Compare the way Rossetti defines her relationship with God
in the poems ‘What would I give?’ and ‘Twice.’
Rossetti defines her relationship with God in both poems as
compulsory with her requiring God in her life.
‘What would I give?’ is based on Rossetti needing to be cleansed of her
sins in order for her to have a positive close relationship with God as it’s
humans ‘iniquities which have separated ’people from God whilst, ‘Twice’ is based
on God being her main and only real love, with no one else being close to God’s
significance.
The title ‘What would I give?’ immediately gives the reader
an insight into how Rossetti is feeling, as the rhetorical question suggests
that Rossetti is reflecting on what she would sacrifice in order for a better
gain. The rhetorical question also allows the reader to reflect and enables
them to empathise with Rossetti as the use of the personal pronoun ‘I’ creates
a personal connection between the reader and the poem and enables them to think
on what they may need to do in their life for a desired result. The opening
line immediately signifies that Rossetti is referring to religion with her
asking ‘What would I give for a heart of flesh,’ a Biblical passage and this
may inform that reader that Rossetti is reflecting on God’s desires as God
wants the ‘heart of stone’ to be replaced with the ‘heart of flesh.’ The heart
of stone is sin, and it appears that Rossetti is weighing up how much she would
‘give’ in order to meet God’s expectations, which suggests she feels she needs
God in her life highlighting her relationship with God is compulsory.
The title ‘Twice’ has a more ambiguous meaning, nevertheless
from the poem I can infer that Rossetti is referring to two loves with the
first love being a man- (‘O my love’), (‘O my love’) and the second and only
necessary love being God -‘O my God,’ ‘O my God.’ It appears as if Rossetti
realises that man’s love is not genuine love as with a ‘critical eye,’ they
scan you whilst Rossetti believes she needs God’s love because God is the
ultimate judge. This could be the reason as to why ‘O my love’ is written in
brackets as man’s love is not real love and significant, but ‘O my God’ is not
in brackets with God being the definition of unlimited unconditional love. The
‘broken heart in my hand’ further implies that Rossetti loves God and only
needs God as God loves a ‘broken and contrite heart.’ This therefore shows that
in both poems Rossetti sees her relationship with God as fundamental however,
refers more to what she would sacrifice to make sure she’s on God’s good side
whilst the other is more about God being the definition of true love.
In ‘What would I give?’ each stanza is three lines and based
on its clear link to religion, one could argue that Rossetti representing the
Holy Trinity. Rossetti constantly mentions the heart and in Christianity being
in a relationship with the Holy Trinity enables you to have that ‘heart of
flesh,’ and not a heart ‘hard and cold and small.’ Alternatively, each stanza
being three lines could also be Rossetti showing how simple it should be to
sacrifice everything because as shown in Twice, God is her main love. Rossetti
desires to be ‘clean again’ and knows how simple it is for God to cleanse her.
The fact that there are varying sentence lengths however, may suggest that
Rossetti knows repentance and being pure is not as simple as she may desire it
to be. She asks ‘What would I give?’ but we never know if she actually is
cleansed of all iniquities, and the fact that her ‘spirit has fallen dumb’
implies that she is still struggling with her relationship with God.
The form of Twice is regular with each stanza being 8 lines and
Rossetti may be highlighting the basic elements of Victorian society as well as
the theme of religion. ‘Yet a woman’s words are weak’ shows the futility of
women’s expression, as the Victorian era was patriarchal with women being
presented as the gender solely needed for reproduction in society. Nevertheless, Rossetti comes to the
realisation that the ‘contemned’ love of man is not worth it and has ‘nor
questioned since’ her love with God, because as Literary critic Joshua Bocher stated,
Rossetti is aware ‘God is always present’ and ‘love for God always trumps the
love of another human.’ Rossetti may
believe everyone in society should feel the same way because she is a devout
Christian,and therefore uses a simple regular structure to portray this view. Both
‘Twice’ and ‘What would I give?’ show the need for God however, ‘What would I
give’ shows the complexity of trying to get closer to God, whereas Twice shows
the simplicity of how God is the one Rossetti needs and ‘shall not question
much.’
‘What would I give?’ has a quite a dark tone which creates
irony because of the link to God. The
repetition of ‘wash’ shows the continuous purgation Rossetti feels she needs, because
God cannot stand sin. The dark tone with adjectives such as ‘scalding tears’
show that a walk with God is much more complicated than Rossetti presents in Twice.
Rossetti appears to be more optimistic in ‘Twice’ with the quote ‘I shall not
die, but live’ possibly showing her determination of not experiencing a
spiritual death. Contrastingly to ‘What would I give?’ where Rossetti states
and questions what she can do in order to get a closer relationship with God,
in ‘Twice’ she does not need to question anything as she is almost demanding that
she ‘purge thou [its dross] away.’
To conclude, Rossetti sums up her need for God in both poems,
however she seems more determined in Twice to actually fulfil God’s requests.
‘What would I give?’ creates a more humanistic connection as one would assume
that it is not easy to just ‘purge’ the ‘black stain’ as we are constantly live
in sin and it is that battle between the flesh and the spirit.
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