Bride Song

From 'The Prince's Progress' TOO late for love, too late for joy,    Too late, too late! You loiter'd on the road too long,    You trifled at the gate: The enchanted dove upon her branch    Died without a mate; The enchanted princess in her tower    Slept, died, behind the grate; Her heart was starving all this while    You made it wait. Ten years ago, five years ago,    One year ago, Even then you had arrived in time,    Though somewhat slow; Then you had known her living face    Which now you cannot know: The frozen fountain would have leap'd,    The buds gone on to blow, The warm south wind would have awaked    To melt the snow. Is she fair now as she lies?    Once she was fair; Meet queen for any kingly king,    With gold-dust on her hair. Now there are poppies in her locks,    White poppies she must wear; Must wear a veil to shroud her face    And the want graven there: Or is the hunger fed at length,    Cast off the care? We never saw her with a smile    Or with a frown; Her bed seem'd never soft to her,    Though toss'd of down; She little heeded what she wore,    Kirtle, or wreath, or gown; We think her white brows often ached    Beneath her crown, Till silvery hairs show'd in her locks    That used to be so brown. We never heard her speak in haste:    Her tones were sweet, And modulated just so much    As it was meet: Her heart sat silent through the noise    And concourse of the street. There was no hurry in her hands,    No hurry in her feet; There was no bliss drew nigh to her,    That she might run to greet. You should have wept her yesterday,    Wasting upon her bed: But wherefore should you weep to-day    That she is dead? Lo, we who love weep not to-day,    But crown her royal head. Let be these poppies that we strew,    Your roses are too red: Let be these poppies, not for you    Cut down and spread.

Feminist Perspective:

In Christina Rossetti’s poem,” Bride Song,” let’s interpret it from a feminist’s point of view:

By seeing this poem with a different set of spectacles from feminists, this means that you can see how the author of the poem uses gender to the advantage of a male dominated society and make hints of the powerlessness of femininity. By probing the poem for a deeper meaning towards the discrimination of gender issues, we can see the effects of how male-dominated societies affect the author and his/her work.

In “Bride Song,” Rossetti’s theme talks of a love that was left to rot alone. Through a feminist perspective, the poem itself targets women mostly because of the fact that they are more emotional and tend to want to find the love of their life, as supposed to most typical men. Even still, the author should have balanced the poem out a bit more to include men as the subject to being left alone, abandoned by his lover.

Marvel of Marvels

MARVEL of marvels, if I myself shall behold
With mine own eyes my King in His city of gold;
Where the least of lambs is spotless white in the fold,
Where the least and last of saints in spotless white is stoled,
Where the dimmest head beyond a moon is aureoled.
O saints, my beloved, now mouldering to mould in the mould,
Shall I see you lift your heads, see your cerements unroll'd,
See with these very eyes? who now in darkness and cold
Tremble for the midnight cry, the rapture, the tale untold,--
The Bridegroom cometh, cometh, His Bride to enfold!

Cold it is, my beloved, since your funeral bell was toll'd:
Cold it is, O my King, how cold alone on the wold!

Marxist Perspective:

When looking at a poem with a Marxist set point of view, the critic will look at the political and economic structure of which the poem was based upon and will likely side with the “poorer” class who are not mentioned. Typically, Marxists look at how the author reinforces his or her poem against the struggle of classes and whether the author is trying to alleviate these social orders to balance out the way people live.

When I look at the poem, “Marvel of Marvels,” I noticed how Rossetti uses a “King” as a way to name Jesus Christ in his “City of Gold.” She only speaks of the “son of god,” but not of his followers. She should at least sympathize with the followers and remember those who fell behind the lead, other than just looking at the main role that Jesus played in Christianity. Even thought she was a very religious person, she should have looked at religion through a tunnel, but through the walls that surrounded her vision.

In Progress

Ten years ago it seemed impossible

That she should ever grow so calm as this,

With self-remembrance in her warmest kiss

And dim dried eyes like an exhausted well.

Slow-speaking when she had some fact to tell,

Silent with long-unbroken silences,

Centered in self yet not unpleased to please,

Gravely monotonous like a passing bell.

Mindful of drudging daily common things,

Patient at pastime, patient at her work

Wearied perhaps but strenuous certainly.

Sometimes I fancy we may one day see

Her head shoot forth seven stars from where they lurk

And her eyes lightnings and her shoulders wings.

Cultural Perspective :

To look at an author’s work from a cultural point of view is to see his/her work through the eyes of their time. Since cultures change through intermingling with other cultures and by ourselves as we come to realize how to cope with our differences. When looking back in time a hundred years, women were still treated in a lower class than men were, and African-Americans were still discriminated against. Jumping back to the present, though there are still some presence of these things, it is very unlikely that you will find people worrying about sex and the color of one another’s skin, but concentrate more upon treating one another equally.

In Christina Rossetti’s poem, “In Progress,” she writes of a woman who is slowly becoming mellower as she aged. In her poem, hints of women not having as much freedom to speak for themselves in the mid 1800’s is evident through part of the theme. During the time that the author wrote this poem, most women were stay at home wives and usually don’t tend to matters such as politics or business as men were most dominant in these fields. Though Rossetti wasn’t very specific about the way of living too much with this poem and concentrated more on a emotional matter, some key lines pointed out refers to the culture set back during her time such as “Mindful of drudging daily common things,” mean she kept to herself and did not speak up much as how today’s women usually are.