The Woodspurge Summary

The Woodspurge - Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Summary :

The poet talks about a world that seems surreal, and talks about the Woodspurge, as you can see below. In this sense, he is trying to make the Woodspurge an extraordinary plant that it is very rare in reality and is from a world not from our own. The poem here uses the Woodspurge as a symbol in an allegorical story.

Significant poetic devices and their significance (eg: Metaphors, symbols, rhyme scheme, form, imagery, repetition...etc)

Structure level analysis

1.       AAAA rhyme scheme, with a few exceptions. Used to create a sense of consistency which we will naturally find a little boring and dull. It fits in the context perfectly as the poet tries to describe a dystopian world, where interesting and fun things to do are very scarce (=difficult to find or get). Choice of words = simple, it adds to the effect as we find nothing out of the ordinary very interesting, even on a linguistic scale.

2.       Constant caesura at the end of every line, usually due to punctuation. Sometimes no need of punctuation, we already read it with the pause automatically, but still it is there for reinforcement. Used to allow a pause for every sentence to sink in, indicating the fact that when we started reading we were already at the climax or at the dramatic scene of the poem.

Word level analysis

1.        Use of the word “wind” repetitively to emphasize the atmosphere and setting. “The wind flapped loose, the wind was still” implying the wind was periodical and continued to be so, to set the setting for 1 and 2 stanzas. Even when we don’t read it in the second stanza, we already see the atmosphere constantly changing from windy to calm, as was the aim of the poet. He varies the sentence structure and adds a little bit of movement to avoid repeating the same thing twice so that it still has its hold on the reader. This sudden climate change indicates a potential storm coming.

“I walked on at the wind’s will-,

I sat now, for the wind was still”

Fact that he goes with the wind and does not even oppose it shows a sign of submissiveness and a lack of defiance. Gives a sense of having no more meaning in your life.

In a way, it can also express emotional turmoil (=a state of confusion, uncertainty, or disorder) and that the poet has finally given up, the wind being used to express his feelings outside of his own body (the flooding of pain and other negative emotions).

2.      Another form of submissiveness. The synecdoche on the knees and forehead, we well as lips, hair and ears. Mentioned to express the character´s nakedness and vulnerability as he just submits to the storm.

“Between my knees my forehead was,-

My lips, drawn in, said not Alas!

My hair was over in the grass,

My naked ears heard the day pass.”

 “said not Alas”, once again exemplifying the submissive behaviour of the character by saying nothing.

We can conclude that the guy is in an ‘armadillo’ position and that he is just suffering the storm, waiting for it to pass.

3.      The poet wakes up in a surreal world.

a.      The sun goes down, foreshadowing the fact that we are about to experience a world unseen, as we are usually unfamiliar of a world without the sun outside the house in the wild.

b.      A sudden movement to the detailed world, as the poet starts to notice the weeds on the ground. Note that even the number of weeds we can find is said. Sudden description in detail foreshadows that something big is going to happen as we start to explore even the small changes in the things around us. At last we see the bloom of the Woodspurge, “Three cups in one.”, an alien that we probably would not have seen or learned to appreciate without the surreal world to act as a background.

4.     a. The poet starts to show what a powerful impact the Woodspurge has had on him. He starts to feel a wave of powerful emotion as he notices the beauty of the Woodspurge. Thus the lines “From the perfect grief there need not be” and starts to relate the Woodspurge to many other things that humans treasure so much. “Wisdom or even memory”. This implicates the poet thinks of the Woodspurge as something that we can’t even comprehend.This is the perfect evidence of the Woodspurge as the symbol in the eyes of the poet, that he has seen it before or can relate it to something of his past.

        b. “One thing then learnt remains to me”, means that of all he has forgotten, of all the emotional turmoil that has washed over him, of all the depression and emptiness that he holds, there is only one thing that he remembers. One thing that he can’t deny, something that he wants to keep. This line is used to create a emotion of bittersweet love towards this flower, that it has managed to stick with him through thick and thin, although not mentioned how.

“The woodspurge has a cup of three.” talking about the characteristics of the flower, although phrased differently. This means that what is more important as the symbol, is its peculiar characteristics rather than the name itself, which once again has a meaning that only the poet knows, and what we can only do is ponder about it.

Identify the speaker in the poem: The poet, Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Identify the speaker’s attitude towards the subject of the poem: At first submissive, emotionally stressed and pained. Towards the end there is a feeling of surrealism, bittersweet memories and a sense of grief.

Paired poems:

1.        A Birthday by Christina Rosetti in the sense that the emotional standpoint is all there is to the poem and that in a way images are used to portray that emotional standpoint for as much as possible.

2.       The Cockroach in both the poem endings as they start to look inwardly on themselves and the life that they have and compare it with The Cockroach and The Woodspurge accordingly.

3.       Continuum in the sense that surreal images are used to exemplify the character’s emotions and amplify them to the reader so as to be able to create a stronger emotional connection.

Memorable lines:

1.       “From perfect grief there need not be”

2.       “One thing then learnt remains to me, - The Woodspurge has a cup of three”

3.       “I had walked on at the wind’s will, - I sat now, for the wind was still.”

4.       “The Woodspurge flowered, three cups in one...”
“The woodspurge has a cup of three...”