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FOREWORD
INTRODUCTION
TO POETRY
HISTORY OF
ENGLISH LANGUAGE
POETRY
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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CHRISTINA ROSSETTI 1830  1894
Christina Rossetti was one of the most important woman poets of the 19th
century, proving hugely influential and talented in the areas of children’s
poetry, devotional verse and fantasy. Though her popularity waned in
the early 20th century with the advent of Modernism, interest in her work
was revived in the 1970s, particularly amongst feminist scholars, who
considered her an icon of suppressed female genius. Freudian scholars
have explored themes of religious and sexual repression in her works,
while others have recognised her technical mastery. Rossetti’s quiet
spirituality and humility concealed a passionate and intense nature, and
the success of her poetry lies in her ability to reconcile these seemingly
contradictory aspects of her personality through her verse.
Rossetti was born in London in 1830, the youngest child of a highly artistic Italian
family. Her father, Gabriele Rossetti, was a successful poet; her brother Dante
Portrait of Christina Rossetti by her brother,
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
was a highly influential Pre-Raphaelite painter; and her two other siblings, Maria
and William, were
both writers. Rossetti was a precocious and talented
Rossetti’s brother Dante was a founding member of the
child, and by the age of 12 was already composing her
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, an influential group of
mid-19th century avante garde artists. Members of the
own poetry, which her grandfather printed for her on
Brotherhood rejected the ‘mechanist’, academic approach
his private press. A few years later, she contributed seven
of contemporary artists and favoured instead the Classical
poems for publication in the Pre-Raphaelite journal The
poses and compositions of High Renaissance artists, such
Germ, under the pseudonym of Ellen Alleyne.
as Raphael and Michelangelo. Several poets, including
The Rossetti family faced financial crisis when her
Rossetti, were associated with this artistic movement,
father’s physical and mental health failed; Rossetti herself
and their work shares some of the characteristics of the
experienced depression and illness during this period,
Brotherhood’s art.
and suffered a nervous breakdown at the age of 14. The
family’s difficulties only served to strengthen her religious
faith, however; along with her mother and sister, Rossetti was a deeply devoted Anglican. In 1850, she broke off
her engagement to fellow Pre-Raphaelite artist James Collinson when he converted to Roman Catholicism, and later
rejected a proposal from Charles Bagot Cayley in 1864 for similar religious reasons.
Rossetti spent most of her life as a companion to her mother, and was devoted to her religion and the writing of poetry.
In 1871, she was struck by Grave’s disease, an autoimmune disorder that threatened her life and left her physically
disfigured. Following her illness, she concentrated on religious and devotional poetry and prose, and continued to write
and publish until her death from breast cancer in 1894.
Over the course of her lifetime, Rossetti published an impressive collection of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, firmly
establishing herself as one of the most influential poets of her era. While her early work often imitated that of the poets
she most admired, she later began to experiment with various verse forms, and received widespread critical praise when
her first collection, Goblin Market and Other Poems, was
published in 1862. The poem from which this collection
Much of Rossetti’s poetry is quite melancholic in
takes its title is perhaps her most famous work, and is
nature. Common themes she often returned to were
a commentary on Victorian gender roles, sexual desire
the transience of material objects, and the desperate
and redemption.
passion of ill-fated love.
P H OTO C O P Y I N G O F T H I S R E S O U R C E I S I N C O N T R AV E N T I O N O F T H E C O P Y R I G H T A C T ( N O. 9 8 1 9 7 8 )
FOREWORD
P R E S C R I B E D P O E M S A N D L E A R N I N G M AT E R I A L S F O R G R A D E 1 0 & 1 1
“MY SECRET”
I tell my secret? No indeed, not I:
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INTRODUCTION
TO POETRY
Perhaps some day, who knows?
But not today; it froze, and blows and snows,
And you’re too curious: fie!
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HISTORY OF
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You want to hear it? well:
Only my secret’s mine, and I won’t tell.
Or, after all, perhaps there’s none:
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Suppose there is no secret after all,
But only just my fun.
Today’s a nipping day, a biting day;
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In which one wants a shawl,
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A veil, a cloak, and other wraps:
I cannot ope to every one who taps,
And let the draughts come whistling thro’ my hall;
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Come bounding and surrounding me,
Come buffeting, astounding me,
Nipping and clipping thro’ my wraps and all.
I wear my mask for warmth: who ever shows
To be pecked at by every wind that blows?
