twice

Question 1

date

Answer 1

1864 (published 1866)

Question 2

context

Answer 2

• rejection of marriage on religious grounds
• victorian marriage - built on commerce and economic
• Rs religion and its importance
• attitude towards women’s rights and independence

Question 3

poems effect

Answer 3

• cumulative, with repetition and short declartory lines building to a affirmative and quizzically self deprecating conclusion
• affirmative “all that i have i bring” self depracating “smile thou and i shall sing but shall not questio much”

Question 4

when does the speaker regain her authority

Answer 4

” i take my heart in my hand”
-> repeating first lune but offering her love and devotion to someone else - god
- “thou” to address God - religious convention, symbol of respect
- “hose who turn away from you will be written in the dust”
-> biblical connotation - questions whether she is worthy of being accepted by god having sought out earthly love in preference to the heavenly

Question 5

cultural criticism

Answer 5

• powerlessness of women in a rigid partriachal society
• speaker is indignant, renounces natural world - penitent for her presumptuous eroti quest approaches god
• acknowledge uncertainty of eros and need to be chastened to be worthy of god’s superior love
• challenges stereotypes of a selfless victorian woman - her relationship with the man is unimportant
• embraces image of selfless victorian woman who puts the feelings of her male loved one first

Question 6

“(O my love, O my love)”

Answer 6

• adresses unidentified other party
• is in brackets - is it ever something she turly feels
• switches to “O my god, O my god”
  -> grammaticaly more significant as not in brackets, not afterthought
  -> from secular love to divine love

Question 7

gender

Answer 7

• “but this once hear me speak”
  -> risky to speakout - gender relationship. expressing love = vulnerable, social conventions

Question 8

“skylarks”

Answer 8

• percy bysshe shelley in 1820 poem “skylarks” saw these as divine inspiration

Question 9

“and said”it is still unripe””

Answer 9

• sexualised imagery
• victorian marriage based on commerce and economic
• lover rejects her as harvest is unripe and therefore can’t be guaranteed profit

Question 10

other person - man

Answer 10

• “you took my heart in your hand with a friendly smile”
  -> friendly = kindness, no romance
• “with a critical eye you scann’d”
  -> kindness removed, cold, detached, as if he’s establishing her worth/ value

Question 11

“and you set it down it broke - broke, but i did not wince”

Answer 11

• not wince = emotionally strong, shows her pain to her potential lover would be humiliating and perhaps embarrass her further

Question 12

beauty of this world are gone for her

Answer 12

• “since then, nor question’d since nor cared for cornflowers wild nor sung with the singing bird”
  -> tone change
  -> representations of the temperal worlds are left behind, she turns to god

Question 13

love of god

Answer 13

• “my hope was written on sand”
  -> fleeting image, crumbling, contrasts steadfast constant love of god
• “yea judge me now”
  -> fining sense of self love
• “refine with fire its gold purge thou its dross away-“
  -> love of god purifies her heart in hearing christ speak
  -> biblical references, purging with fire - bible heart burning with word or lord
• “i shall not die but live”
  -> echoes christian belief that eternal life with god requires dying on earth
• ” i take my heart in my hand”
  -> repetition, autonomy, choice
• “all that i have i bring all that i am i give”
  -> echo, traditional wedding vows, marriage to god, wife of god = god’s equal - confidence (?)
• “smile thou and i shall sing but shall not question much”
  -> hymns of church congregation, singing to god
  -> liturgy of commitment from marriage ceremony, exchange of rings - symbolic marriage to god dedication
  -> what would you questions, doubt as last lingering thought undermines certainty all the way through