❍ The Shakespearean sonnet rhyming scheme is usually abab cdcd efef gg.
❍ Shakespearean sonnets deal with many diff erent themes, such as death, friendship, poetry and other important issues. Each quatrain presents one idea; the rhymed couplet usually ties the whole composition together by stating the main idea.
Quatrain A set of four lines
Sestet
A set of six lines Octet
A set of eight lines Poet Profi le
Name: Christina Rosset i (1830–1894) Nationality: English
Fact: As well as writing Petrarchan sonnets and romantic poems, Rosset i also wrote children’s poems. Her Christmas poem ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ became a famous Christmas carol.
‘Remember’ BY CHRISTINA ROSSETTI
Remember me when I am gone away, Gone far away into the silent land;
[a] [b]
advise
When you can no more hold me by the hand, [b] 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 plann’d: Only remember me; you understand It will be late to counsel then or pray. Yet if you should forget me for a while
a trace
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