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His nose to Russian snows
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You would not peck? I thank you for good will,
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Believe, but leave that truth untested still.
Spring’s an expansive time: yet I don’t trust
March with its peck of dust,
Nor even May, whose flowers
One frost may wither thro’ the sunless hours.
Perhaps some languid summer day,
Glossary
fie (line 4): exclamation used to
When drowsy birds sing less and less,
And golden fruit is ripening to excess,
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express disgust or outrage
ope (line 13): open
If there’s not too much sun nor too much cloud,
thro’ (line 14): through
And the warm wind is neither still nor loud,
buffeting (line 16): battering, striking
languid (line 28): lazy, leisurely
Perhaps my secret I may say,
Or you may guess.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Nor April with its rainbow-crowned brief showers
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FOREWORD
ANALYSIS
INTRODUCTION
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“My Secret” (also known by the title “Winter: My Secret”) was published in Rossetti’s first collection,
Goblin Market and Other Poems. This collection was made up largely of non-devotional poetry, and stands
in contrast to the more religious verses on which Rossetti would concentrate in later publications. What
is typical about this poem, however, is Rossetti’s innovative experimentation with form, imagery and
metaphors, a trait for which she is well known.
HISTORY OF
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POETRY
“My Secret” has perplexed contemporary and modern critics and readers alike, as there is no apparent secret to which
the poem can be linked, and Rossetti’s verse resists revealing its subject. While there are numerous interpretations and
speculations associated with this poem, there exists no definitive explanation of the secret the speaker is so closely
guarding. Modern readers can only guess at what she is hiding!
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STRUCTURE AND TONE
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The tone of “My Secret” is undoubtedly coy and teasing in nature. The speaker playfully addresses an unknown listener,
engaging him or her in dialogue as (s)he refuses to reveal a closely-guarded secret, despite the listener’s obvious
pleading. While the gender of the speaker is not entirely clear, most critics believe it to be a woman, citing as evidence
the references to a ‘shawl’ (line 11) and a ‘veil’ (line 12), which are items of clothing usually associated with women.
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The poem is not formally structured, consisting of four stanzas of varying length and irregular rhyming patterns. The
rhyme scheme is largely made up of rhyming couplets or triplets, which increase the pace at which the poem is
read and contributes to a sense of playfulness
and passion. The fast pace also indicates the
Internal rhyme occurs when two words within the same line of
persistence with which the listener is pleading
verse rhyme, rather than a rhyme occurring between words at the
with her to divulge her secret. Rossetti also
ends of two lines of verse.
makes frequent use of internal rhyme throughout
the poem. The use of iambic meter serves to
Iambic meter is a particular type of rhythm in poetry, where an
emphasise the rhyming sounds within her
unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable to create a
verse, as the stressed iambic foot always falls
beat
that can be described as: da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM.
on the rhyming syllables.
IDENTITY, PRIVACY AND FICKLE HUMAN NATURE
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The first stanza of the poem introduces its premise: the speaker engages in a form of dialogue with her listener and,
although we only hear the speaker’s side of this dialogue, we can surmise that the listener is begging the speaker,
rather persistently, to divulge a particular secret. The speaker, however, refuses to do so: she claims that the day is too
cold for her to reveal her secret, and rebuffs the listener playfully but a little impatiently. The poem opens with the line
‘I tell my secret? No indeed, not I’, indicating that she is responding to an undisclosed listener who has just asked her
to reveal her secret. She is playful and coy, suggesting that she may ‘some day’ (line 2) be willing to tell all, but ‘not
today’ (line 3), rather oddly citing the cold weather as the reason. She accuses the listener of being ‘too curious’ (line
4) to know what she is hiding, and demonstrates her growing impatience by uttering the oath ‘fie!’ (line 4) in response
to the listener’s pestering.
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Read in conjunction with the last two lines of the previous stanza, this third stanza could be understood as referring to
the changeability and unreliability of human nature. Though spring holds the promise of pleasantness and beauty – just
as the listener promises not to ‘peck’ at or judge her should she reveal her secret – such promises cannot be relied
upon. Just as the beauties of spring can be marred by changes in the weather, so too can human nature reveal itself to
be ugly and fickle, despite the best of intentions.
