1. Twice Christina Rossetti

2. Synopsis The female speaker offers her heart to her beloved but he does not appreciate the gesture / does not believe her to be ready for such a commitment (or is not ready himself). She feels her heart is breaking and becomes depressed, before bringing her bruised heart to God. She asks God to judge her accurately and perfect her love, knowing that her heart will be secure in his ‘hands'. Aware of her acceptance by God, with a renewed sense of optimism the speaker commits her whole life to him, willing to accept whatever it is that he asks her to do.

3. Commentary Rossetti composed Twice in 1864 and first published it in her second book of poetry, The Prince's Progress and Other Poems. Although it speaks of the belief that God's love is better than man's, it is placed among the non-devotional poems at the start of the volume in view of its concentration on earthly love.

4. Forsaken women Many of Rossetti's poems focus around the figure of the forsaken women. From the bride in the title poem of the volume, The Prince's Progress, who is left waiting until her death for the arrival of her prince, to the misunderstood L.E.L., the forsaken women in Rossetti's poems express their struggle to find a voice in which they can communicate their distress. Many male Victorian poets present the figure of the male beloved or bridegroom as a noble, chivalrous figure. However, by highlighting the weaknesses that can be identified in many males, Rossetti points to the fact that women are not wholly to blame for relational difficulties and challenges the sexual double standard.

5. Discuss How appropriate do you consider the title Twice to be? What ideas does it suggest? What signs does the speaker convey of weakness? What signs does the speaker convey of strength? What do you think that the speaker means when she declares that ‘a woman's words are weak' (line 7)? Do you think that she really means this or do you think that she is speaking in irony? What are your thoughts about her beloved? Would you describe him as cruel?

6. Language and tone The speaker's cry The phrase ‘O my love, O my love' runs like a refrain through the first half of the poem, then is replaced by the phrase ‘O my God, O my God' in the second half. Whilst the exclamation ‘O' indicates passion, the word ‘my' indicates possession and an intimate relationship. By replacing ‘love' for ‘God' in the second half of the poem, the speaker emphasises the fact that her priorities have shifted. Rather than seek to please a male beloved, she demonstrates that her primary concern is to please God. The fact that the cry ‘O my love' is enclosed within brackets, indicating a side thought, whereas the cry ‘O my God' stands alone, indicates that whereas the speaker's beloved was only a part of her life, she makes God relevant to her whole life. There is no need to enclose her cry to God in brackets because it has become a part of who she is.

7. The language of commitment In the final verse, the speaker voices her determination to live for God, through a variety of tough images: She declares: “All that I have I bring, All that I am I give” (lines 45-6) These words echo the vows made at a wedding when a ring is exchanged - Liturgy The solemnisation of matrimony: The exchange of rings The speaker suggests that surrendering all she has and all she is to God is the only way in which she can ‘live' rather than ‘die' (line 42). This belief is rooted in the Bible teaching, that the process of entering the new life offered by Jesus entails ‘dying' to the old way of living: We were therefore, buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. Romans 6:4 TNIV The refinement with fire that the speaker endures alludes to an image frequently used in the Bible that God uses suffering to purify believers (Isaiah 48: 10, Daniel 11:35).

8. Discuss Why do you think that the speaker ‘smiled' at the speech that her beloved gave her even though it hurt her so much (line 19)? Why do you think she calls his rejection a ‘speech'? At the end of the poem, the speaker declares that she ‘shall not question much' (line 48). Why do you think that she says this? What negative associations does she have with the idea of questioning? Where do you think these associations have come from?

9. Structure and versification Repetition Repetition is the defining feature of the poem. In addition to emphasising certain feelings and ideas, it is used to reflect the movement of the speaker's spiritual and emotional growth. The structure of certain phrases is often repeated to highlight meaning and continuity but the changing of individual words within this structure adds an extra dimension to the surface meaning of the poem: The speaker's: ‘I took my heart in my hand' becomes the beloved's: ‘You took my heart in your hand' (line 9). The switch from ‘I' to ‘You' indicates the speaker's loss of self-possession, allowing her beloved to take over her emotions, feelings and well-being When she regains her heart - ‘I take my heart in my hand' (line 41) - she does so with every intention of losing it again as she offers to God. She recognises that it must be in her possession before she can truly offer it up again. The repetition of the word ‘hold' (line 39) emphasises the different connotations of: God's sure grasp - Safe stowage (as found within a ship's hold) The word ‘broke' is repeated to highlight the destructiveness of the action: As you set it down it broke— Broke, but I did not wince. (lines 17-18)

10. This is further stressed by: Having the same word end one line and start the next, whereby the speaker draws attention to the disruption and hurt that her beloved caused and the sudden pain of having something break. The dash, which draws attention to the sudden standstill that occurs to the beat of her heart when it breaks The opening trochee of the next line, which disrupts the poem's continuous rhythm that reflects the physical heart's-action as it pumps blood around the body.

