Discuss strong emotions presented in Shut out and three other poems.

In this essay I will be discussing how strong emotions are presented in Christina Rossetti's poems. I will discuss different emotions which Rossetti expresses in four poems which are shut out; echo; twice and remember. Hope is a feeling of expectation or wish for a particular thing to happen, and it is used in 'Shut Out' as the speaker begins by saying that "the door was shut", and instead of being trapped in, the door shuts the speaker out of a place of happiness. Doors resembling opening and closing rather than permanent closure. However this indicates on her character as only a specific selection can go in, which suggests she must have committed a sinful act which is why the door has been shut on her. Rossetti uses caesura here, and by using a full stop, it suggests that there is no hope for her to be able to go through the door which she wants to enter. On the other hand, in the poem 'Echo, we see that she is very hopeful that her lover will "come to me" in dreams and repeats this many times which suggests that she is almost certain that he will return to her in her dreams, as although their "wakening should have been in paradise", she begins to question the difference between paradise and her dreams, as she is with her lover in both places so she feels that the only way for her to be able to be happy is if she is constantly visited by her lover in her dreams. In the poem 'Remember', the speaker is uncertain of what she wants, which is also a key theme in many of Rossetti's poems, but it is significant here because she is unsure whether she would want her lover to "remember me" or "forget me" as she doesn't want her lover to forget her instantly and fall in love with another woman but she also doesn't want her lover to be upset. To conclude this shows how the position of women during Rossetti's life may have been due to the typical patriarchal society which shaped Rossetti's thoughts and feelings as it succinctly explains the constant approval of men.

Religion played a pivotal role in Rossetti's life and it contributed significantly to her moral opinions and views. Faith is the strong belief in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual conviction rather than proof and is also the complete trust or confidence in someone or something. In 'Shut Out', she describes paradise as a garden. Rossetti's descriptions of Paradise highlight its life, and unlike the greenery that exists on earth, she suggests that the trees and flowers that grow in paradise are not subject to decay. She is refused entry and is held by iron bars, this is suggestive of confinement and creates the idea that as she must constantly peep through, she can barely see what's on the other side. Indistinguishably, in 'Twice', the speaker first addresses the lover, but then the male. Rossetti may have done this to remind women of her time, and possibly herself, that they should not out men ahead of God as the speaker goes from "O my love" to "o my God", which reinforces the idea of her being spiritually and religiously guided. This shows how faith was vital to Rossetti's life and it was a guideline to how she lived her life and it shaped her views and morality.

Desire is a strong feeling of wanting to have something or wishing for something to happen, and it is a prominent feeling which is central to Rossetti as she uses it many times to demonstrate her feelings, but it is also used to emphasize how it can lead to a woman being used just for pleasure. In 'Echo' she repeats the word "come" several times. This suggests her willingness for her lover to return to her and fulfill her needs. From the first repetition of the word ‘come' to the final expression of desire that the speaker can breathe life back into the beloved, the speaker's attention is focused solely on her love. Longing is expressed through the repeated call to the beloved and language associated with desire. It reflects the title of the poem, almost as if she is so far away that when she tries to speak to her lover, it's just an echo and there is no response from her lover. Similarly, in the poem 'Shut Out', the speaker asks the "shadow-less spirit" to "let me have some buds to cheer my outcast state", the words "let me" suggests that she is at a position of vulnerability as she is asking for something to "cheer my outcast state" which furthermore shows how desperate she is in her plea. These examples show the lack of stability of a woman in Rossetti's time and demonstrates how insecure they were due to how easily they could be manipulated and ruined. Another example of how a woman's desire can also be a her downfall is expressed in one of Rossetti's poems is in 'Twice' as Rossetti says that "you took my heart in your hand'" but "as you set it down it broke", this implies that as soon as she was caught off her guard and went along to fulfil her desire, she was left right after, and her heart is now 'broke', and this word connotes that some sort of irreparable damage has been done, and furthermore is repeated to highlight the destructiveness of the action. Therefore this demonstrates how Rossetti expresses the feeling of desire in her poems.

Conclusively, I have discussed several emotions presented in Rossetti's poems and have compared them with each other to demonstrate how she portrays these emotions in different ways, and how the way she presents them may have been influenced by her era and moral beliefs.