 when first published a poem- appeared in athenaeum magazine- critical praise- described as natural successor of Elizabeth Barrett Browning- wrote 'In the Bleak Midwinter'

Focused on devotional writing and children's poetry- large circle of friends- ambivalent about women's suffrage- opposed to war, slavery, cruelty to animals, exploitation of girls, military aggression

Died from cancer- popularity suffered from modernism- feminists rediscovered her

Conveyed connotations of 'prudish', 'repressed', 'old fashioned'- second English Renaissance- great expansions of wealth, power and culture

Invented teh modern idea of invention- create solutions to problems- man can create new means of bettering himself and his environment

A great age of religious doubt- question institutional Christianity- literature adn arts combined Romantic emphases upon self, emotion and imagination with Neoclassical ones upon the public role of art and a corollary responsibility of the artist

Ideology, politics and society- astonishing innovation and change- democracy, feminism, unionisation of workers, socialsim, Marxism- Darwin, Marx, Freud- modern problems- modern solutions- provoked a powerful reaction against itself

Art and literature- two different and almost opposed movements- the second grew out of the first- originated from Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood- mid nineteenth century avante garde painters associated with Ruskin- great effect on British, American and European art

Founded in 1849 by Hunt, Rossetti, Millais, Rossetti, Collinson, Woolner and Stephens to revitalize the arts- Christina Rossetti was a crucial member of the inner circle- never published a manifesto- create an art suitable for the modern age

Testing and defying all conventions of art- precise representation of humble objects- transform the resultant hard edge realism- encouraged writers and artists to practice each other's art- looked for new subjects in Shakespeare, Keats and Tennyson

Other artists and writers former part of a larger Pre-Raphaelite circle

D G Rossetti- produced Arts and Crafts Movement, modern functional design and the Aesthetes and Decandents- themes of eroticized medievalism and pictorial techniques- moody atmosphere

More relevant to poetry- most influence upon literature- poetic continuum- descends from Spenser- through Keats and Tennyson- lush vowel sounds, sensuous description, subjective psychological states