Dante Gabriel Rossetti

About the poet...

Born in London on May 12, 1828 to an
English mother and Italian father.
Rossetti demonstrated literary and artistic
talent and aspirations. One family legend has
it that in 1834 a local milkman was amazed as
he watched six-year old Gabriel creating a
drawing of a rocking horse. In 1841, Rossetti
entered the Sass's Academy art school, a
preparatory school for the art academy.

His growing interest in and talent for poetry

sometimes left him indecisive over which
path to follow -- was he mainly a poet or a
painter?

Brief Introduction
Dante Gabriel Rossettis The Woodspurge is a
sixteen-line poem divided into four-line stanzas of
iambic tetrameter that describe an unidentified griefstricken narrator in an outdoor setting.

Why do you think the narrator is grief-stricken?

In his depressed state, the narrator undergoes an
unforeseen, but clear and intense, visual experience
of the woodspurge, a species of weed that has a
three-part blossom.

 Although the cause of the narrators sorrow is never specified, the

poem was written in the spring of 1856 when Rossetti was in an
anguished state.
He was experiencing intense strife with Elizabeth (Lizzie) Siddal, the
chief model he had used for many of his paintings since 1850, over the
issue of her desire for marriage. (He eventually married her in 1860.)

Rossetti was also tormented at that time about relationships with

other women and with what he perceived as lost artistic opportunities.
However, nothing in the poem points to these specific issues.

Stanza 1
The poems first stanza presents a countryside that is
geographically unspecifiedan area of trees and
hillsand begins to suggest the narrators state of
mind.

The narrator is not walking toward a specific

destination; he moves in the direction the wind is
blowing, and, once the wind ceases, he stops and sits
in the grass.
The fact that his walking and stopping are guided
merely by the wind indicates aimlessness, passivity,
and apathy.

Stanza 2
The narrators posture in the second stanza indicates that he
feels exceedingly depressed, although there is no explanation
given for his emotional state. Sitting on the grass he is
hunched over with his head between his knees. His
depression is so severe that he cannot even groan aloud or
speak a word of grief.
What quote can be used to justify this point?
His head is cast down, as is his soulso much so that his hair
is touching the grass. His physical state reflects his psychic
paralysis as he remains motionless in this position for an
unspecified length of time, but long enough so that he
hear*s+ the day pass.

Stanza 3
Although he is not trying to look around and seems
oblivious to the country setting as a whole, the
narrator remarks in the third stanza that his eyes are
wide open, and this important fact becomes the
inadvertent cause for his ensuing visual experience.
From his seated position, he says there are ten
weeds that his eyes can fix upon. Out of that group,
a flowering woodspurge captures his complete
attention, and he is dramatically impressed by the
detail that it flowers as three cups in one.

Final Stanza
The narrator attributes his depressed state to perfect grief
in the final stanza, but there is still no elaboration as to its
cause.
He then comments, first, that grief may not function to bring
wisdom or insight and may not even be remembered, and,
second, implies that he himself learned nothing from his grief
that day and can no longer remember its cause.
However, One thing then learnt remains: He had been
visually overwhelmed by the shape of the woodspurge, and,
consequently, its image and the fact that The woodspurge
has a cup of three have been vividly burned into his memory
forever.

Brainstorm as many poetic techniques you can

find within this poem (with evidence!)

Imagery
Theme
Rhythm
The tree, hill, grass, weeds,
Nature Rossettis unadorned Monosyllables functions to
and sun. The images are
presentation of nature mutes express sadness or sorrow. All
simple with very little
the setting, forcing it into the
but one word in the first
description. It is only when
background, and causes the
stanza are monosyllables,
the narrator accidentally fixes
narrators mental and
causing the movement to be
his gaze upon the
emotional state to emerge as
slowed. This consistently
woodspurge that any specific
the central focus.
slowed rhythm mirrors the
details come forth.
narrators mood.

Tone
Negative His reference in the
Connotation/Tone
first stanza to the wind
Negative His reference in the
Repetition
having been Shaken out
first stanza to the wind
Wind, Still This
dead from tree and hill
having been Shaken out
deliberate repetition of
introduces the thought of
dead from tree and hill
words and of simple rhymes
introduces the thought of
also functions to maintain death, establishing a negative
death, establishing a negative the simplicity of the poem tone that suggests that the
narrators internal state is
tone that suggests that the
and is consistent with its
negative.
narrators internal state is
simple imagery and
negative.
vocabulary.

Individually or working in pairs, look for 3

different images and describe them in 3 lines
each.

Nature
Although The Woodspurge has a plants name as its title, the poem does
not have nature, or even the woodspurge itself, as its subject.
Nature does play an indirect role in the poem, but it is not the focus here
or in other works by Rossetti. Both in his painting and in his poetry, the
function of nature is to act as a background for the presentation of human
action and emotion.
The depiction of details from nature, although precise and accurate, is not
meant to draw attention to nature itself but to mirror a psychic state or
inner experience.

Sense Perception

Rossettis unadorned presentation of nature mutes the setting, forcing it into the
background, and causes the narrators mental and emotional state to emerge as
the central focus.

The bare minimum of description functions to signal to the reader that the
narrator himself is oblivious to the details of his surroundings because his mind is
focused elsewhere.

The only record of his awareness of his environment, before his dramatic visual
experience of the woodspurge, is that he walked when the wind was blowing and
that he sat when that external impetus ceased. His reference in the first stanza to
the wind having been Shaken out dead from tree and hill introduces the thought
of death, establishing a negative tone that suggests that the narrators internal
state is negative.