11. Rhyme The rhyme scheme of the first, second, third, fifth and sixth stanzas runs aba, cd, bd, c. Its regularity reflects the control that the speaker attempts to keep over her own heart and indicates her grasp over her own emotions. However, in the fourth stanza the rhyme of l. 1 and 3 is repeated in l. 5 and 7. By introducing a slight alternation here, Rossetti reflects the shift in the speaker's ideas. Having regained her own heart, she voices her determination to present it to God. Strong masculine rhymes are used throughout which increase the definition with which the poem is read and highlight the speaker's passion. In addition, rhyming words highlight certain ideas. For instance, in the final verse, by linking the words ‘live' and ‘give' through rhyme (lines 42, 46), she emphasises the suggestion that it is only by giving her own heart to God that the speaker is able to truly live.

12. Metre The metre of the poem often draws attention to certain sounds which, in turn, reflect particular feelings and emotions. For instance, the O sound is stressed in the first two lines to emphasise the speaker's sense of loss and emptiness: I took my heart in my hand (O my love, O my love) (lines 1-2) Comprised of two iambic feet followed by an anapaest, the rhythmic stresses in the first line all fall on vowel sounds. The rising rhythm of both the iamb and the anapaest means that the poem introduces a note of speed from the dramatic opening. An amphimacer is the poetic term for a three-syllable foot arranged with a stress at each end. If the exclamation ‘O' is to be read as a stressed syllable, then the phrase, ‘O my love' could arguably be described as an amphimacer.

13. Ellipsis In the fifth stanza, Rossetti conveys a sense of the speaker's intense, compressed feelings by leaving words out (ellipsis). The unspoken subject of the first two lines is ‘heart': This (heart) which has been disparaged and rejected by the beloved This (heart) which was damaged by one day's thoughtless conversation.

14. Discuss Try reading the phrases ‘O my love' and ‘O my God' aloud repeatedly, changing the syllable you stress each time. Which sounds the most appropriate? Why do you think that this is? Mark out the stresses in the second verse How do you think the rhythmic pattern of the verse reflects the emotions of the speaker? Is there anything surprising you can identify in the verse?

15. Imagery and symbolism The Heart The speaker's heart is the central image of the poem. By declaring that she took it in her hand she voices her control over it and reinforces the idea that it is her own possession to lose, keep or give away as she likes. By stating that her beloved ‘set' down her heart and with a ‘critical eye' declared it was still ‘unripe' (lines 9-13), she links her heart to a fruit that is not yet ready to be consumed. In alluding to this description that her beloved gives, she emphasises the attitude of the consumer that many Victorian males took towards the women with whom they had a relationship. Instead of being a relationship based on love, Rossetti highlights the problems in basing a relationship on worldly standards of economic commerce.

16. Refinement The speaker asks that God would take her heart and ‘Refine with fire its gold' and ‘Purge Thou its dross away' (lines 37-8). Throughout her devotional poetry, Rossetti uses the image of the fire to express ideas of the cleansing of a person from his or sins. As a Christian, Rossetti believed that Jesus was able to baptise believers ‘with the Holy Spirit and fire' (Matthew 3:11). Encouraging those members of the early church who were suffering persecution because of their faith, Peter offers the encouragement that difficult trials can be likened to a fire that refines the believers' attributes of faith and perseverance so that they may be proved genuine and true (1 Peter 1:6-8).

