Remember Questions

Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.

  1. What is the effect of compressing such a huge, massive, heavy topic (death and remembrance) into just 14 lines (a sonnet)? Is a sonnet too short for this sort of thing?
  2. Rossetti was a deeply religious person. Can you tell just by looking at this poem? What parts of the poem support your answer? 
  3. Does the speaker seem worried about anything? If so, what? How do you know?
  4. How does this poem compare to others you may have read about death?
  5. Did you catch all the commands in this poem ("remember," "remember," "remember," "do not grieve")? Does the speaker seem bossy at all? If so, why do you think that's the case?