The Woodspurge by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

The Woodspurge by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

  • Submitted By: irene91
  • Date Submitted: 02/09/2009 1:43 AM
  • Category: English
  • Words: 568
  • Page: 3
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“The Woodspurge” by Dante Gabriel Rossetti is a poem about his grieves after the death of his wife. In the poem, his is heartbroken and depressed. The whole poem takes place during the moment of his depression. He narrates a basic scene from a spectrum of thoughts of an individual wandering alone in the setting, sits down, and then emotionally, observes the details of a particular woodspurge.

Firstly, he starts off with the setting of the place which he was standing, and then focusing on the wind and his movements, which mimics the wind patterns ‘I had walked on at the wind’s will, - I sat now, for the wind was still.’ From the first stanza, we could see that Rossetti himself is standing alone in an open field, moving along with the wind lifelessly and aimlessly. This shows us that he is having no aim and direction in life and does not care about anything because he was in depression. A sense of isolation takes place as he uses the word ‘I’ to tell his movements.

In the second stanza, Rossetti is already sitting on his knees (kneeling), as that is a posture of insecurity. He put his forehead in between his knees shows that he is shutting the world away. ‘Ears heard the day pass’ indicates that he has been sitting at the same spot for a very long time, not moving at all, but time is still passing and no one could stop it. He is sitting still, but the world is still moving.

Rossetti uses ‘My eyes, open wide, had the run’ to let the readers know about the sudden changes in his attitude. Finally he accepts what had happened, and knows that he has to move on. He uses the phrase ‘ten weeds to fix upon’ to reflect that he sees his problem, and becomes aware of it. He realises that the ‘weeds’ (his problems) are in his way, and the hardiness of the ‘weeds’ tells that the problems that he faced are hard to be rid of. As he is focusing on the ‘ten weeds’ in front of him, he notices that there is a flowered ‘woodspurge’ staying ‘out of the sun’, bearing...

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