The World of the Victorian Naturalist

On pondering Old Fogey's comments on Christina Rossetti's poem in my previous blog, it come to mind of my friend's (Slarky) art work. For her degree, where she "only got a Desmond" as she put it (2:2)- outragous if you ask me!!- she did this piece on the "Victorian Naturalist". It is amazing, and I am duly posting it here.

This is what she says about it:

"THE WORLD OF THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST.

Using the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin’s The Origin of Species as a starting point, I wanted to visually explore the idea of the Victorian Naturalist and the paraphernalia associated with it, to show to what extent Victorian naturalists were harming the environments and species which they sought to learn about with their obsessive collecting for both acedemic and decorative purposes."

Old Fogey says that the poem instructs us what to do, but that Christina may not have followed it herself, which is entirely possible. However, I said that her sentiment in the poem is completely at odds with her time. The Victorians, as Slarky says, were harming the environments around them for knowledge and decoration. Even if Rossetti didn't always avoid squatting the odd fly or squashing the odd spider, she voiced an opinion little held and even less liked.

Check out her website here: http://www.charlotteslark.co.uk/index.html

POEMS FOR CHILDREN

OK, so we probably know that I like Christina Rossetti's poems A LOT. Like a lot, not as much as Emily Dickinson, but a lot right?

I was in a charity shop last week and bought a 1969 copy of Christina Rossetti's poetry "for young readers" called Doves and Pomegranates. It is a really nice book. It is the sort of book that I would have loved as a child. At primary school we were always having a poetry day or something so I had this one book of poetry and I always HAD to pick something out of this book as it was the only one I had. It served me well, but by year 6 it was a little immature and I had used all the good ones! This book I am going to keep for my kids (if I have any) and they can use this book to death too.

HURT NO LIVING THING

Hurt no living thing:
Ladybird, nor butterfly,
Nor moth with dusty wing,
Nor cricket chirping cheerily,
Nor grasshopper so light of leap,
Nor dancing gnat, nor beetle fat,
Nor harmless worms that creep.

> This was particularly apt as I was lying in the bath reading this poem when I noticed a spider *eugh!* scuttle in through the slightly ajar window and I was wondering whether to kill it, capture it and throw it out the window to certain death or to just let it go but watch it wearily.

I watched it wearily for ten minutes before I couldn't take it any longer and got out the bath. And the water was still warm and the book unfinished. What a very rude spider that still lives.

Remember- Christina Rossetti

Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you planned:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.

This is what I've always wanted said at my funeral by the way, you know in case I shuffle off this mortal coil in the near future. It is beautiful and so apt about rememberance, grief and needing to get on with daily life. I think i was a little harsh on her in the last blog so I am repenting. This is probably more powerful than Dickinson's poem I typed up in the previous blog... and the sonnet layout works v. effectively... sorry Christina :S

Perhaps I was a little harsh

After Death

Christina Rossetti (1830-1894), contemporaneous with Emily Dickinson, was very similar to her in many ways. Like Emily, Christina never married but she did have her own social circle. However Rossetti did not recede from society like Emily Dickinson did, but Christina did have mental problems following from the nervous breakdown she had when she was 14. Both poets were very religious in their own ways; Emily a Calvinist and Christina was part of the Anglo-Catholic movement. But most importantly they both feared their death towards the end of their lives and reflected this in their poems...

The curtains were half drawn, the floor was swept

And strewn with rushes, rosemary and may

Lay thick upon the bed on which I lay,

Where though the lattice ivy-shawdows crept.

He leaned above me, thinking that I slept

And could not hear him; but I heard him say:

"Poor child, poor child:" as he turned away

Came a deep silence, and I knew he wept.

He did not touch the shroud, or raise the fold

That hid my face, or take my ahnd in his,

Or ruffle the smooth pillows for my head:

He did not love me living; but once dead

He pitied me; and very sweet it is

To know he still is warm though I am cold.

I heard a Fly buzz- when I died-

The Stillness in the Room

Was like the Stillness in the Air-

Between the Heaves of Storm-

The Eyes around- had wrung them dry-

And Breathes were gathering firm

For that last Onset- when the king

Be witnessed-in the Room-

I willed away my Keepsakes- Signed away

What portion of me be

Assignable- and then it was

There interposed a Fly-

With Blue- uncertain stumbling Buzz-

Between the light- and me-

And then the Window failed- and then
I could not see to see-

(See here for one of Emily's other poems about her death)

I prefer Emily Dickinson's style of poetry better than Christina's formal sonnet layout. Traditional and over used perhaps... but Emily's use of the dash works a lot better. Her fear of not being able to see into the world of death: "could not see to see" unnerves us because we can't see either because Emily doesn't. the dash leaves us hanging. There is no definite ending. Christina's poem ends on a full stop, which shown next to Emily's dash really puts a definite end to life. It is effective. There is no room for discussion. But I think it would not be as effective if it was not shown side by side next to Emily's poem. Anyways, that is what i think...