Annotated Notes: “Remember”
Christina Rossetti | Close-reading notes by section (Petrarchan sonnet)
Overview
A Petrarchan sonnet spoken by someone anticipating their own death, addressed directly to a loved one who will survive them. The
octave (first eight lines) requests to be remembered; the sestet (final six lines) reverses this request, releasing the beloved from grief if
remembering becomes too painful. The volta between the two sections marks a shift from a natural desire to be remembered toward a
more selfless concern for the survivor's wellbeing — a movement from self toward the other that defines the poem's emotional arc.
Octave (lines 1–8): The Request to Remember
Opens with the poem's central imperative, repeated three times across the octave (l.1, l.5, l.8): “Remember me” — the insistence itself
conveys the speaker's underlying fear of being forgotten. Death is described euphemistically as being “gone away into the silent land”
(l.2) — vague, distant, and hushed rather than graphically final, softening the poem's confrontation with mortality. The physical
separation is made concrete and intimate: “when you can no more hold me by the hand” (l.3) and “Nor I half turn to go, yet turning stay”
(l.4) — the second image captures the hesitant, reluctant motion of a parting that will, after death, no longer be possible even in its
incomplete form. The speaker imagines a future in which plans (“you tell me of our future that you plann'd,” l.6) can no longer be
shared, and asks only to be remembered rather than actively consulted (“Only remember me,” l.7) — a diminished, passive form of
continued presence. The final couplet-like close of the octave, “you understand / It will be late to counsel then or pray” (l.7–8),
acknowledges the irreversibility of death: once it has occurred, no further communication or intervention will be possible.
Sestet (lines 9–14): The Volta — Releasing the Beloved
The turn is signalled directly: “Yet if you should forget me for a while / And afterwards remember, do not grieve” (l.9–10) — the speaker
now anticipates and permits forgetting, a marked reversal from the octave's insistence. This shift reveals the poem's deeper concern is
not the speaker's own legacy but the beloved's future happiness. The justification given — “For if the darkness and corruption leave / A
vestige of the thoughts that once I had” (l.11–12) — uses physically unflinching language (“corruption,” referring to bodily decay) that
contrasts sharply with the softer euphemisms of the octave, suggesting a more honest, unsentimental reckoning with death as the
poem nears its close. The final couplet delivers the poem's central, generous conclusion: “Better by far you should forget and smile /
Than that you should remember and be sad” (l.13–14) — the speaker explicitly prioritises the beloved's emotional wellbeing over their
own desire to be remembered, resolving the poem's initial tension in favour of selflessness.
Key Motifs & Devices
• Petrarchan structure and the volta: the octave's plea to be remembered is directly reversed by the sestet's permission to forget
— the poem's argument is built into its very form.
• Repetition of “Remember me”: occurring three times in the octave, the insistence conveys underlying anxiety about being
forgotten before the sestet's more generous resolution.
• Euphemism vs. plain language: “gone away into the silent land” (octave) contrasts with “darkness and corruption” (sestet) — the
poem grows more direct about death as it progresses.
• Movement from self to other: the poem's emotional arc shifts from the speaker's own desire to be remembered toward concern
for the survivor's grief and happiness.
• Physical intimacy of parting: “hold me by the hand,” “half turn to go, yet turning stay” — small, tender physical gestures ground
the poem's abstract meditation on death in concrete human closeness.
• Direct address: the poem speaks continuously to “you,” creating an intimate, one-sided conversation that makes the reader
complicit as the addressed beloved.
Possible Discussion Questions
• How does the volta between octave and sestet change the poem's central request, and what does that reversal reveal about the
speaker's priorities?
• Why might Rossetti use softer, euphemistic language for death in the octave but more direct, physical language (“corruption”) in
the sestet?
• What is the effect of the repeated phrase “Remember me” across the first eight lines?
• Does the poem's final couplet feel like a genuine resolution, or does some tension between wanting to be remembered and
wanting the beloved's happiness remain?