GOOD FRIDAY- NOTES

TITLE

• Jesus' crucifixion- Christian importance; Rossetti's religious devotion- Betrayal & Pain

''Am I a stone, and not a sheep''

• Interrogative- insecurity showed through focus on state of being} analytical
• ''Stone''- Insentient, lacks empathy
• ''not a sheep''- Does not relate to the followers of Christ} self doubt

''That I can stand, O Christ, beneath Thy cross''

• Places herself beneath Christ- 'Fallen women'} Mary Magdalene

''To number, drop by drop, Thy blood's slow loss''

• Counting; detached, analytical
• Recognises the drag of his death- painstaking

''And yet not weep?''

• Emotionless
• Detached

''Not so those women loved''

• Unspecified, detached from the accepted disposition of women
• ''loved'' defined

''Who with exceeding grief lamented Thee''

• Over dramatic- reflects detachment of speaker from emotion} Extreme
• View emotion as excessive/ a triviality
• Critical

''Not so the thief was moved''

• ''Not so'' repeated, emphasises significance of a void/ lack of something

''Not so the Sun and Moon''

• ''Not so'' Alone in a new stanza, emphasises a greater scale/epic scale- the universe

''Which hid their faces in a starless sky''

• Shying away/turning away gaze- implies crying/ fear]
• Starless sky- without light or guidance, lack of beauty} void of meaning

''A horror of great darkness at broad noon''

• Emphasis of anxiety and loss
• Overwhelming/ Melodramatic

''I, only I''

• Lonely/Abandoned- Abandoned by God} Anxious, self absorbed, introspective
• Self detachment, nothingness
• Ugly line} Disrupts rhythm, irregular

''Yet give not o'er''

• Balances negative tone of poem
• Resolution & atonement
• Non- existentialist, not completely lost

''But seek Thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock''

• Internal rhyme- Sonal harmony} Resolution and clarity

''Greater than Moses, turn and look once more

And smite a rock''

• Biblical connotations
• Moses in the desert- water pours out of rock:
• Life vs Stagnancy
• Rossetti see's herself as the rock requiring smiting- needs a miracle

FIRST 3 STANZAS

• Doubt, fear} Negativity
• Outcast, fear,loneliness, focus on death

http://padlet.com/colup1/rossetti