1
Q
Form (and metre)
A
- Petrachan sonnet (14 lines consisting of an octave then a sestet)
- This allows for a volta between stanzas, meaning each stanza can focus on a different aspect of the poems theme (as this poem does)
- They are usually about love, just like this poem, however Remember is different as it is also about death and memory from a female perspective reinforcing her views on how women should be able to speak as passionately about love as men.
- As it is a petrachan sonnet, it is in iambic pentameter which shows the inevitability of death: beating of heart
2
Q
Rhyme scheme
A
- ABBA ABBA CDD ECE (as is similar for most Petrachan sonnets, though slightly different)
- It allows for a change of tone and therefore direction of thoughts in the second stanza, making the volta more prominent
- It creates the sense that the narrator is gradually reaching a conclusion with their thoughts and perspectives after undergoing realisations
3
Q
Caesura
A
- Mirrors emotional hesitation → reflects her uncertainty about death and letting go
- Adds a reflective tone → shows she is carefully reconsidering her demands on her lover
4
Q
‘Remember me’
A
- Imperative forming a refrain
- Creates a sense of desperation as she is leaving her lover with no option but gives her authority and power
- It is later repeated at the start of line 5, further showing her desperation diminishing her power.
5
Q
‘when I am gone away’
A
- Euphemism and metaphor for death
- Softens the tone, showing she is trying to soften the emotional impact of her death on her lover
- The word ‘when’ creates the sense that death is inevitable and there is nothing you can or should do to stop it
6
Q
‘Gone far away into the silent land’
A
- ‘Silent land’ is a metaphor for death
- It shows how she views death as very bleak and is scared of it, yet something peaceful where resistance would be futile
- The silence suggests the afterlife is lonely and sensory-deprived, presenting an unchristian view of heaven, though it could also imply peaceful calm.
7
Q
‘Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.’
A
- ‘stay’, which is the end of the first quatrain, is end-stopped and end-focused
- This is symbolic of how she wants to stay, but knows that death is inevitable
- This makes her seem desperate and hopeless, so she wants her lover to remember her as a way to mitigate her feelings of hopelessness
- Negatives highlight inescapabiltiy of death
8
Q
‘Yet’
A
- Volta
- As the first word of the sestet, it signifies a change in direction of thought and is the beginning of the exploration of a different aspect of remembrance after death
- The word has connotations of realisation, showing she has moved past her desperation and is now thinking more rationally
- Has she lost interest in her beloved?
9
Q
‘if you should forget me for a while/And afterwards’
A
- Enjambment
- Shows the more fluid stream of conciousness now which has connotations of more rational thought
10
Q
‘do not grieve’
A
- Imperative, juxtaposing with ‘remember me’
- It is another imperative, but now it is instructing her lover to do the opposite thing
- This shows the realisation that she has now come to
- Ironic as the word is more usually applied to the feelings of a person who is remembering a dead loved one
11
Q
‘For if the darkness and corruption leave’
A
- ‘Darkness and corruption’ is a metaphor for death, highlighting it as a fundamentally negative thing
- This shows that, while she is still aware that death is bad, she is now asking her lover to forget about her if it affects him in order to avoid this bad
- Unchrisitan like as death is not imagined as a gateway to a heavenly afterlife
Corruption is in its archaic form meaning putrefaction.
12
Q
‘Better by far you should forget and smile Than that you should remember and be sad’
A
- ‘Forget and smile’ is juxtaposed with ‘remember and be sad’
- These are the two options presented in the poem, with her in the sestet now being more contemplative and sacrificial and encouraging the first as she has now overcome her desperation and realises that the happiness of the people still alive is more important than her wish to have a part of her stay in the real world due to her fear of death
