Remember

Quiz: Remember by Christina Rossetti

1. Recall – Form: What type of sonnet is Remember, and how is the poem structurally divided as a result of this form?

1. Recall – Speaker & Situation: Who is the speaker of Remember, and what is the situation they are addressing? What does the speaker ultimately ask of the loved one?

1. Recall – Key Image: What physical gesture in the first half of the poem is used to represent the warmth and intimacy of the couple's living relationship?

1. Recall – Key Image: What phrase does Rossetti use to describe death in the opening of the poem, and what does the word "silent" suggest about the experience of dying?

1. Comprehension – Tone Shift: At what point in the poem does the tone shift, and how does the speaker's request change after this turning point?

1. Comprehension – Symbol: What do "darkness and corruption" refer to in the poem, and what question does the speaker raise in connection with them?

1. Comprehension – Forgetting: Why does the speaker say it is acceptable for the loved one to forget them? What does this reveal about the speaker's values?

1. Analysis – Theme of Love: How does the poem's final emotional turn — where the speaker releases the loved one from the obligation to remember — develop the poem's treatment of love?

1. Analysis – Biographical Context: How does Rossetti's personal history of renunciation and self-denial, as well as her devout Anglican faith, connect to the poem's central emotional gesture?

1. Analysis – Form & Meaning: Why is the choice of the Petrarchan sonnet form considered intentional and meaningful for this poem's subject matter?

Answer Key

1. Remember is a Petrarchan (Italian) sonnet. It is divided into an octave (the first eight lines) and a sestet (the final six lines), with the sestet marking a significant emotional and thematic turn.

1. The speaker is a dying person addressing a loved one. They ask to be remembered after death — but revise that request, granting the loved one permission to forget if remembering causes grief.

1. The image of holding hands symbolizes the physical intimacy and everyday warmth of the relationship, representing everything that death will make impossible.

1. Rossetti describes death as "the silent land." The word "silent" implies an absence of conversation, connection, and the ordinary sounds of shared life, framing death as a state of profound separation rather than simply an ending.

1. The tone shifts at the start of the sestet (after the first eight lines). In the octave, the speaker urges the loved one to remember; in the sestet, the speaker becomes more selfless, allowing — even encouraging — forgetting if it brings happiness.

1. "Darkness and corruption" refer directly to the physical decay of the body after death. In connection with them, the speaker contemplates whether any part of the self — such as thoughts or identity — might survive physical disintegration.

1. The speaker accepts being forgotten because the loved one's happiness matters more than the speaker's desire to be remembered. This reveals a deeply selfless, generous form of love that prioritizes the well-being of the living over the speaker's own legacy.

1. The final turn shows that the speaker's love is selfless enough to relinquish even the wish to be remembered. Rather than binding the loved one to grief, love here is expressed as an act of release, deepening the poem's portrayal of love as self-sacrificing.

1. Rossetti's history of declining marriage proposals and practicing personal renunciation mirrors the speaker's act of giving up the desire to be remembered. Her Anglican faith, while present, is restrained — the poem offers no firm promise of heaven, reflecting a quiet, uncertain spirituality rather than doctrinal consolation.

1. The Petrarchan sonnet is traditionally associated with love poetry, so applying it to a meditation on death and farewell is a deliberate reappropriation. The form's built-in structural turn (between octave and sestet) also mirrors the poem's emotional pivot from the desire to be remembered to the willingness to be forgotten.