An Analysis Of The Death Theme In Christina Rossetti's Lyrical Poems

Although the Victorian poet Christina Rossetti devoted her lifelong time to religious faith, she built her reputation mostly upon the unadorned lyrical poems, which deeply displayed an ecstasy for the theme of death. This thesis paper, therefore, is aimed at the exploration of her style of the theme of death, starting by how she was influenced by her predecessors in this issue, to analyze the same theme impenetrating in her lyrical poems.The thesis is divided into two parts. The first chapter discusses Christina Rossetti's concerns over the death theme of "others" in her poetry. This part focuses on Christina's perspective on the fear of death, as well as the resulting deep sympathy of the poet towards the tragedy of the "others". Chapter two deals with Christina Rossetti's sentiments and expressions of the death theme of "self", and it particularly depicts her yearnings and expectations for beautiful things. For instance, she exhorted herself (or others) to seize "today" as she valued today as the beauty of the world.It is concluded in this thesis that the death theme, no matter whether it vents the sympathy of tragedy or the yearning for beauty and light before death, undoubtedly represents Christina Rossett's efforts to search for the unchanging meaning of life.