The+Woodspurge

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** The Woodspurge ** ** by Dante Gabriel Rossetti ** The Poem [1856] The wind flapped loose, the wind was still, Shaken out dead from tree and hill: I had walked on at the wind's will, — I sat now, for the wind was still.

Between my knees my forehead was, — My lips, drawn in, said not Alas! My hair was over in the grass, My naked ears heard the day pass.

My eyes, wide open, had the run Of some ten weeds to fix upon; Among those few, out of the sun, The woodspurge flowered, three cups in one.

From perfect grief there need not be Wisdom or even memory: One thing then learnt remains to me, — The woodspurge has a cup of three. ** Analysis ** Where / when is the poem taking place? How does this assist in interpreting it?

In what way is the wind symbolic?

How is the narrator depicted? What is focused upon? What is the effect of this?

What does the poem have to say about grief?

How does the poet make use of nature / natural imagery to convey feeling?

‘The woodspurge has a cup of three’ is the ‘one thing then learnt’ by the narrator. What do you think he means? Do you think this is really all he has learnt?

What alternative titles could you give the poem? Why do you think the poet chose the title he gave it?

Some of the lines of the poem are in iambic tetrameter. Identify them. Look for changes in the line lengths and metre. What does this contribute to mood of the poem?

What do the structure and rhyme scheme contribute to the poem’s effectiveness?




 * Biography of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828 – 1882) **

Medieval in his outlook: // ‘Every Pre-Raphaelite landscape background is painted to the last touch, in the open air, from the thing itself. Every Pre-Raphaelite figure, however studied in expression, is a true portrait of a living person.’ // John Ruskin
 * A painter and poet
 * Greatly interested in and influenced by Medieval art and literature
 * Founding member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood whose aim was to steer English painting from the mechanistic approach first adopted by Raphael and Michelangelo and latterly Reynolds and return it to abundant detail, complex composition and intense colours of fifteenth century Italian and Flemish art


 * Experienced critical responses to both his art and poetry, culminating in a mental breakdown in 1872
 * Published his collected poems ‘Poems by D. G. Rossetti’ in 1870 (of which //The Woodspurge// is one); these were controversial and attacked as the epitome of the ‘fleshly school of poetry’.

Livin’ la vida loca:
 * Led a colourful and eccentric life
 * An owner of wombats, a llama and a Toucan
 * Had affairs with his models including Fanny Conforth and Jane Morris
 * Married his muse, Elizabeth Siddal, who died of an overdose of laudanum in 1862, shortly after giving birth to a stillborn child
 * Rossetti suffered from depression following his wife’s death and buried the majority of his poems with her (although he later had them dug up)
 * Addicted to chloral hydrate

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[] (explanation of metre)