"After Death, and the Role of Unrequited Love"

 

 

Christina Rossetti's "After Death" is a Petrarchan sonnet in which the speaker addresses a man who had been in her life, but she addresses him after she is dead. This scenario suggests that the poem treats the topic of unrequited love, a common topic in lyric poetry, as the basis for the narrator's feelings. While the relationship between the speaker and the man in the sonnet is unclear, the speaker touches upon how this man does not show her any affection in her death, linking the possibility of the man being her lover. The man does address the woman as, "poor child", also indicating that he could be her father as well. The text leaves an ambiguity to the nature of the relationship between the man and woman. Thus, this sonnet brings up many questions considering its own context: not only who the man is, but also why he seems so indifferent to the speaker after she had died. In addition, there is a supernatural aspect to the sonnet since the speaker is looking at herself in her own death. The word "after" preceding the word "death" in the sonnet also indicates a supernatural feel, implying the possibility of existence beyond death. The reader is able to observe the man who is mourning from a subjective point, by envisioning the scene through the eyes of the woman who is deceased. Given the aspect of the speaker and the fact that she is comfortable in her own death, the reader can draw upon the conclusion that the speaker took her own life, and finds joy in her death.

 

"After Death" is written in iambic pentameter, and follows a traditional rhyme scheme. The mood of the sonnet is somber and the imagery helps impact the sadness of the sonnet. Imagery of "rushes, rosemary, and may" allude to mourning as flowers are a symbol of mourning. There are also images of light becoming dark with the curtains being "half drawn" and the "shadows crept" into the room connoting death. There is a speaker in the poem, and a man who speaks to the deceased woman. There is a contrast of the sonnet because it is related from the point of view of a woman who is dead. The woman sees a man who is visiting her dead body at a wake, and yet, her soul is awake observing the man. The speaker takes a personal approach that makes the piece feels as if the reader is experiencing the speaker's emotions. The reader might be left with questions from the text though, leaving the work open for interpretation. The speaker is speaking to a man, but it is not clear who the man is in relation to her. She speaker says the man "did not love" the woman while she was alive, and she sees the man in his unwillingness to show her dead body affection. "He did not touch the shroud, or raise the fold...or take my hand in his..." In her own death, the speaker realizes the man saying goodbye to her did not care for her while she was living, nor while she is dead. The context of the mannerisms and dialogue suggest the relationship between the speaker and the man was tumultuous to the point where perhaps the speaker ended her own life out of spite for the man not loving her.

 

Many elements stand out in the poem, marking effect. The end rhyme contains words of "swept", "crept", "wept", and "slept" that all rhyme with the word death. Although the word "death" does not appear in the sonnet, it appears in the title and it is apparent death is the subject of the sonnet. The other end rhymes of "may", "lay", "say", and "away" are also reminiscent of death as a person would "lay" in death, or go "away" with death. The pattern of rhyme is an odd scheme, also with a pattern of caesura, marking dramatic effect at certain points. The end of the poem suggests the speaker as being happy to be dead when she says, "and very sweet it is to know he is warm though I am cold." The bitterness in the tone of the speaker leads me to suggest the role of unrequited love as the subject of the poem. To better understand this theory, the reader will first need to break down the sonnet line by line. I will break down the sonnet in quatrains.

 

The sonnet begins with an enjambment, signifying a moving flow.

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.

These lines are full of imagery of flowers being in abundance at a wake. Flowers are a symbol of mourning, and an abundance of flowers leads the reader to believe there are many mourners who loved the woman. The curtains being "half drawn" and the "shadows" give the image of sunlight fading into darkness signifying life traveling into death. It is said when people face their death, they experience bright light and the urge to go towards it. The imagery of light can also suggest heaven, while darkness and shadow could suggest hell. The supernatural aspect of the sonnet can also be seen with the contrasting of light and darkness. Ghosts or apparitions are often described as shadowy, blurry images, and these images of shadows in the sonnet suggest a dark, murky image conducive of death.

 

The second quatrain holds a rhyme scheme of the same as the the first quatrain with lines of abba, also following a traditional petrarchan sonnet form.

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.

The words "slept" and "wept" in these lines, as well as "swept" and "crept" in the first quatrain create a slant rhyme with the word "death", as suggested earlier. These end rhyme words help to deepen the meaning of the word "death" and draw upon the overall atmosphere of the sonnet. Here, in the second quatrain, the reader is introduced to a man who is leaning over a dead woman. He speaks, but the only words he says are, "poor child, poor child", leading the reader to believe he could be the woman's father. Although the speaker's body is sleeping, her soul is awake and she sees the happenings of her own wake. These four lines all have a hard-medial caesura, marking them in dramatic effect in the pausing of the words. The speaker says she knew the man "wept", yet there is nothing concrete in the poem showing the man actually weeping. This can lead the reader to believe the woman knew the man in an intimate fashion, being able to pick up on his mannerisms. Knowing the man weeps helps bring a finality to the fact of his acceptance of the woman being dead.

 

The final quatrain takes on a different rhyme scheme, becoming cdee.

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

The man is subjective and not at all endearing in his mannerisms. The man is unwilling to touch the woman, drawing the reader to conclude that even though he does not touch her in death, he may not have been able to while she was alive as well. The man's response is so ambiguous, the reader is left unsure of the man's grief. The line "ruffle the smooth pillows" hold a contrast of words. "Ruffle" appears to be rough and to tousle something, while "smooth" means that a surface does not hold any breaks. These words can be interpreted as life and death. The woman's life many have been rough, while in death, she is now without the roughness that plagued her life. The speaker directly tells the reader that the man did not love her, but also suggesting the "once dead" there was a possibility of love.

 

In closing, the closing couplet is very telling of the relationship between the man and the woman.

He pitied me: and very sweet it is

to know he is still warm though I am cold.

The speaker is criticizing the man in saying that he pities her in her death and did not care for her while she was alive. The speaker seems to relish the fact that she is dead and the man is alive. She says, it is "sweet" to know that he is "warm" while she is "cold". Warm relates to living and cold relates to death. The narrator appears to accept her death, which can lead the reader to believe the possibility that her death may have been self-inflicted. The last line of the couplet is whole, while the two preceding lines hold a caesura. The last line not holding a break draws upon the finality of the speaker accepting her death, while the lines containing caesura are suggestive of the relationship between the two as being strained, or broken. The mental state of the speaker can be seen as strained as well because she is at ease with her own death, and seems satisfied that she has gotten a reaction out of the man. The sonnet connects living and dead with the imagery of flowers and shadows, and the interaction between the living and the dead. the entire sonnet strains though out, not just in breaks but also in imagery and contrast between the man and the woman, drawing on the finality of love not reciprocal.