What is the theme of Christina Rossetti's poem "Remember"?

In addition to the themes of elegy and imperfect love mentioned in the previous answers from other educators here, there is possibly a theme of existentialism at work in this poem. An existentialist view generally accepts that life is without meaning or purpose, that things happen for unexplained but banal (rather than mysterious or mystical) reasons.

Using this interpretation, once can see that there is very little in the sonnet that is not based upon the real and final condition of death. The word "darkness" implies a state of nothingness and loss of consciousness after death. The word "corruption" is a reference to the earthly decay of the body after death, and therefore the idea of what occurs after death is focused on those left behind (the poem's intended audience), and not the fate/future of the poet.

And yet, being a thinker and artist, the poet's words here are bound up in ideas of ego and remembrance, perhaps partly because of her body of work and its legacy that she hopes will live on. The sonnet's language makes no explicit reference to this, only a somewhat vague description of "a vestige of the thoughts that once I had." 

The theme of imperfect love is also present in Rossetti's  "Remember."  A very religious poet, Rossetti here seems to realize the imperfection of human love against that of the divine.  Thus, her relationship with her lover may not be as sincere as it first appears in the first eight lines of this Petrarchan sonnet. For, in the last six lines, Rossetti's attitude seems to change to one of nonchalance:

Yet if you should forget me for a while/And afterwards remember, do not grieve:

Rossetti tells her lover that the imperfection of their love allows for forgetting:

For if the darkness and corruption leave/A vestige of the thoughts.../Better by far you shoul forget and smile/Than that you should remember and be sad.

Also, because the opening lines do not clarify why the speaker is leaving--is it separation or death?--the ending lines seem all the more nonchalant if the reader considers that the speaker may simply be leaving.

“Remember” is an elegiac poem, focusing on the themes of death, remembrance, relinquishment, and forgiveness. The speaker is Rossetti pondering her impending death and releasing her lover from the responsibility of enshrining her in his memory because she fears it will cause him pain. She tells him that if he chooses to forget her, he should not feel guilty.  

What are the main figures of speech in Christina Rossetti's "Remember"?

A figure of speech is a word or phrase that has more than a merely literal meaning. Figures of speech include similes and metaphors, irony, hyperbole and understatement. They encompass ways of grouping to bring added emphasis to certain words, such as alliteration (where grouping together words beginning with the same consonant lends them a greater weight) or rhyme.

In Rossetti's poem, she advises a beloved to remember her after she dies but not to grieve if he also forgets her from time to time, because, she writes, it is better to be happy than to be sad. Rather than use the word "death," Rossetti uses figures of speech that mean death, such as the "silent land," and "darkness and corruption." These are concrete metaphors that provide images of what death is.

Rossetti also uses repetition, repeating the word "remember" five times and beginning the poem with that word. Therefore, although the poet reassures the beloved that it is acceptable to forget her at times, the overall effect of the poem is, as the title suggests, to ask for remembrance. 

The poem also uses understatement, using simple images such as no longer holding hands to represent death and the word "smile" to indicate a happy moment.

Christina Rossetti's poem "Remember" uses several figures of speech. The most obvious is rhyme; it is written in the form of a Petrarchan sonnet rhymed abbaabba cddece. It uses the rhythmic pattern of iambic pentameter. It uses alliteration infrequently (hold/hand). It uses anaphora, repeated words at the beginning of sentences ("remember"). In a sense, the entire poem uses litotes in the way it refers to death as mere absences (compare Tennyson: "Come not when I am dead / To cast the foolish tears upon my grave…" which works by hyperbole). Rossetti uses polyptoton (repeating the same root with different inflection) in "…turn to go yet turning."

How is the speaker characterized in Christina Rossetti's poem "Remember"?

Christina Rossetti’s “Remember Me” offers a self-portrait of a central character contemplating her own death. She addresses an unidentified other person, perhaps a lover, a husband, or some kind of other partner. The poem is a Petrarchan sonnet (that is, a sonnet with the same basic rhyme scheme as sonnets by the Italian poet Franceso Petrarca, or “Petrarch”). The rhyme scheme of the poem thus falls into two parts: the first eight lines (the “octave”), which always rhyme abbaabba; and the last six lines (the “sestet”), which can rhyme variously. Rossetti's sestet rhymes cddece.

The speaker asks the addressee to remember her when she is gone, presumably because the addressee is special to her.  The key word – “Remember” – is emphasized by being placed first in the first line. In line 2, the speaker uses a metaphor – “the silent land” – to refer to the eternity of death. Whereas the first line might have implied a merely temporary departure, the second line clearly suggests the final departure of death.

