The Woodspurge - Dante Gabriel Rossetti

The Woodspurge

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Summary of the Poem:

The poet talks about a world that seems surreal (although it could most possibly be possible), and talks about the Woodspurge, as you can see below.

In this sense, he is trying to make the Woodspurge an extraordinary plant that it is very rare in reality and is from a world not from our own. The poem here uses the Woodspurge as a symbol in an allegorical story, which we will discuss later on.

Significant poetic devices and their significance (eg: Metaphors, symbols, rhyme scheme, form, imagery, repetition...etc)

Structure level analysis

1.       AAAA rhyme scheme, with a few exceptions here and there. It is used to basically create a sense of consistency which we will naturally find a little boring and dull. In this context it fits in perfectly as the poet tries to describe a dystopian world, where interesting and fun things to do are very scarce, if any at all. The choice of words are also simple, which adds to the effect as we find nothing out of the ordinary very interesting, even on a linguistic scale.

2.       Constant caesura at the end of every line, usually due to punctuation. At some point we don’t even see the need for the punctuation as we already read it with the pause automatically, but still it is there for reinforcement. This is used to allow a pause for every sentence to sink in, indicating the fact that when we started reading we were already at the climax or at the dramatic scene of the poem.

Word level analysis

1.        Use of the word “wind” repetitively in the first stanza to emphasize the atmosphere and setting. “The wind flapped loose, the wind was still” implying that the wind was completely periodical at this moment and continued to be so, to set the setting for the first two stanzas. Even when we don’t read it in the second stanza, we already see the atmosphere constantly changing from windy to calm, as was the aim of the poet. Note how he varies the sentence structure and adds a little bit of movement to avoid repeating the same thing twice so that it still has its hold on the reader so he won’t get bored and stop reading it as a whole. This sudden climate change may show indication of a potential storm coming.

“I walked on at the wind’s will-,

I sat now, for the wind was still”

The fact that he goes with the wind and does not even oppose it shows a sign of submissiveness and a lack of defiance. ‘Just take me where you want me to go’ is what he is saying. It also gives a sense of you having no more meaning in your life and that you are just in fact an empty shell.

In a way, it can also express emotional turmoil and that the poet has finally given up, the wind being used to express his feelings outside of his own body (the flooding of pain and other negative emotions).

2.       The second stanza deals with another form of submissiveness. Note the synecdoche on the knees and forehead, we well as lips, hair and ears. Also note that these bodily features usually found exposed, giving the implication that the character in the story is as well metaphorically. The fact that they were all mentioned is to express on the characters nakedness and the vulnerability as he just submits to the storm.

“Between my knees my forehead was,-

My lips, drawn in, said not Alas!

My hair was over in the grass,

My naked ears heard the day pass.”

Note as well that there is a lost rhyme in “was” and “Alas”, once again exemplifying the submissive behaviour of the character. ‘All is lost’

So at the end of the second stanza, we can conclude that the guy is in an ‘armadillo’ position and that he is just suffering the storm, waiting for it to pass.

3.       In the third stanza, the poet wakes up in a surreal world. I can’t help but think of the scene in Avatar at night in this scene just before he makes out with the heroine. We have indications of the world surreal.

a.       The sun goes down, foreshadowing the fact that we are about to experience a world unseen, as we are usually unfamiliar of a world without the sun outside the house in the wild.

b.      A sudden movement to the detailed world, as the poet starts to notice the weeds on the ground. Note that even the number of weeds we can find is said. This sudden description in detail foreshadow that something big is going to happen as we start to explore even the small changes in the things around us. At last we see the bloom of the Woodspurge, “Three cups in one.” , an alien that we probably would not have seen or learned to appreciate without the surreal world to act as a background.

4.       The last stanza is a beautiful one. The poet starts to show how powerful an impact the Woodspurge has had on him. He starts to feel a wave of powerful emotion as he notices the beauty of the Woodspurge. Thus the lines “From the perfect grief there need not be” and starts to relate the Woodspurge with many other things that humans treasure so much. “Wisdom or even memory”. This is an implication that the poet thinks of the Woodspurge as something that we can’t even comprehend, that there is more behind it than meets the eye. This is the perfect evidence of the Woodspurge in the symbol in the eyes of the poet, that he has seen it before or can relate it to something of his past.

5.       He then goes on the say “One thing then learnt remains to me” , which basically means that of all he has forgotten, of all the emotional turmoil that has washed over him, of all the depression and emptiness that he holds, there is only one thing that he remembers. One thing that he can’t deny and something that he wants to keep, no matter what happens. This line is used to create a emotion of bittersweet love towards this flower, that it has managed to stick with him through thick and thin, although not mentioned how.

That “The woodspurge has a cup of three.” Once again he is talking about the characteristics of the flower, although phrased differently. This means that what is more important as the symbol is its peculiar characteristics rather than the name itself, which once again has a meaning that only the poet knows, and what we can only do is ponder about it.

Identify the speaker in the poem: The poet himself, Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Identify the speaker’s attitude towards the subject of the poem: At first submissive, emotionally stressed and pained. Towards the end there is a feeling of surrealism, bittersweet memories and a sense of grief.

Paired poems:

1.        A Birthday by Christina Rosetti in the sense that the emotional standpoint is all there is to the poem and that in a way images are used to portray that emotional standpoint for as much as possible.

2.       The Cockroach in both the poem endings as they start to look inwardly on themselves and the life that they have and compare it with The Cockroach and The Woodspurge accordingly.

3.       Continuum in the sense that surreal images are used to exemplify the character’s emotions and amplify them to the reader so as to be able to create a stronger emotional connection.

Memorable lines:

1.       “From perfect grief there need not be”

2.       “One thing then learnt remains to me, - The Woodspurge has a cup of three”

3.       “I had walked on at the wind’s will, - I sat now, for the wind was still.”

4.       “The Woodspurge flowered, three cups in one...”
“The woodspurge has a cup of three...”