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Difficulty: MediumClosed Poetic Forms and Structural Conventions

Read the following poem by Christina Rossetti (1830–1894) carefully before choosing your answer.

Remember (1862)

Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you planned:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late then to counsel or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.

In the poem, the structural transition between the octave (lines 1–8) and the sestet (lines 9–14) primarily serves to do which of the following?

  1. shift the speaker's focus from an anxious insistence on remembrance to a selfless concern for the beloved’s emotional well-beingAnswer
  2. B
    maintain a uniform tone of grief and mourning, emphasizing that the speaker's attitude toward death remains unchanged
  3. C
    disrupt the poem's logical progression by using run-on lines that ignore standard punctuation and obscure the speaker's intent
  4. D
    catalog a list of poetic devices, such as euphemism and personification, without altering the speaker's core message
  5. E
    express Rossetti’s autobiographical anxieties about her own legacy and literary reputation after her death

Answer

The transition between the octave and the sestet shifts the speaker's focus from an anxious insistence on remembrance to a selfless concern for the beloved's emotional well-being.
In a traditional Petrarchan sonnet, the transition between the octave and the sestet (the volta, or turn) represents a shift in tone, thought, or argument. In this poem, the octave (lines 1–8) features the speaker repeatedly demanding to be remembered ('Remember me...'). However, line 9 begins with the volta ('Yet if you should forget me...'), which shifts the focus to a selfless desire for the beloved's happiness over the speaker's own memory.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the poetic form of the excerpt.
The poem is a Petrarchan (Italian) sonnet, which is traditionally divided into an octave (the first eight lines) and a sestet (the final six lines).
Recognizing the closed poetic form helps locate structural divisions like the volta, or turn, which occurs at the beginning of the sestet.
2
Analyze the theme and tone of the octave (lines 1–8).
In the octave, the speaker repeatedly demands remembrance ('Remember me'), showing anxiety about being forgotten after death.
Understanding the starting argument of the sonnet establishes the baseline against which the shift will be measured.
3
Analyze the theme and tone of the sestet (lines 9–14) starting with the volta in line 9.
Line 9 begins with 'Yet,' signaling a turn in the argument where the speaker decides it is better for the beloved to 'forget and smile' than 'remember and be sad.'
The volta structurally shifts the poem's focus to a selfless concern for the beloved's emotional state, modifying the initial demand of the octave.

Key Concept

Analyzing how the structural division of a Petrarchan sonnet (octave and sestet) creates a thematic shift or volta.
Estimated Time:1m 30s
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Topics

Closed Poetic Forms and Structural Conventions

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