Oh, how easy it is to lose oneself in this beautiful poem! Christina Rossetti's "Song" is a hauntingly beautiful piece that delves into death, loss, and mourning. However, is it truly just a dark reflection on mortality, or does it hold deeper meanings of life, love, and freedom? Well, in my opinion, it does!
"Song" reveals a hidden message about the essence of true love and the freedom it brings with it. In her poem, Rossetti doesn't ask her beloved to grieve about her loss or to keep her spirit alive by remembering her, nor to move on with their lives by forgetting her. She simply sets her beloved free! They can do as they feel: remember or forget.
True love is unconditional and selfless, even after death. It has very little to do with our earthly existence. It is an eternal, liberating force.
Christina Rossetti wrote the poem "Song" in 1848 at the age of 18, but it wasn't published until 1862 in her collection Goblin Market and Other Poems.
✦ SONG ✦
by Christina Rossetti (1830 - 1894)
When I am dead, my dearest,
Sing no sad songs for me;
Plant thou no roses at my head,
Nor shady cypress tree:
Be the green grass above me
With showers and dewdrops wet;
And if thou wilt, remember,
And if thou wilt, forget.
I shall not see the shadows,
I shall not feel the rain;
I shall not hear the nightingale
Sing on, as if in pain:
And dreaming through the twilight
That doth not rise nor set,
Haply I may remember,
And haply may forget.
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