REMEMBER

Wednesday 19 April 2023

BASIC STUFF

• What form of poem is this?• How do you know?

• List 4 key elements of this form

• 14 Lines• Octave/sestet division• Change of POV at the VOLTA• About Love

The poemRememberRemember 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 dayYou tell me of our future that you planned:Only remember me; you understandIt 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 leaveA vestige of the thoughts that once I had,Better by far you should forget and smileThan that you should remember and be sad.

Structure:

14 lines

2 quatrains to the Octave

Then the sestet–follow the punctuation

Quatrain 1

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.

The focus of the poem is the opening word. We will explore the

idea of memory.Repeated but strengthened suggesting the

finality of death

euphemism

1st person focus

2nd character introduced

Quatrain 2

Remember me when no more day by dayYou tell me of our future that you planned:Only remember me; you understandIt will be late to counsel then or pray.

Reinforces the subject under

discussion

2nd character seems to be controlling – not nec bad

thing

Not asking much – no need to memorialise

Consider : why are these words set in opposition? What is

suggested?

After the VOLTA

Yet if you should forget me for a while And afterwards remember, do not grieve:For if the darkness and corruption leaveA vestige of the thoughts that once I had,Better by far you should forget and smileThan that you should remember and be sad.

Highlights a new direction of

thought

1st part of conditional sentence

Imperative: strength

Conditional is completed. The poem has totally changed direction.

IDEAS?

• LOVE AND LOSS• Attitudes to love• Compare with sonnet 116. Here love should include

allowing a partner to forget… a kindness. Shakespeare will suggest that love lasts until “the edge of doom”.

• Nature of the relationship – the 2nd character is controlling. Does the first voice complain or simply comment?

• Find links with other poems in the anthology…