In the fourth stanza, the speaker reveals that summer is the season in which she is most likely to reveal her secret. Free
of the ‘wraps’ (line 12) she is forced to wear in winter, she is in danger of revealing more of herself than before; however,
this does not seem to cause her any anxiety: the imagery used in this stanza is temperate and calm, not suggestive of
any sort of excess or urgency. In contrast to the desperate curiosity which characterised the enquirer’s pleas in the first
and second stanzas (which are associated with winter) and the instability which pervaded the third stanza (described in
terms of spring), the summer is described as ‘languid’ (line 28), relaxed, unhurried and even ‘drowsy’ (line 29). The day
© THE ENGLISH EXPERIENCE 2013
INTRODUCTION
TO POETRY
HISTORY OF
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POETRY
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Continuing with the seasonal imagery, the third stanza moves from a description of winter to spring, which the
speaker describes as ‘an expansive time’ (line 23). She is referring here to the new life and the abundance of growth
that characterise spring in the natural world – the blossoming flowers and the birth of animals. While spring is usually
portrayed in a positive light in poetry, the speaker describes it as a season she cannot trust, as it is too changeable and
unsettled. March or early spring, she says, is made unpleasant by the ‘peck of dust’ (line 24) raised by winds (notice here
the speaker’s use of the word ‘peck’, evoking the significance of this word in the previous stanza). April, meanwhile, is
characterised by thunderstorms, while the flowers which bloom in May are easily killed by late frost and ‘sunless hours’
(line 27).
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The door and the hallway in this stanza also serve as a metaphor: the enquirers knocking at the door represent those
who would gain access or insight to her inner self, which she is not willing to reveal. She asserts that she ‘cannot ope
to every one who taps’ (line 13) or, in other words, that she cannot reveal her true self or her secrets to simply anyone.
The cold draughts that ‘come whistling thro’ [her] hall’ (line 14), ‘surrounding’ her (line 15), describe her discomfort with
and vulnerability to the penetrating curiosity of the enquirers. She insists that her desire to protect her privacy is only
natural: after all, she says, ‘who ever shows / His nose to Russian snows’ (lines 18-19), by which she means that it is
foolish and potentially harmful to expose your inner self to the cold scrutiny of others, so that they may ‘peck’ (line 20)
at you. Here, she once again responds to the listener, who, it seems, has assured her that (s)he ‘would not peck’ (line
21) at her if she revealed her secret. The speaker thanks the listener for his/her ‘good will’ (line 21) in this regard, but
would rather not put this claim to the test.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The speaker’s tone in the second stanza is once again coy and mocking, as she suggests that she may not even
have a secret ‘after all’ (line 7) and that she is only having ‘fun’ (line 9) by teasing the listener into thinking that there
is one. The remainder of the stanza then focuses on the weather once again, describing the cold as ‘nipping’ and
‘biting’ (line 10), requiring her to wear layers of clothes for warmth. It is here that the speaker’s metaphorical use of the
cold becomes clearer: it is likened to the persistent curiosity of the listener, who in a sense assaults the speaker with
questions and pleas. This on-going assault is also reflected in her use of the words ‘bounding’, ‘surrounding’, ‘buffeting’
and ‘astounding’ (lines 15 and 16), and give the reader a sense of the intensity of the verbal attack. Her clothing – her
‘wraps’ (line 12) – afford a kind of protection, not only from the cold, but from the prying eyes of onlookers who want
to know her secret. The suggestion that she wears her ‘mask for warmth’ (line 18) suggests that it provides comfort to
her, as she is able to hide behind it and avoid revealing herself. Her secret, then, forms part of her identity, which she
prefers to keep hidden beneath the disguising ‘cloak’ (line 12) and ‘mask’ (line 18). She seems to feel that by revealing
her secret, she would be revealing too much of herself.
FOREWORD
P R E S C R I B E D P O E M S A N D L E A R N I N G M AT E R I A L S F O R G R A D E 1 0 & 1 1
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itself is described as moderate, neither too cloudy nor too sunny (line 31), too still nor too windy (line 32), and even the
birds are quiet (line 29). It is against the backdrop of this temperate setting, the speaker suggests, that she will be able
to reveal her secret. Read in conjunction with the previous stanzas, this could suggest that it is only when the enquirer’s
desperation to know her secret is tempered, diminished, that she will feel comfortable revealing it.
WHAT’S THE BIG SECRET?
HISTORY OF
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POETRY
“My Secret” has proved particularly vexing to readers and critics ever since its publication, as there is no indication in
the poem itself to suggest what exactly that ‘secret’ might be. Even interpretations that assume the speaker is the poet
and rely heavily on Rossetti’s biographical details for clues are often highly speculative.
