Remember

Poet: Christina Rossetti

Source: "Goblin Market and Other Poems"

Year Published: 1862

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Remember

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 plann'd:

Only remember me; you understand

It will be late to counsel then 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 I once had,

Better by far you should forget and smile

Than that you should remember and be sad.

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This poem is about a woman who is dying and is requesting her lover to remember her. In the first five lines, you would notice the coming separation of the couple. The persona here requests that she be remembered when time comes that she no longer exists here on earth. When she can longer be held.

In the following lines, the persona further stresses that their time together is really getting shorter. Then there comes the tension.

There are lines where you would notice that the persona realizes that the lover will somehow forget her. And if that happens she is also certain that the lover will be sad. So at the end, she tells the lover that its better for him to smile and forget her than remember her and be sad.

This poem not only tackles parting but it also reflects the poet's way of handling her own dilemmas in life. We see here how her Christian devotion affects her decisions. Truly, this poem deserves all the fame it has till now.