17. Skylarks The speaker's beloved tells her that it would be better to ‘wait awhile' before they develop their relationship. He suggests waiting until the ‘skylarks pipe' and the ‘corn grows brown' (lines 14-16). The speaker declares that since his rejection, she has not appreciated the natural world: she has neither cared for corn-flowers nor ‘sung with the singing bird' (lines 19-20). In his 1820 poem, To a Skylark, Romantic poet Percy Byshe Shelley speaks of the skylark as a ‘blithe spirit' who ‘pourest thy full heart' (lines 1,4). Comparing the bird to a poet, he writes of it hidden: In the light of thought Singing hymns unbidden, Till the world is wrought To sympathy with hopes and fears it heeded not. (lines 37-40) Suggesting that the skylark's song is a direct result of divine inspiration, he appreciates its beauty. Just watching the skylark gives the speaker a sense of joy and he ends the poem by voicing a wish that the bird would teach him ‘half the gladness' that it must know (line 101). Skylarks sing during the daytime rather than the night. Reading Twice with this in mind conveys the idea that the beloved's requests to put the relationship on hold until the ‘skylarks pipe', indicates that he is currently living a life that can be correlated to the night in that it is dark and melancholy. In the circumstances that the beloved perceives, the joy that Shelley suggests the skylark naturally expresses is missing.

18. The corn and the corn-flowers – By declaring his intention to wait until the ‘corn grows brown' (line 16), the beloved looks forward to autumn. This is the time of year when the harvest is ready for collecting; it is also a time of death and decay. By suggesting waiting until this time for a deeper love to develop, the beloved conveys a sense of needless postponement. This postponement further delays an event which the speaker loses any hope of ever reaching. More on cornflowers: Cornflowers are plants that are only in season once a year. In the past, cornflowers often grew as weeds in crop fields. Thus, when the speaker refers to ‘corn-flowers wild' (line 23), she looks to the beauty of the fields which will soon be cut down with the harvest. In folklore, cornflowers were worn by young men in love, to show their celibacy; if the flower faded too quickly, it was taken as a sign that the man's love was not returned. The fact that, in Twice, the beloved declares that the flower has not even come into season suggests that his regard for the speaker has not even developed into any form of love.

19. Sand The speaker suggests that her love for a man was based on a hope which was ‘written on sand' (line 29). Rossetti is alluding to two key Bible passages here which illuminate her meaning: A relationship based on sand is unsubstantial and has no chance of lasting or being made permanent. The Gospel of Matthew records the parable that Jesus told of the wise and foolish builders: Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose and the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell with a great crash. Matthew 7:24-27 TNIV Suggesting that the only secure basis upon which a person can build their lives can be found in God and in his teaching, the parable highlights the flimsy nature of man. By claiming that her love for a man was insubstantial compared to her love for God, the speaker of Twice indicates how this parable applies to the circumstances of her own life.

20. Thy hold Once it has been refined and cleansed, the speaker asks God to ‘hold' her heart in ‘Thy hold' (line 39). As well as indicating the notion of grasping something or someone firmly, the term ‘hold' also suggests an enclosed space which offers protection, shelter and defence. By asking if she can find protection in God's ‘hold', the speaker indicates her need for protection and safety. She recognises that his hold is a place where no-one can ‘pluck' out her heart (line 40) and destroy it. Rossetti is echoing Jesus' words of assurance to his followers that: ‘they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand'. AV John 10:28

21. Discuss 1.Note down the various ways in which the speaker describes her heart. 2.What surprises you about the way in which it is described? 3.Why do you think that she chooses to speak of her heart in this way? 4.What do you associate with the idea of scanning something? 5.How are these associations met in the description of the beloved? 6.How are these associations met in God ‘scanning' the speaker's heart? (lines 11, 35). 7.What differences does the speaker suggest exist between the way that the beloved scans the heart and the way that God scans it?

22. Themes Judgement Throughout the final few verses of Twice, the speaker anticipates the coming judgement of God. Wanting to prepare herself for this judgement, she suggests that God ‘scan' her heart (line 35) now and ‘purge' it from any ‘dross' or worthless matter (line 38). Christians believe that after death / upon the return of Christ to the world, every human life will be brought to a final account by God (Matthew 12:36-37), with Jesus as the judge (Matthew 13:36-43). All lives will be exposed and those who have not responded to the revealed will of God will be shut out from his presence for good, whilst believers will be welcomed into his presence forever (Revelation 22:14-15). By moving from a consideration of the ‘judgement' that her beloved declares over her (line 20) to the judgement that God will one day give, the speaker emphasises her realisation that it is God who she wants to please rather than a man. She suggests that, although being prepared for the Day of Judgement may be difficult and presents various trials, it will be ultimately worth it as it will mean that one day she will be able to ‘sing' (line 47) and regain a sense of joy.

23. Discuss What associations do you have with the idea of judgement? How are these associations met in the poem? Are the associations with the idea of judgement more relevant to the beloved or to God? What does the speaker suggest the differences are between man's judgement and God's judgement?