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The Difference Between The Works Of Rossetti And Ashbery And The Reasons For It Christina Rossetti and John Ashbery are the symbols of two different centuries. Christina Rossetti created her works during romantic Victorian era, when John Ashbery is the child of difficult and pragmatic twentieth century. The works of these two poets have many similar motives, they are full of symbolism, mystique philosophic and esoteric discussions. The question of a difficult path of a man to the God is also one of the motives in the works of Christina Rossetti and John Ashbery. But the different epochs, in which the poets lived were bound to influence their poetry.
The poem "Uphill" by Christina Rossetti and the poem "At North Farm" by John Ashbery are the milestones in the works of the poets and posses all key characteristics of their philosophy, such as symbolism, highlighting on religious and spiritual ideas. Yet in all their similarity this poems send different messages to the reader and reveal the difference in author's attitude to the topic. The comparison of the poems "Uphill" and "At North Farm" will help to reveal the difference between these two poems in their themes and how the authors were influenced by their contemporary society. Christina Rossetti's poetry is full of allegories, with which she portrays the events and concepts of every day life. The poem "Uphill" by Christina Rossetti permeates with the religious symbolism. With the help of Allegories the author described the Christian perception of life, death and the travel of soul to the God in the afterlife.
The phrases in the first verse .".. the road wind up-hill all the way", "the day's journey take the whole long day?" symbolize human life, always difficult and troublesome from the moment of birth till the moment of death "from morn to night" with no reprieve. In the next two verses the author gives the description of unavoidable death that awaits a person, and she uses such metaphors as "a resting-place" for death and "You cannot miss that inn" for its imminent arrival. The phrases "Shall I meet other wayfarers at night? Those who have gone before. " and "They will not keep you standing at that door" work as amplification of the image, created in the previous verse and emphasize that such destiny awaits everyone with no exception. In the final verse the phrase "Of labour you shall find the sum" symbolizes the Christian ideas of afterlife, where people will be judged according to their life and the metaphor "beds for all who come" symbolizes that Christian or not, sinner or not, everyone will find his place in Eden, Hell or purgatory.
The poem "Uphill" is the metaphorical narration of the religious model of life and death, which is delivered in the form of a dialogue. Such narration style was chosen by the author deliberately for creating the image of the child asking the question and the adult or a father answering them. In Christian religion The God is the Father of all Christians and dialogue in this poem implies the dialogue between the man (the child) and the God (the father). Such stylistic device helps the author to create for the reader the atmosphere of biblical revelation. The form of a dialogue, questioning and answering also creates the image of rightfulness of presented chain of events: life, death, afterlife. The poem touches very sad religious and philosophic topics that create the atmosphere of melancholy and sorrow, but the author is in consent with such destiny.
The author's consent is also represented in a dialogue form. The dialogue between the child and the father or the man and the God implies faith and confidence, which are impossible without consent. John Ashbery is told to be enigmatic and tends to conceal the idea behind symbols and abstract notions. The poem "At North Farm" by John Ashbery like "Uphill" by Christina Rossetti is filled with religious symbolism.
The recurrent repetition of indefinite notions as someone, somewhere, sometimes and questioning words as do, does, is, will; the choice of narration form creates the atmosphere of uncertainty and ambiguity. The form of narration can be described as monologue speech addressed to the two different recipients. There are two recipients to whom the monologue is addressed: in the first verse the author addresses to the first recipient, in the second verse the author addresses to the second recipient. The ambiguity of meaning in the context of the poem allows understanding the message of the poem only after the recipient of the speech is determined. In the first verse the author describes somebody's travel through time and space in search of someone or someone important, if it or he is worthy such difficult trip and fear of failure. It is evident that the author perceives religion, or God, as the purpose of he trip, which is very important in human life as it teaches the universal ethical and spiritual norms.
The determination of the target automatically brings the perspective to the traveler. The traveler can only be a person or, more correctly, a person's mind and soul that aspire for God through time and space. In the second verse the author describes stacks full of meal and streams full of food, that cannot be eaten and the dish of milk. The milk here symbolizes Spiritual Milk, that was given to people by Jesus Christ and the untouched food symbolizes Solid Food, which Jesus refused to give to people because they were too week for it. Both Spiritual Milk and Solid Food comprise the Gospel of Jesus Christ. However, it is Spiritual Milk that is the foundation of our doctrine, what we believe. ."..
The dish of milk is set out at night" means the evening prayer. Author asks people the question, if evening prayer and rare thought about Jesus are enough. This question calls to the issue that was delivered to Jesus in the first verse: the author asked Jesus if Spiritual Milk was enough for understanding and accepting him, his philosophy and his being. The poem "Uphill" by Christina Rossetti and the poem "At North Farm" by John Ashbery are close in themes but they are completely different in essence, which was predetermined by different outlook of society and different centuries. Christina Rossetti uses metaphors and dialogue for expressing the harmony and closeness between the man and the God even in the saddest moments of human life.
Such attitude to the questions of Religion and faith was determined by the epoch in which Christina Rossetti lived and wrote, the Victorian England. During that time England was a strong empire with multiple colonies, where Christian religion was vastly propounded. Such environment and political success influenced the strength and stability of faith and religiousness among masses and Christina Rossetti expresses the spirit of all her contemporary society. John Ashbery wrote his poem at the end of the twentieth century, the century of both World Wars, dictatorships and nuclear bomb.
The Church participated less in the life of the society and faith, religiousness of people is limited by celebration of religious holidays and evening prayers. Such state of things was bound to shake the authors belief if both, the man and the God. The two authors express different attitude to the themes of their poems, which is the result of their surrounding. They also carry different message to the reader.
Christina Rossetti expresses agreement with the state of things that was predisposed by the God and shows harmony between them. John Ashbery questions both the actions of the man, the philosophy of the God and critiques their estrangement. Bibliography 1. Perry, Richard. "Second Coming Spiritual Milk or Solid Food." Of the Last Days: Bible discussion website. 20 Oct. 2004 < web >. 2.
Ashby, John. "At North Farm." Electronic Poetry Center. 1996. Buffalo 20 Oct. 2004 < web > 3. Rossetti, Christina Georgina. "Up-Hill." About. com: Literature and social news and resources. 20 Oct. 2004 < web >
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Research essay sample on Christina Rossetti Religious Symbolism
