Up-Hill

Question 1

meaning

Answer 1

• allegory about the journey of life to death explained through a series of questions and answers
• someone asking questions about the afterlife, wondering
• depicts life as an uphill struggle
• extended metaphor of an inn = heaven

Question 2

context - rossetti

Answer 2

• devout high anglican
• religious mania
• stopped playing chess - sin of pride

Question 3

context - victorians

Answer 3

• highly devout
• some challenging of religious certainty that contrasts the poems steadfastness and is reassuring = could represent rossetti’s views of religion and how it will always be there despite growing doubt
• death = high mortality rates, disease

Question 4

2 separate speakers

Answer 4

• dialogue
• alternate
• comforting, reassuring, confirms sepakers hopes , someone always there
• one could be ordinary - wanting to go to heaven, other could be an omniscient spirit, angel, someone on the other side, god

Question 5

tone

Answer 5

• questioner = wonderous, hopeful tone
• answerer = reassuring tone

Question 6

hard journey

Answer 6

• winding up hill nature of the poem = hard journey, long lasting, journey of life struggles
• “morn to night”
• depicts life as an uphill struggle
  -> “whole long day”
  -» inherently difficult
  -> stoic, realistic reminder of tiring life
  -> christian faith - not entirely alone, end of the road offers solace as heaven

Question 7

comforting element

Answer 7

• “My friend” - reassuring note
• hints of possible consolation for “wayfarers”
  -> “you cannot miss than inn” = heaven is where the virtuous end up
  -> “yea beds for all who come” = welcoming response, imply people aren’t completely fending for themselves, god to guide and support them

Question 8

“resting place”

Answer 8

• death
  -> true resting place this journey affords
  -> grave holds “beds for all who come”

Question 9

ex

Answer 9

• one point about how metaphor is of a difficult life = “inn” is death, hard jounrey, grave, mortality rates and disease, stoic and realsitic tone
• hwv also allegory about the journey of life to death and heaven = comforting tone, consolation, chrsitian faith of not being alone, 2 speakers, “my friend”, religious mania, chess, high anglican
  > reflects the changes in society, microcosm of society due to challenges to religious certainty, the poem represnts both stoic and devout, using context we could infer it as rossetti using the god to comfort people and say god is always there and is not going away