This collection is full of short but sweet poems. The author I’ve met earlier with her “Goblin Market” story that was an interesting and fun read in itself. Rosetti has a fine ear and the short poems have a lovely flow to me. The themes of motherhood and infant mortality mentioned in the introduction do ring true and do give pause, but I feel that for children’s poetry, they don’t always notice or take things as jarringly as we as adults might.

“Our little baby fell asleep,
And may not wake again,
For days and days, and weeks and weeks;
But then he’ll wake again,
And come with his own pretty look,
And kiss Mamma again.”

Here a child sleeps, but does not wake for weeks and weeks. Perhaps this child actually has died and the child that comes “weeks and weeks” later in his place is actually a second child “with his own pretty look”, but then maybe the child is actually terribly ill and returns to health again, which I can’t imagine was terribly common in the Victorian era, or in the least the awakened child would be greatly weaken and not live longer beyond this.
To actually use with children, I’d rather use something like “1 and I are 2-“ because as it also shows language skills, it can help with early math skills too. I recall using poems and rhymes to help with my math skills growing up, and I know those things are often hard for children to pick up. My mother and I were always on the search for pneumatic devices for remembering. Admittedly, some of the terms aren’t exactly commonly used these days, but they’re not entirely obscure. Also numbers are something children learn alongside their letters, so those are words they are already very familiar with. To make it more interactive, you can also insert other phrases. Instead of “3 and 3 are 6-//Barley sugar sticks.” Maybe try something like “3 and 3 and 6-//Sugar coated Kix.” Like the cereal!

Might the reawakening be in heaven? Rossetti WAS a devout Catholic.

Goblin Market

"Goblin Market" was very popular in Victorian England as a cautionary tale for children. How do you think parents today might feel about this? Why?

Cross over prompt? Heh! I think that parents today would find this story useful. I mean, maybe refresh it a little, modernize it. But my reasoning is that the tale is one that can easily be taken today for simple disobedience. Laura did not obey her sister or the cautionary tale of Jeanne. Because of this, she desperately suffered, longing for the fruit of the goblin men. After Lizzie's stand to the goblins when they ridiculed her and tried to force her to eat their food, Laura was saved by her sister's kindness. There is also the lesson of taking things from strangers, a good moral for anyone to take. Then Lissie's bravery is very admirable. Her and Laura have a sisterly bond much like other literary sisters, such as the March's and the Bennets. Family was important and frankly that would be something excellent to remind people of in this day and age.

After Death

Explicate (using the Explication Worksheet in Course Documents) "After Death," focusing mainly on the speaker, situation and mood.

There is no reference to the gender of the speaker, but I’ll say she as the poet is a she and other poems are written from a feminine perspective. Though of course that doesn’t mean this is the poet. The speaker is in bed, dead or asleep. I’d venture to say that unless the use of sleep is a metaphor for death, “He leaned over me, thinking that I slept//And could not hear him…” because throughout the poem it seems the speaker is dead. The title of the poem is even “After Death” then there is the ending “He did not love me living; but once dead//He pitied me; and very sweet it is//To know he still is warm tho’ I am cold.” Cold, as in death. Still, this man, certainly someone dear to her though the relation is unclear, came to the speaker after her death. He leaned over her, spoke to her “Poor child, poor child” before he turned away and the speaker “knew he wept”. The speaker specifically mentioned that the man made no move to touch her dead body or to fully see it. This is understandable to me as the man is mourning and had obviously felt that he couldn’t show her his love in life. “He did not love me living”. The mood of the poem is sad, but bittersweet. In death the speaker knew that this man did care for them, though perhaps she could have doubted it in life.