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One of the most common interpretations of the poem suggests that the speaker’s ‘secret’ is her undeclared love for
someone, which she is not yet ready to divulge. Another suggestion is that the speaker’s ‘secret’ is an unplanned or even
scandalous pregnancy: while she is able to hide it in the winter beneath her heavy clothes, her ‘shawl’ (line 11) and
‘wraps’ (line 12), by summertime, when the pregnancy is well advanced and the baby arrives, she will no longer be able
to conceal the ‘secret’. The public ‘may guess’ (line 34) from her burgeoning belly that she is pregnant.
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Yet another interpretation proposes that the ‘secret’ is a kind of feminine mystique, the mysterious allure of a woman
who remains out of reach. Alternatively, the ‘secret’ is the true identity or nature of a woman who remains a mystery
before she is married: during the ‘winter’ or courtship, she is wholly enigmatic, disclosing a little more of herself in the
‘spring’ of engagement before being fully revealed in the temperate summer of marriage. All of these interpretations
engage with the strict, even prudish Victorian values that dictated the conduct of women, courtship and marriage.
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Many readers suggest that there is no secret at all: that the speaker is simply playing a kind of joke or game with the
reader. This is explicitly stated by the speaker in the second stanza when she coyly suggests that perhaps ‘there is no
secret after all’ (line 8) and that she’s simply having ‘fun’ (line 9). The poem, then, is not about a particular secret, but
simply about taking pleasure in the manipulation of words and verse. This interpretation is supported by the title in the
original manuscript of the poem, ‘Nonsense’, which emphasises the gentle playfulness of the speaker’s tone.
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Another critic, Emma Mason, has argued that the speaker of the poem is in fact God himself, declaring that he has
secrets he has yet to reveal to his believers. This seems unlikely, as there is no ostensible reference to God or religion
in the poem; although Rossetti was deeply religious herself, this early volume of poems was non-devotional.
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One of the most convincing arguments, however, suggests that the poem is a playful and ironically detached commentary
upon its own art form. Rossetti, it is argued, is commenting on the ‘secret’ power of art, and playfully mocking critics
who try to tease out the ‘secret’ meaning of her poetry. The poem can therefore be read as a kind of parody of itself.
Intertextual references: Rossetti makes frequent
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references in “My Secret” to imagery used in other
poems in the same volume Goblin Market and Other
Poems. The first three lines of this poem also allude to
Keats’s odes, “To a Nightingale” and “To Autumn”.
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P H OTO C O P Y I N G O F T H I S R E S O U R C E I S I N C O N T R AV E N T I O N O F T H E C O P Y R I G H T A C T ( N O. 9 8 1 9 7 8 )
FOREWORD
P R E S C R I B E D P O E M S A N D L E A R N I N G M AT E R I A L S F O R G R A D E 1 0 & 1 1
QUESTIONS
(2)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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3. What evidence is there to suggest that the listener, to whom the speaker addresses the poem, is persistent in his or
her enquiries?
(2)
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2. What effect is created by the repeated use of personal pronouns throughout the poem, and particularly in stanza 1?
Provide examples from the poem to illustrate your answer.
(3)
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1. Identify the punctuation mark at the end of line 1, and comment on its function in the context of the poem.
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4. How does the poet’s use of punctuation convey or change the tone of the speaker? Provide examples from the poem
to illustrate your answer.
(4)
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(4)
6. Provide an example of an internal rhyme from the poem and explain its effect in context.
(2)
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5. Describe how the poem links the idea of secrets to the sensory associations of winter.
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(4)
(2)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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9. Why is it that the enquirer may be able to ‘guess’ (line 34) her secret only in the summer?
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8. Using your own words, describe the summer day characterised by stanza 4, and suggest why the speaker says
these are the only conditions under which she might reveal her secret.
(3)
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INTRODUCTION
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7. Paraphrase stanza 3, and provide an explanation of its meaning in the context of the poem as a whole.
FOREWORD
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10. Consider the following two images and discuss which one you would choose to illustrate Rossetti’s poem, indicating
why your choice is more appropriate than the alternative offered. Provide a thorough and sound justification for your
choice by referring to the poem for evidence.
(9)
INTRODUCTION
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IMAGE A
IMAGE B
HISTORY OF
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OR
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Winter by Alphonse Mucha (1896) (Style: Art Nouveau)
The Roseleaf by Dante Rossetti (1870) (Style: Pre-Raphaelite)
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