Compare and contrast how Rossetti shows her views on death and the after-life in the poems ‘Song’ and ‘Remember’.

Heavily influenced by earlier poet John Keats, Christina Rossetti features the theme of death often in her poetry. Particularly in the poems ‘Song’ and ‘Remember’, Rossetti uses a persona to present her ideas about the transition from life to death, and how their lovers should feel about it. The theme of death is typical for poetry written in the Romantic era (approximately from 1800-1850), a period both Keats and Rossetti belonged to. Romantic poems would often feature nature, and the sensations felt around this, and the repressed feelings the poets may have surrounding life and death.

In the poem ‘Song’, Rossetti uses natural imagery to present the persona’s feelings about their death. In the third and fourth lines of the poem, the persona requests that no ‘roses’ should be planted on his/her grave, and no ‘shady cypress tree’ should be placed in their memory. This perhaps suggests that the persona is telling their lover to move on, and that once they’re dead they don’t want a declaration of love or remembrance. The rejection of roses may symbolize the personas rejection of femininity and beauty, implying that they don’t want their death to be remembered as something over exaggeratedly beautiful, they wish for simplicity, as mentioned in the fifth line of the stanza, when they voice that they want ‘green grass’. The rejection of femininity and beauty from the persona may also reflect Rossetti’s rejection of society’s expectation of women at the time. In the Victorian times, women were expected to be feminine and should obey husbands. Although this was the case, Christina Rossetti was against this view, as she was assertive rather than meek and rejected this expectation of her. Similarly, in the poem ‘Remember’, the persona reflects Rossetti's challenging view on the expectation of women held by society. The persona takes back power, by saying 'only remember me'. This command shows authority, as the speaker is commanding their lover on how to feel after they're dead, contrasting on the point made before stating this, telling her lover not to tell her of their future that 'you plann'd'. By using the word 'you' it makes it clear to the audience that the persona is isolated in the planning of them and their lover's future, again reflecting societies views on power between sexes at the time the poem was written. This isolation felt by the persona is then forced upon their lover, when they die and leave them behind whilst controlling their lover's emotions, just like they were. 

Both poems also use structure to reflect on how the persona struggles to imagine whether they would be remembered or forgotten. In the poem 'Song', both words 'remember' and 'forget' have a caesura before them, to project the final message at the end of the first stanza, the person's insecurity on whether they'll be remembered after death. Although the rhythm in the word 'remember' is elongated, mirroring the memory of the persona lasting after death, the rhythm is immediately stopped after the word 'forget' due to use of a heavy caesura. This rhythm represents the finality of death once a person stops being remembered, and highlights that the persona's fear lies with being forgotten rather than dying. Again, in the poem 'Remember', a caesura is used after the word 'remember', to make it last slightly longer. The idea of remembrance is the key theme in this poem, highlighting how important it is to the speaker to be remembered once they are dead.