Welcome to the World of Christina Rossetti
In this chapter, we are exploring the poetry of Christina Rossetti, one of the most famous Victorian poets. Whether you love poetry or find it a bit intimidating, Rossetti’s work is a great place to start. On the surface, her language is often simple and musical, but underneath, she deals with big, exciting themes like forbidden desire, religious doubt, and the power of women.
For your OCR AS Level Component 01 (Section 2) exam in 2028, you will study a specific selection of 15 poems. This guide will help you understand how to look at an individual poem and connect it to the rest of the collection—which is exactly what the exam will ask you to do.
The "Essential 15": Your 2028 Reading List
It is very important to make sure you are studying the correct poems. The 2028 selection is different from previous years. Here are the 15 poems you need to know:
- Remember
- In the Round Tower at Jhansi
- A Birthday
- Maude Clare
- Up-hill
- No, thank you, John
- Good Friday ('Am I a stone and not a sheep?')
- Goblin Market (her most famous narrative poem!)
- A Better Resurrection
- Cousin Kate
- A Christmas Carol ('In the bleak mid-winter')
- In an Artist's Studio
- Despised and Rejected
- Amor Mundi
- An Immurata Sister
Note: If you see poems like "From the Antique" or "Shut Out" in older textbooks, remember they are NOT in your 2028 selection.
Understanding the Exam Task
In the exam, you will be given one poem (or an extract from a long one like Goblin Market) printed on the paper. Your job is to relate that poem to the rest of the collection. This means you need to show how the themes or styles in the printed poem appear in other poems you’ve studied.
Assessment Objective Tip: AO2 (analysing how the writer shapes meaning) is worth the most marks here (20%). This means you should spend a lot of time talking about how Rossetti uses language, rhythm, and imagery.
Key Themes to Connect the Poems
To succeed, you need "conceptual links." These are themes that act like bridges between different poems. Here are the big ones:
1. Religious Faith and Doubt
Rossetti was a very devout High Anglican, but her poems often show a struggle with faith.
• Key Poems: Good Friday, A Better Resurrection, Up-hill.
• The Link: In Good Friday, she worries about her own lack of feeling ("Am I a stone?"), while in Up-hill, she uses the metaphor of a long journey to represent the difficulty of reaching heaven.
2. Female Agency and Resistance
Rossetti often writes about women who say "no" or who challenge social expectations.
• Key Poems: No, thank you, John, Maude Clare, Cousin Kate.
• The Link: In No, thank you, John, the speaker is firm and independent. In Maude Clare and Cousin Kate, she explores the complicated Victorian ideas of "fallen women" and social status.
3. Earthly Love vs. Divine Love
Many of her poems ask: Is it better to love a person or to love God?
• Key Poems: Remember, A Birthday, Amor Mundi.
• The Link: A Birthday celebrates a joyful arrival (perhaps a lover, perhaps Christ), while Amor Mundi warns that following "earthly love" can lead to a dark path.
4. The Pre-Raphaelite Influence
Rossetti was closely linked to the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (a group of artists). Her poems are often very visual and full of sensory details.
• Key Poems: In an Artist's Studio, Goblin Market.
• The Link: In an Artist's Studio critiques how male artists "feed" on the images of women, while Goblin Market is famous for its lush, detailed descriptions of fruit.
Step-by-Step: How to Analyse Rossetti’s Style (AO2)
When you look at a poem, don't just say what it's about. Look at how it's built. Don't worry if this seems tricky at first; just follow these three steps:
- Look at the Sound: Rossetti uses a lot of alliteration (repeated starting sounds) and internal rhyme. This often makes her poems sound like nursery rhymes or songs, which can make the darker meanings even more shocking.
- Check the Rhythm: Is it steady like a heartbeat (as in A Birthday), or is it broken and hesitant (as in Good Friday)? A broken rhythm usually shows a speaker who is upset or confused.
- Identify the Symbols: Rossetti loves natural symbols. For example, lilies often represent purity or death, while fruit (especially in Goblin Market) represents temptation and sin.
Wait, what about Context? (AO3)
For this specific section of the exam, AO3 (Context) is only worth 5% of the marks. This means you shouldn't spend pages and pages on Rossetti’s life. Just keep a few "pocket facts" ready to mention:
• Victorian Gender Roles: Women were expected to be the "Angel in the House"—pure and submissive. Rossetti’s poems like No, thank you, John subvert this idea.
• Tractarianism: This was a religious movement Rossetti followed. It emphasized the beauty of ritual and the importance of looking at the natural world for signs of God.
• The Fallen Woman: Victorian society was very harsh toward women who had sex outside of marriage. Rossetti often showed these women with sympathy (as in Cousin Kate).
Common Mistakes to Avoid
1. Treating "Goblin Market" as just a fairy tale: While it has goblins, it is actually a complex poem about sisterhood, addiction, and sacrifice.
2. Forgetting the "Rest of the Collection": Many students spend too long on the printed poem and forget to mention other poems from the list. Aim for a 50/50 balance.
3. Getting bogged down in biography: You don't need to know every detail of Rossetti's life. Focus on the text of the poems instead.
Quick Review: Key Takeaways
• The Task: Relate one printed poem to others in the 15-poem selection.
• The Focus: Spend most of your time on AO2 (language and structure).
• The Connections: Use themes like Faith, Gender, and Temptation to link the poems together.
• Memory Aid: Think of Rossetti as a poet of "Simplicity and Secrets"—her poems look easy to read, but they hide deep, complex messages about the human soul.
If you want to practice, try picking "Remember" and seeing how many other poems in the list you can connect to the theme of "looking back" or "memory"!