Amen by Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)

  • Ideas- what is the poet trying to put across
  • Language- words and phrases used to make the poem more captivating
  • Imagery- what are the pictures conjured up
  • Structure- rhyme scheme, set out of poem
  • Poets' attitude/conclusion
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  • Created by: alex
  • Created on: 16-05-10 18:11

Ideas

  • The use of the harvest as a reflection on life
  • The glory of Autumn and its fruitfulness being over. Everything must come to an end. "Nay, now much is over truly".
  • Reflection of harvest on man's hard work, we have to work in order to survive, "Harvest days we toiled sow for".
  • The passing of time and it's unfulfilled promise "lives are finished; time diminished".
  • "All suffices reckoned rightly", showing we have to accept the cards we are dealt.
  • "Nay, now much is over truly!", everything coming to an end.
  • The religious acceptance of death.
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Language

  • The title "Amen", means so bit it, used at the end of a prayer
  • At the beginning of each stanza Christina Rossetti starts off with a rhetorical question. e.g. "It is over. What is over?". This is then answered in the lines that follow
  • Repetition is used in order to emphasise it's time of reckoning. "Its is finished. What is finished?", Lines 4-5, repetition of "Now" emphasise point and it shows the first stanza is also in the present tense.
  • The use of compound adjectives are used in order to suggest a lack of something "unsown", and "unblown".
  • Lines 14-17 are a biblical allusion.
    • Christ- crown of thorns
    • Garden of Eden
    • Suggesting rewards may be few on Earth - but in heaven there is eternal happiness
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Imagery

  • Uses the harvest as a reflection on life, and in order to emphasise a point.
  • Image of a harvest "sheaves...gathered", "wheat...garnered".
  • She also uses nature as a metaphor of life.
  • The image of a fruitfulness season with words such as "garden teem with spices".
  • Visual sense of disappointment and resignation in the first stanza showing that the best is over.
  • The second stanza shows the passing of seasons. Autumn --> Winter, shows the crops are dying, and everything is over "known or unknown".
  • Hier of optimism as Winter -->Spring, and the sun begins to shine "sun shine brightly".
  • "Roses", shows a delight that life is beginning again like a re-birth and the crops and animals will once again come out.
  • The third stanza also shows that it is going to be full of life and natures smells "And my garden teem with spices".
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Structure

  • Cyclical structure to reflect life, beginning, middle, and end. Shown by using the image of a field, and this will repeat till the end of time.
  • Rhyme scheme is ABABB, CDCDD, and EFEFFE
  • Stanza 1 - something is over
  • Stanza 2 - something is over, will it always by like this?
  • Stanza 3 - I can cope with it, "it suffices", good will come after bad
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