Exploring the poem
Remember by Christina Rossetti
Read the poem ‘Remember’ by Christina Rossetti, then discuss the following:
1. What are your expectations of a love poem?
2. Do you consider ‘Remember’ to be a love poem?
3. What emotions does the poem appear to express?
4. Is this poem comforting?
5. Is there anything you find disturbing/unexpected from the first reading of the poem?
6. What do you know about the life of women in the Victorian era?
7. Does this poem suggest anything about the passive role of women in Victorian
society?
8. Are there any clues in the poem that the speaker might feel rebellious about the role
women have been given?
Now annotate the poem paying close attention to some of the ideas mentioned below.
1. What ideas are repeated in the poem?
2. How are the following images used in the poem? (Are they positive or negative?)
a. hand
b. darkness and corruption
c. silent land
3. What form is the poem written in? What is the significance of this? Is the form
altered in any way?
4. What does the poem suggest about Rossetti's views of death?
© www.teachit.co.uk 2015
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Exploring the poem
Remember by Christina Rossetti
‘Remember’ by Christina Rossetti
Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you plann’d:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.
© www.teachit.co.uk 2015
25073
Page 2 of 2