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  • Essay / Sexuality and Mortality in 'The Round Tower of Jhansi', 'A Birthday' and Other Poems

    Most of Rossetti's poetry has links to concerns of love and passion, some presenting them as pleasurable , even exciting. However, on the other hand, much of his writing condemns passion, making connections with religious texts as in "Sister Louise of Mercy". Many of the darker poems related to death also have connections to love, indicating its pure mortality, as in the songs. Rossetti explores the theme related to love through his use of language and form within the poem; it is mentioned in several essays on the theme of love which she links to a "Victorian sentimentality", perhaps creating literature with dramatic stories of love and loss to engage audiences in a world dominated by men. Such features are particularly visible in “The Round Tower of Jhansi” and some related texts. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why violent video games should not be banned"? Get an original essay Some of Rossetti's works, such as "An Anniversary", celebrate romantic relationships (perhaps excessive passion) demonstrating pure joy which results from it. to love and be loved. Using similes such as “my heart is like a singing bird,” Rossetti indicates such love, emphasizing the pleasure it brings. Using a direct reference to the narrator's heart and relating it to a songbird can also indicate the idea of ​​opening up inside a relationship, the heart being the most sensitive part of the body. This theme of opening rarely appears in Rossetti's plays and is important here because it draws the reader's attention to such a line highlighting the trusting relationship between the two characters. In this poem, Rossetti is able to display a true and heartfelt depiction of love: the use of anaphora with the phrase "my heart is like" emphasizes this love as it indicates that she is incapable to express the exact feeling reflecting the way one's heart feels. deemed “full”. This, along with the objects personified to represent his heart, combine to create an often unprecedented exploration of the theme of love that would be its formulation. As the narrator struggles with how to convey the love she feels so deeply, even going so far as to reference the church by explaining that he would "raise a platform for me", clearly making a connection between not only religious imagery but also other poems in his collection also address the theme of love, perhaps in different ways. It could be suggested that the reason Rossetti turned to perhaps more conventional approaches to writing about love would be due to the multiple propositions she encountered during her writing career and could perhaps -may even be linked to the brief engagement she had and the joy she felt. However, another view could be that this actually represents his love for God himself, which makes the religious connection all the more important. Some writers, particularly Alice Kirby, also argue that she gave her characters "the power to make their own decisions", perhaps indicating why this poem was written in this way, focusing on the woman alone and not naming the character she is. in speaking, this gave a proto-femanist look to the poem indicating that the narrator may have made her own choices regarding love and romantic relationships with the repetition of the personal pronoun "my" indicating a rather self-centered point of view for a poembased on the Victorian era, especially with a woman with very religious views like Rossetti's. Overall, in "A Birthday Rossetti" directly explores love, looking at the most beautiful and joyful moments and conveying that love can make a person's life full and vibrant. Another poem that depicts a positive view of love and passion is “The Round Tower”. to Jhansi"; although the narrative of the poem is dark, the romantic elements it contains are joyful and reflect a trusting and deep relationship above the melancholy of the situation that the narrators find.The action of "Kissing and kiss" conveys the passionate relationship the couple shares, and it is one of the few times Rossetti has a positive depiction of passion explaining how "it is not painful therefore to kiss and die" with the The indication that the pain of death can be numbed by a kiss, an act that can be considered intensely passionate, especially in the situation. This numbing suggests that only the feeling of love can overcome death and fully reflects the depth of. the love that the characters share. Rossetti explores this sad but passionate love by using such language in the poem relating the connotation of death to the living feeling of love. The poem was supposed to be based on a real event that happened in India. in the Victorian era and would have appealed to a wide audience of readers. Perhaps this is why there is a positive touch of love and hope mixed with the siege of the tower and the couple's impending death. As stated in another essay on "The Round Tower of Jhansi", "the writer returned again and again to the theme of lost and doomed love", which gives an alternative view of the The love described in this poem, which is "doomed". this more negative representation. This would also relate to Rossetti's own views on love after refusing several men in his time, perhaps relating to his more negative view of love and passion in the poem. However, this view can be easily challenged because, although Rossetti had negative views of men in her poetry, these views are rarely consistent with some referring to her as a strong Christian who simply believed in God's way , as would be the case. indicated by Good Friday and uphill. Other writers may consider her an early feminist (although she had no name in Victorian Britain), such as in "A Birthday" and "Goblin Market". These mixed views help to anchor the argument that The Round Tower of Jhansi explores love and passion as something both songful and beautiful, with love overcoming even the pain of death. On the other hand, most of Rossetti's poetry conveys a more negative view of love and condemns passion. In “Sister Louise of Mercy,” Rossetti explores the opposing view of passion by examining how sinful and incorrigible it is. The use of repetition of the word “desire” demonstrates this because it emphasizes formerly felt emotions and denigrates them. As the narrator explains how desiring is the "vanity of vanities": a clearly negative representation, we understand why this can be seen as a negative representation of love and passion. As he explains that having a passionate relationship means rejecting all feelings towards God. This, linked to the fact that the narrator is a nun, means that to get rid of such a desire is to get rid of earthly passion; turn to God instead. This poem is thought to be based on the French king's lover who ran away and became a nun, suggesting why Rossetti muses.