Uphill

 Full name: Christina Georgina Rossetti

Rossetti's first verses were written in 1842 and printed in the private press of her grandfather. 

When the family was in a financial trouble, she helped her mother to keep a school at Frome, Somerset. 

Returning in 1854 to London. She lived with the mother all her life, except for two brief visits abroad. 

By the 1880s, recurrent bouts of Graves' disease, had made Rossetti an invalid, and ended her attempts to work as a governess. 

Rossetti's illness restricted her social life, but she continued to write sonnets and ballads. She was especially interested in apocalyptic books. 

She was considered a possible successor to Alfred Tennyson as poet laureate. 

To accept this challenge, she wrote a royal elegy. However, Alfred Austin was appointed poet Laureate in 1896. 

Rossetti developed a fatal cancer in 1891, and died in London on December 29, 1894. 

Sister of the painter-poet  Dante Gabriel Rossetti  One of four children of Italian parents. 

Her father was the poet Gabriele, professor of Italian language at King's College from 1831. 

All the four children in her family became writers, 

Christina was educated at home by her mother, Frances Polidori, a former governess 

Her

mother, Frances Polidori, a former governess, was an Anglican of devout evangelical bent. Rossetti

herself was a devout High Anglican, much influenced by the Tractarian Movement. Rossetti

broke engagement to the artist James Collison, an original member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, when he joined the Roman Catholic church. She also rejected Charles Bagot Cayley for religious reasons. 

Her

deeply religious temperament had left its marks on her writing. Her

favourite themes were:

• Unhappy love • Death • Premature resignation.

Her later works deal with sombre religious feelings. 

 

Rossetti's best-known single works were probably: •A Birthday •When I Am Dead •Up-Hill

Rossetti's

other famous works include

• The price’s progress • Other Poems • Sing Song, a nursery rhyme book

Rossetti

also wrote religious prose works, such as

•SEEK AND FIND (1879) •CALLED TO BE SAINTS (1881) •THE FACE OF THE DEEP (1892)

 The

poet uses the metaphor of an “uphill” journey to describe the struggles and obstacles one encounters in life.  Given the poet’s background, the obstacles probably refer to the oppression of women’s societal status in the 19th century.

 If

the poem were autobiographical, it would be allude to the poet's lonely battle with her illness, a thyroid disorder that becomes cancerous.

Questione r

Answerer

Questioner The

questioner is persistent and full of queries.

From

her tone, we can see that she is very fearful and uncertain as she ponders on the road of life.

“Does the road wind up-hill all the way?”

“Will the day's journey take the whole

Questioner (cont.)  Questions

from her appear repetitive and excessive because she is exhausted from the arduous journey of life, where she must have traversed up a lonely road and now, as she contemplates her final inevitable fate and she longs for solace.

 This

traveler could be, the poet, Rossetti’s voice actually.

 She

is unsure about the journey in her life and is scared and anxious to know about the path that she is going to take.

Answerer  The

answerer, in contrast, replies with a confident, calm and matter-of-fact voice.

 His

answers bring comfort to a tired, weary soul who seeks rest.

 He

is also very friendly, addressing the questioner “my friend”.

 He

symbolizes God.

In

the 1st stanza, the questioner asks if the journey would “take the whole long day”.

The

“whole long day” denotes a feeling of dread and weariness:  indicating that when time passes slowly, the questioner’s suffering is prolonged.  suggests that the poet, who was suffering from a severe disease, was tired of fighting on.

In

the 1st stanza, the answerer says that the journey would be “From morn to night”.

“morn

to night” symbolizes the beginning (morn) and ending

The

questioner’s deep longing for rest is prevalent throughout the poem: • In Stanzas 2 and 4, she asks about

finding a “restoring place” and “comfort” after the long travel. The

place where the questioner can rest is the “inn”.

The

inn is portrayed as a very comfortable place, where the questioner would find relief from his tiring journey.

The

inn symbolizes “Heaven” where the questioner would go to after the slow dark hours.

The

questioner is afraid that “darkness” might shroud the inn.

“Darkness”

symbolizes a lurking evil or obstacle would engulf him and prevent him from finding this relief.

She

is fearful and uncertain of death but she still looks forward to death rather than continue on her long, suffering journey.  This shows us the questioner’s mixed feelings towards death.

Highlighting every other syllabus, it can be seen that the poem follows a particular rhythm.



The metrical verse in Uphill is strict.

This means that the number of syllables in the lines shows minimal variation. 

All the lines mostly follow a 5 syllable – 3 syllable style except for one particular line. 

In other words, there is a tendency towards a regular rhythm. 

Firstly, the title of the poem is by itself a clue to the language. Up-hill, is generally written as uphill, therefore, by hyphenating this two words, the author would only want to emphasize the consonant “up”

The first line of this stanza is about the fear of the persona and a desire to meet other wayfarers so that they can accompany her.

Then the third line also shows a hesitation and her ignorance of the theme (death) by posing her question about what she must do upon reaching the gates of the inn.

LOOKIE!