Christina Rossetti

The Thread of Life

The irresponsive silence of the land,
The irresponsive sounding of the sea,
Speak both one message of one sense to me:--
Aloof, aloof, we stand aloof, so stand
Thou too aloof bound with the flawless band
Of inner solitude; we bind not thee;
But who from thy self-chain shall set thee free?
What heart shall touch thy heart? what hand thy hand?--
And I am sometimes proud and sometimes meek,
And sometimes I remember days of old
When fellowship seemed not so far to seek
And all the world and I seemed much less cold,
And at the rainbow's foot lay surely gold,
And hope felt strong and life itself not weak.

Thus am I mine own prison. Everything
Around me free and sunny and at ease:
Or if in shadow, in a shade of trees
Which the sun kisses, where the gay birds sing
And where all winds make various murmuring;
Where bees are found, with honey for the bees;
Where sounds are music, and where silences
Are music of an unlike fashioning.
Then gaze I at the merrymaking crew,
And smile a moment and a moment sigh
Thinking: Why can I not rejoice with you?
But soon I put the foolish fancy by:
I am not what I have nor what I do;
But what I was I am, I am even I.

Therefore myself is that one only thing
I hold to use or waste, to keep or give;
My sole possession every day I live,
And still mine own despite Time's winnowing.
Ever mine own, while moons and seasons bring
From crudeness ripeness mellow and sanitive;
Ever mine own, till Death shall ply his sieve;
And still mine own, when saints break grave and sing.
And this myself as king unto my King
I give, to Him Who gave Himself for me;
Who gives Himself to me, and bids me sing
A sweet new song of His redeemed set free;
he bids me sing: O death, where is thy sting?
And sing: O grave, where is thy victory?

http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/crossetti/thread.html

In this essay, I have compared Christina Rossetti´s poem “The Thread of life” with the painting “The Governess”. This was painted by Richard Redgrave in 1844, it was first called “The Poor Teacher”.

The title of the poem is very important, because it tells us the theme of the poem. Life is presented as a weak thing that only depends on a simple thread. The separation between life and dead is minimal.

It is narrated in first person; the protagonist seems to be the author herself.

She starts saying that nature speaks to her, but it says that there is a great distance between them. She continues talking about solitude and her lack of freedom. Everything that surrounds her is free, so she asks herself why she is not. At the end, she concludes expressing her desire of being her own mistress till death.

In the three stanzas of the poem she is always contrasting herself with the others, her current state with past times.

A Governess, like the protagonist of the painting, was an educated person employed by a family for academic instruction of children (McClure, Robin). The title of “The Governess” is more neutral than “The Poor Teacher”. So, as the title of the painting, a governess is the protagonist of it.

In the painting, we have a dark room that seems to be a classroom, inside it there are the governess and a girl. Outside this room, we can see through an open window two girls playing there.

When we look at the painting and at the poem, we can see some thematic elements in common.

First of all, the poem is written from the point of view of the author, who is a woman, and when we look at the painting, the main figure is also a woman.

So from “The Thread of Life” we can know the thoughts and feelings of a woman. She feels isolated from the rest of the world, she also remembers past times as something better.

This melancholy can be seen in the eyes of the governess. She is sitting inside the classroom and looking at the floor. It seems as if she was thinking about better past times and about her sadness, as in Christina Rossetti´s poem. So, in both cases, the figure of women is central.

As I said before, the poem is about the little difference between live and death. This is also represented in the painting. This separation is the door that separates the interior from the exterior part of the room. Inside, everything is dark, the same as the clothes of the teacher. On the contrary, the outside is full of light, also the clothes of the girls there are. The exterior represents life, as Rossetti´s past. While the exterior of the room represents death. Both women seem to be dead, even it they are still alive.

Another recurrent fact is silence. In the painting, the teacher is silent, also the girl in the classroom, they are like imprisoned. On the other hand, the girls outside are speaking and laughing, they are free to speak and alive. Also outside it would be possible to hear the sounds of nature. It seems that these two places were separated by more than a door. They are two opposite worlds, one next to the other.

The only way of breaking this silence could be a piano that is inside, but nobody plays it, so the situation does not change. Although if someone played the piano, it would not produce a natural sound, as those that nature produces.

In the poem, the author also feels separated from the sounds of nature. Nature itself explains to Rossetti that there is a distance, a separation between them. In nature, we can hear the sound of the sea, the birds and a lot of things. There is a constant activity there, but the poet acts in a more passive way, she seems to be only living in her thoughts. The poet also says she is imprisoned, but in this case, she is not imprisoned in a room or in a material place. She is imprisoned by herself.

So in both cases, we have a clear distinction between natural and unnatural environments. The outside world is nature, where life stays, it could be the summer; and inside, everything is dark and cold, as winter, nature and life do not stay there.

The poet expresses her feelings and thoughts through her poetry and writing. Also inside the classroom the teacher and the girl have a book in their hands. But they do not pay attention to it. They do not enjoy reading at that moment. The teacher is looking nowhere, but the girl is looking outside, to life. As if she would like to be there, so this girl also shares this feeling with the teacher and the protagonist of the poem.

After analysing the poem and the painting, we see the features that are repeated between one and the other.

The main feature, as said before, is the protagonism of women in both. Although the author of the painting is a man, he wanted to represent a woman of his period that expresses her feelings; it is not only a representation of an image.

The protagonists of the poem, Rossetti, and that of the painting are intelligent women. A governess was supposed to be degreed and also Rossetti as a poet would have been educated. But the education they received would have been conditioned by the fact that they were women, so they could not reach the same level of education as men. This fact maybe produced a feeling in them of frustration and powerlessness.

Also both feel lonely and are silent women that feel isolated in a men’s world, both are able to speak through poetry and through painting. They show the reality of their own world and of the rest of the world that surrounds them.

-         McClure, Robin. “Your Guide to Childcare”. 27 of February 2006. The New York Times Company. 1 March 2006. http://childcare.about.com/cs/homecare/g/Governess.htm

-         http://www.victorianweb.org/painting/redgrave/paintings/2.html

-         http://victorianweb.org/authors/crossetti/thread.html