#AtoZChallenge ‘R’ #NationalPoetryMonth ‘Remember’ by Christina Rossetti #amwriting #poem

This year to celebrate National Poetry Month and to take part in the April A-Z Blogging Challenge, I’ll be posting two poems a day, one written by me and another poem written by one of my favourite poets. The title or first word of both poems will begin with the corresponding letter in the Blogging Challenge.

 

Today I offer you two poems about remembrance and death, Remember by the Victorian poet, Christina Rossetti, and Remember Me by Luccia Gray.

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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 planned.

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.

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Christina Rossetti (1830-1894) wrote Remember, a sonnet in the style of Petrarch, when she was still a teenager. It’s a classic Victorian poem about mourning and remembrance. She tells her lover to remember her at the beginning of the poem, yet at the end, she seems to change her mind and tells him not to grieve if he forgets her for a while. 

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I haven’t written a sonnet this time, but I have taken her theme of remembrance and death, with a more optimistic note.

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Remember Me

Remember me when I am gone,

With smiles not tears, with love, not fear,

Smile at photos, laugh at memories,

Read my letters, write me poems,

Remember me when you are sad,

I’ll be waiting, for our meeting,

I’ll blow kisses with the warm breeze,

I’ll send music with the sunflowers,

Remember me, I’ll be right there.

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