What is the form of remember
Sonnet
What is the tone of remember
Shifts from anxious and controlling to selfless and accepting
What are the key themes of remember
Death, grief, memory, sorrow, love, relationship
What is the structure of remember
-written to a lover, apostrophe
-‘I’ is heavily weighted in first part as she is selfish
-‘remember’ shifts further into the line as it progresses
-rhyme scheme in octet is very controlled however in sestet it becomes less controlled
-Volta appears before sestet
‘Remember me when I am gone away.’
-emphatic placement at start of the line presents urgency with imperative
-egocentric she begins selfish
-‘when’ is inevitable shows impending sense of certainty
-‘gone away’ is a euphemism so she doesn’t have to confront it head on
-Am shows permanence
‘Gone far away into the silent land’
-repetition of away shows inevitability of death
-they will be far apart and disconnected. Amplification by far shows growing distance and fading memory
-no enjambment shows disconnect
-sibilance makes death sinister and emphasises silence
-insinuates that she has a lack of voice and fears not being able to communicate
-silent land is a euphemism for heaven or hell- still does not confront death head on
‘Remember me when no more Day by day’
-remember me is still emphatically placed at the beginning of the line
-suggests that memory will be all they have as her future is absent
-Day by day links to sonnet 116 and the inevitability of the passage of time
-diacope shows the continuous cycle of life
‘You tell me of our future that you planned’
-assonance, focusing on the you
-she fulfills the role of following him as she doesn’t seem to have a choice so is bitter
-she is no longer part of the future so planning it is a fruitless activity
-only he is present in the future and she realises this
‘Only remember me; you understand’
-remember shifts up the line however she still wants him to only focus on her
-remember me begins to feel like an echo and a fading memory
-the me and you are placed together but also is separated by the semi colon which breaks them apart
-punctuation serves as earthly separation
‘Yet if you should forget me for a while.’
-yet symbolises the Volta
-‘if’ suggests that there is a possibility but it is not certain
-begins to seem less selfish
-forget is the antithesis of remember and is place in the middle of the line symbolically
-‘for a while’ shows how love generates lasting memories so he will never be able to fully forget her
‘Do not grieve’
New imperative to replace remember me
-she becomes selfless as she realises their true love will always stay strong
‘Better by far you should forget and smile than that you should remember and be sad.’
-fricative alliteration, she tries to soothe him
-she accepts her future and that he could forget her due to distance linking to far at the start
-no ‘I’ and ‘me’ present shift from selfishness and she now focuses on him
-smile is emphatically placed as it focuses on his happiness showing her acceptance
-remember now shifts to the end of the line
-‘sad’ rhymes with had which is in the past tense presenting how her life is now associated with the past and he would move on from that
-parallelism between sad and happy are universal feelings said with childlike simplicity to show the simplicity of love
What poems does remember link with
Sonnet 116, my last duchess, piano
