A painting of Christina Rossetti

Remember
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.
VOCABULARY

The silent land​ - this refers to the place people go when they die, either heaven or
hell, or another kind of afterlife
Counsel​ - to give advice and help
Corruption​ - when something is ruined or tainted
Vestige​ - a trace of something that’s left once it stops existing

STORY/SUMMARY

The ​speaker first asks the ​addressee to remember her when she’s gone ‘away’, in other
words when she has died and is in the afterlife - when it’s no longer possible for her to
hold his hand, or to choose to leave or stay with him.

In lines 4-8 she says also to remember her after they stop planning their future together
- and to only remember (nothing more), because praying or trying to help her will do no
good after she’s dead.

Lines 9-14 shift in tone slightly, and contradict the earlier ideas in the poem - the
speaker now says for the addressee not to worry or grieve over forgetting her, and if
her memory ever causes him pain, she would prefer that he forgets her and is happy,
instead of remembering her and being sad.

LANGUAGE

Antithesis - the poem ends on the antithetical clauses ‘forget and smile’ / ‘remember
and be sad’. These two extremes are juxtaposed in order to show the tension
between remembrance and forgetting, as well as between sadness and happiness. It
seems to the poet that forgetting is far less painful, so for her reader to avoid pain she
wishes to be forgotten - this can be interpreted as a selfless and kind gesture, she
would not want to cause pain or trouble to those she loves.

Imperative Verbs - ​The phrase ‘remember me’ is ​repeated ​and contains a command
- to remember the speaker of the poem even after she is no longer around. This
concept is also reinforced by the title ‘Remember’, which could also be interpreted as
 an imperative command. Though the end of the poem softly suggests that to be
forgotten is better than having your memory cause pain, we could interpret that
there’s a slight tension here between the speaker’s selfish wish to make an
impression on those around her, hoping that they will cherish her memory, and her
desire to be selfless and not to cause others pain or sadness by reminding them that
she’s no longer around. She also commands the addressee ‘do not grieve’, suggesting
that she feels the grieving process is negative and destructive, leading to suffering.

Direct Address - ​The poem seems to be written for a specific ​addressee - Rossetti
uses the s​ econd person pronoun ‘you’ i​ n order to speak directly to her reader.

Abstract nouns - ​the phrase ‘darkness and corruption’ creates a ​dark tone ​as it
reminds us of the spiritual darkness that surrounds us after someone we love has
died. ‘Corruption’ could further refer to the rotting flesh of a corpse, or the
degeneration of happiness and purity of the soul - it’s
an almost gothic image.

FORM/STRUCTURE

Elegy - ​Elegies are a form of poetry used to commemorate the dead, and it could be
said that the poem is elegiac as it explores the themes of death and grief, and how to
remember or move on from death. However, it is strangely spoken from the perspective
of a person who’s still living, when they think about whether they want to be
remembered after death.

Sonnet - ​the poem contains 14 lines and an ABBA CDDC EFFGEG rhyme scheme,
which could be called a ​petrarchan sonnet ​- sonnets are typically poems that explore
the theme of love, so it could instead be interpreted that this is more of a poem about
love - both the way in which we want to remember those we love after death, and the
way in which they may prefer to be forgotten as an act of love in order to not cause us
pain and grief.

Indented lines - ​some lines in the poem are indented (they start further in on the page),
which could represent the tension between remembering and forgetting a person after
their death.
Rhyme scheme - there is a ​ABBA CDDC EFFGEG rhyme scheme - it starts regularly
but then breaks down and becomes more irregular, this could perhaps represent the act
of letting go of the memory of those we love, or the lack of control we have over life
and death

CONTEXT

● Rossetti came from a family of writers and artists, her brother Dante Gabriel was
also a famous poet and Pre-Raphaelite painter. She spent many years caring for
their mother, remaining unmarried in later life and staying at home where she
read a lot and wrote poetry.

● Rossetti was highly religious, and dedicated her life to her Anglo-Catholic
(Christian) faith - she refused three marriage proposals for religious reasons. She
would have believed in an afterlife, so her poem ‘Remember’ should be analysed
from the point of view of someone who believes in life after death.

● She was only 19 years old when she wrote the poem in 1949 - but she had
experienced caring for her dying father who suffered from tuberculosis and
depression, so perhaps the poem reflects this experience - she may be using the
poem to explore her attitude to death and how to cope with grief, or she may be
fantasising about her own death in the future and how she’ll be remembered.

● Rossetti is thought of as a typically Victorian poet, her view often represents the
traditional Victorian attitude of the time. In ‘Remember’, however, she is slightly
challenging the traditional Victorian ritual of mourning - typically, people at this
time were supposed to spend a long time ‘in mourning’ - a state of sadness and
serious reflection where after a loved one died they were not allowed to
participate in enjoyable social activities and instead reflect on death. They wore
black mourning clothes to demonstrate to others in society that they were
remembering their dead, these clothes were also a symbol of spiritual darkness.

THEMES

● Death
● Grief
● Love
 ● Emotions vs Reason
● Relationships
● Happiness
● Life
● Legacy

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