The third line implies the physical connection the couple have enjoyed – a connection that is decorous and gently loving rather than explicit or blatantly erotic: she speaks of being held by the hand, not even of kissing, let alone anything even more daring. Thus the speaker seems a restrained person, not a person full of strong physical passions. In lines 5-6, this sense of the speaker as a not especially assertive person is reinforced:

Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you plann'd . . . (5-6)

Here she suggests that the addressee guided their relationship, and she does not seem to object to that fact, as a modern feminist might.  She mentions his plans for their future, but she seems instead to focus on her own assumptions about her own personal future: that she will die.  The repeated phrase “remember me” becomes almost a chant or refrain in the poem; it lends the poem a kind of musical quality and a kind of musical rhythm, even as it also makes very clear what matters most to this woman, who is clearly determined and insistent in some respects, if not in others.

As is typical of Petrarchan sonnets, there is a significant shift both of rhyme and of meaning in the movement from line 8 to line 9. In line 9, the speaker raises the possibility that the addressee may in fact forget her.  Having spent the first eight lines asking the addressee to remember and love her, in the last six lines she shows him her love by suggesting the he forget her if his memories of her should cause him any pain. She wants to be remembered (as the first eight lines make clear), but even more than that, she wants her partner to be happy, even if being happy means occasionally forgetting her. She seeks his continuing affection in the octave; she offers her own continuing affection in the sestet.

The poem thus characterizes the speaker as a person whose love is so intense that she not only wants to be loved beyond the grave but also offers such love in return.

As befits a speaker who is so calm and rational (despite her intense love), the rhythms of the poem consist mostly of perfectly regular iambic pentameter lines, in which each odd syllable is unaccented and each even syllable is accented. The first syllable of line 6 is unusually emphasized, and the same thing happens in line 13. The speaker's thoughts are as measured as the poem's rhythms.

What is the setting of Christina Rossetti's poem "Remember"?

The setting for the poem 'Remember' by Christina Rossetti could be heaven, or it could be earth. The poet could have written their own epitaph to have carved on their gravestone. That would be an interesting almost metaphysical idea, as it would span space and time in that it was written in an earthly sense while the poet still existed here, yet the message would travel to the reader 'from beyond' as they read the message on a graveyard headstone. This poem is quite personal though and has the feeling that it was addressed to someone very close and special. The poet absolves the reader or special person from all guilt at the odd forgetful moment, wanting them to be happy, not sad, and think joyfully of them.

The poem, "Remember" by Christina Rossetti, is set as the narrator is in the process of passing on or possible the poem is spoken as a missive from the afterlife. Clearly the narrator is not expecting a response from the receiver of the spoken words. The author has left no indication that this is meant to be a conversation. So one can only assume since the majority of the poem is giving instructions as to how the narrator wants to be remembered after s/he passes, that it is either a deathbed declaration or a missive from the afterlife. I can envision the departing soul murmuring these words as it hovers over those gathered around the bed of the dying person.

Can you explain the poem "Remember" by Christina Rossetti?

Remember” is a sonnet written by Christina Rossetti. Christina suffered from ill health throughout out her life and so it is not surprising that she should explore the theme of death. As a Christian, Rossetti believed in the afterlife and so this poem is poignant with a sense of hope that death is not the end.

In the first line, which is the theme of the poem the narrator asks to be remembered. Christina Rossetti wrote the melancholy sonnet “Remember” while she was sick.  She decides that she needs to explore death. 

The point of view in the poem is first person with the poet as the speaker. The narrator believes in the afterlife and hopes that death is not the end of life

The form of the poem is a sonnet.  The poem has fourteen lines divided into three quatrains and a couplet at the end. The rhyme scheme does not follow the usual pattern for a sonnet: ABBAABBACDEEFC. 

In the first line of the poem, the poet begs the reader not to forget her.  She wants to be in the memories of the person to whom she is writing. In the next lines, the reader learns that the poet is dying because she is going to the silent land which would be the grave.

Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Remember me…

The poet will miss the physical contact with the lover.  Although she feels that the separation from the other through death is not the end of the relationship.  They will always be connected.   The two had planned a future together. Hopefully, he will remember her as he thinks of those plans.

As time goes on, the man may forget to think about her. She understands.  The grieving process takes care of the terrible hurt that one experiences when dies.  The poet’s advice is not to grieve. After time passes, she hopes that he will remember her and smile while in the memories.  This is much better than when he is sad and grief-stricken. 

Rossetti’s poem intends to comfort someone whose lover has euphemistically passed away. The primary lesson comes at the end of the poem. She believes that the despite their ups and downs, he will remember her kindly and smile.