The Lyricism In Christina Rossetti’s Poetry

Expressing emotion is the essential characteristic of poetry, which is the basic premisefor the argument in this paper and there are two sources of theories to provide the theoreticalsupports for this premise. One source is Chinese classical poetics and the other is Westernexpressive theories. When it comes to the expression of emotion, a poet can do in a variety ofways. However, for pure poetry, emotion is not supposed to be expressed mendaciously.Rossetti’s poetry has often been praised for true and strong emotion. Therefore, this paperfocuses on the lyrical elements from the angles of psychology and rhetoric. According topsychology, soliloquy and imagination play a crucial role in expressing emotion for Rossetti’spoetry. In her poetry, the features of soliloquy are embodied in two aspects:non-communicative and brief. Being non-communicative is the real reason why there is trueemotion in Rossetti’s poetry. The briefness, which can ensure the intensity of emotion inpoetry, refers to the shortness in length and the simplicity in diction. In explaining thelargeness of Rossetti’s poetic vision, imagination is very important. In her poetry, imaginationand emotion are unified together and emotion is expressed by means of imagination.Metaphor and simile can strengthen the expression of emotion. In order to know the topicproperly and comprehensively and obtain the valuable information, literature survey is usedin this paper. In the study of Rossetti’s poetry, some research methods such as analysis andsynthesis, abstraction and generalization, etc. are applied to explore the basic features. Thispaper deals with the psychological qualities of expressing emotion and the rhetorical devicesof strengthening emotion in Rossetti’s poetry, and thus illuminates the roots of the attractivefeatures in her works.