A smile and a sigh essay

The essay begins with the negative reaction a friend of hers has to the idea of the author smiling less. “I associate you with your smile. It’s the essence of you. I should think you’d want to smile more!” (Cunningham 348).

A sigh because the days are long! We live who would be dying. Many of Christina Rossetti’s poems deal with the subject of death. She was devoutly religious, but her experiences of life and love were often unfulfilling and disappointing. Her religious faith seems to have been unwavering, but this doesn’t mean that she found joy in it.

The effect is unsettling, a typical characteristic of Rossetti. Both stanzas follow the same rhyme pattern; ABABB. The voice is that of an unnamed speaker, we can assume the poet. She doesn’t use a pronoun until the end, so initally the reader can assume either the first or third person.

The poem 'A Smile and a Sigh ' expresses different aspects of love and it could be suggested that it demonstrates different viewpoints of love. This wouldn 't be unexpected as Rossetti experienced different relationships from heartbreak/loneliness and unwanted love.