“ Song to Celia” by Ben Jonson

Analysis Of the Poem

First Stanza

 The piece begins with the speaker asking that his lover “Drink” to him with only her
“eyes.”
 The speaker in "Song: To Celia" opens with a plea for his lady to express her love by
gazing upon him.
 The speaker wants his lady to make a pledge to him with her eyes rather than while
drinking from a cup of wine.
 The speaker insists that if his lady would leave a kiss for him in the cup, he would prize it
more than nectar from the gods. 
 He claims that his soul "thirsts" for love and that only "a drink divine" that transcends
even Jove's nectar can quench it. "Jove" refers to the god Jupiter, lord of the classical
gods and a recurrent symbol of divinity in secular poetry.

Second Stanza

 In line first line, the speaker notes that he recently ("late") sent his lady a wreath of roses,
a flower traditionally associated with beauty.
 The speaker admits that his primary motive for sending it was not to honor her beauty, as
any lover would with red roses, but for another purpose, which reflects her more intense
charms.
 He wants his lover to see how highly he regards her. 
 When he claims that the wreath would not wither in his lady's presence, he suggests her
power over it.
 The speaker’s lover did not react to the wreathe as he expected. She did not keep it as a
monument to their love but instead chose to send it back to him after breathing on it.
 When he wreath came back to him, he smelled it and declared that it did not smell like it
did before. It now smelled of “thee,” his lover. 
 Song: to Celia’ is a true love poem that is wholly dedicated to the promotion and
continuation of a relationship.

Themes:

 Love, rejection, and happiness.

 The poem presents two things: speaker’s intense love for Celia that never changes even
after her rejection, and the divine power of love that makes him feel the same for his
beloved even when she turns him down.
 The speaker’s love is not physical but spiritual. 

Symbols:
 1. Drinking
- action of lifting or pledging with one's eyes.
2. Thirst
- desire, powerful emotion, and love.
3. Jove's Nectar
- the Greek and Roman gods' favorite drink
4. Rosy Wreath
- artistic creation

Questions:

1. Who is the speaker of the poem?

2. What is the mood of the poem?
3. What is the message of the poem?

"When I am dead, my dearest" by Christine Rossetti

Author’s Info.

 Christina Georgina Rossetti was (born Dec. 5, 1830, London, Eng.—died Dec. 29, 1894,
London), one of the most important of English women poets both in range and quality.
She excelled in works of fantasy, in poems for children, and in religious poetry.

 Christina Rossetti was one of the leading female poets of the Victorian era. Her ‘Song’,
beginning ‘When I am dead, my dearest’, remains one of her best-loved poems. 

 The Victorian poet Christina Rossetti wrote "Song (When I am dead, my dearest)" in
1848 at the age of 18, though it wasn't published until 1862 in her collection Goblin
Market and Other Poems.

Analysis of the Poem

First Stanza

 The poem begins with the speaker addressing someone "dear”to her.
 “Sing no sad songs" in the event of the speaker's death. It isn't clear why the speaker is
thinking about death, but what is immediately clear is her lack of sentimentality on the
subject.
 The speaker asks her beloved that when she dies, he doesn’t sing any sad songs for her,
or put flowers or plant a tree on her grave. 
 She doesn’t want her loved one to feel obligated to mourn her.
  The speaker goes on to say that whether she’s remembered or forgotten doesn’t really
matter, given that she won’t be around to notice.

Second Stanza

 After death, the speaker will no longer “see the shadows,” “feel the rain,” nor “hear the
nightingale” singing.
 Whether this is because her spirit will have moved on to better things or because she has
simply ceased to exist, the speaker doesn't anticipate a lingering attachment to this world.
 The speaker also doesn’t know whether she’ll be able to remember life on earth.
 The speaker ends the poem by saying they may “Haply [...] remember” or “haply [...]
forget” the things that happened while she was alive. The word “haply,” which means by
chance or luck, implies that the speaker isn’t sure what will become of her own memories
after she dies.

Themes:

 Death and Mourning

 It explores the idea that mourning is an act performed by the living, for the living, rather
than for the dead person.

Symbols:

1. Roses and Cypress Tree

- Traditional mourning
2. Green Grass
- Hope
3. Nightingale
- Expression of grief, and sorrow

Questions:

1. What is the theme of the poem?

2. If you are one the speaker’s loved ones, would you grant her request? Explain why.
3. What does the speaker mean by saying “Haply I may remember”?