The Full Text of “In the Round Tower at Jhansi, June 8, 1857 (Indian Mutiny)”
1A hundred, a thousand to one: even so;
2Not a hope in the world remained:
3The swarming howling wretches below
4Gained and gained and gained.
5Skene looked at his pale young wife.
6"Is the time come?"—"The time is come."
7Young, strong, and so full of life,
8The agony struck them dumb.
9Close his arm about her now,
10Close her cheek to his,
11Close the pistol to her brow—
12God forgive them this!
13"Will it hurt much?" "No, mine own:
14I wish I could bear the pang for both."—
15"I wish I could bear the pang alone:
16Courage, dear, I am not loth."
17Kiss and kiss: "It is not pain
18Thus to kiss and die.
19One kiss more."—"And yet one again."—
20"Good-bye."—"Good-bye."
The Full Text of “In the Round Tower at Jhansi, June 8, 1857 (Indian Mutiny)”
1A hundred, a thousand to one: even so;
2Not a hope in the world remained:
3The swarming howling wretches below
4Gained and gained and gained.
5Skene looked at his pale young wife.
6"Is the time come?"—"The time is come."
7Young, strong, and so full of life,
8The agony struck them dumb.
9Close his arm about her now,
10Close her cheek to his,
11Close the pistol to her brow—
12God forgive them this!
13"Will it hurt much?" "No, mine own:
14I wish I could bear the pang for both."—
15"I wish I could bear the pang alone:
16Courage, dear, I am not loth."
17Kiss and kiss: "It is not pain
18Thus to kiss and die.
19One kiss more."—"And yet one again."—
20"Good-bye."—"Good-bye."
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“In the Round Tower at Jhansi, June 8, 1857 (Indian Mutiny)” Introduction
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"In the Round Tower at Jhansi, June 8, 1857" was written by Victorian poet Christina Rossetti shortly after the events it describes. The poem narrates the last moments of Captain Alexander Skene (a British officer based in Jhansi, India) and his wife, Margaret, as they face a stark choice: wait for rebel Indian soldiers to break into their hideout, or kill themselves before the soldiers do. Choosing the latter course, the pair exchange a few last words and kisses, sustained by the power of their love. Though the poem is based on real events, it's not historically accurate; the rebels killed Skene, his wife, and the other European Jhansi inhabitants outside the city walls. "In the Round Tower" appears in Rossetti's collection Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862).
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“In the Round Tower at Jhansi, June 8, 1857 (Indian Mutiny)” Summary
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They were massively outnumbered. That's the way it was; their situation was totally without hope. The menacing rebels below the tower came closer and closer.
Skene looked at his fair-skinned, youthful wife. "Is it time for us to die?" she asked. "It's time," he replied. They were in the prime of their youth, full of strength and vigor; the tragedy made them speechless.
He drew his arm tight around her, pressed his cheek to hers, and held the gun against her head. God forgive them for killing themselves!
"Will it be very painful?" asked Skene's wife. "No, my love—I wish I could take the pain for both of us." "I wish could bear it all myself—don't be afraid, my dear, I'm not scared of dying."
They kissed each other repeatedly. "It doesn't hurt to die kissing like this. Give me another kiss." "And another." They said goodbye.
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“In the Round Tower at Jhansi, June 8, 1857 (Indian Mutiny)” Themes
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Love, Courage, and Desperation
Christina Rossetti's "In the Round Tower at Jhansi" narrates the final moments of Captain Alexander Skene—a British army officer stationed in India—and his wife. The poem, set during the "Indian Mutiny" or Sepoy Rebellion of 1857, illustrates how love grants people courage even in the direst circumstances. As the rebelling Indian soldiers fast approach their hideout, the couple choose to die by their own hand, together, thereby preserving their bond and sparing each other further suffering. Even in life's darkest—and final—hours, the poem suggests, love can be a beacon of hope, solace, and connection.
At the start of the poem, the fate of Skene and his wife is practically sealed. It's less whether they will die, but how—and this makes their love seem all the more precious. The couple know that "not a hope remain[s]." The rebelling soldiers outnumber them by "a hundred, a thousand to one." Feeling "so full of life" that the thought of dying is "agony," Skene and his wife hold each other as tightly as they can. Their shared love is now their only comfort. It almost seems to shine brighter against the backdrop of approaching death: his arm "close" around her, her cheek "close" against his.
Love spurs the couple to take control of their situation in the only way they can: by killing themselves rather than dying violently at the hands of the rebels. Their decision stems from a mutual understanding of, and an unwavering commitment to, their passionate bond. The couple discuss whether death by gunshot will "hurt much." They both wish they could "bear the pang"—that is, take the bullet—for the other. In dire circumstances, their love proves itself in their willingness to die for each other. In Rossetti's telling, then, the couple face their deaths bravely: as Skene's wife says, "Courage, dear, I am not loth" (I am not afraid). Their love grants them strength and agency over their own destiny. The speaker even cries, "God forgive them this!"—acknowledging the sinfulness of suicide in the Christian tradition, yet apparently pleading on the couple's behalf because their act is so tender.
The couple's final moments therefore reflect love rather than fear. They reclaim their own deaths, turning a grim ending into a powerful—though still tragic—testament to their mutual devotion. Before turning the gun on themselves, the couple "[k]iss and kiss." They'd rather celebrate their love than lament its end. Indeed, one of them (it's not clear who) stoically says: "It is not pain / Thus to kiss and die." Love has overcome the "agony" that earlier "struck them dumb." Knowing that they'll die together and on their own terms instills them with grace, courage, and dignity. Put to the greatest test, love proves its worth and power. The couple shares one last passionate kiss before saying "Goodbye," united in death as they were in life.
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Strength, Stoicism, and Gender
As a war-related poem by a woman author during the Victorian era, "In the Round Tower at Jhansi" challenges then-prevalent stereotypes about male strength and gallantry vs. female fragility. It recounts a scene in which a husband and wife, facing death at the hands of an opposing army, prove equally stoic and self-sacrificing. Rather than positioning the husband as the typical valiant warrior and the wife as the damsel in distress, the poem presents them in the end as equals.
At first the "young wife" looks "pale," in keeping with Victorian gender clichés—that is, she seems afraid. At the same time, she is "strong" and "full of life" (like her husband). Skene's wife asks "Is the time come [to die]?" Though this question partly conveys fear, it also demonstrates a desire to look fate in the eyes and accept what's coming. Subtly, then, the poem starts to undermine misogynist portrayals of women as hapless and helpless.
The wife then asks her husband if the bullet will hurt, again betraying some fear—but then she wishes she could "bear the pang alone" (that is, sacrifice her life to spare him pain). In other words, she doesn't panic or retreat into melancholy, but matches—or even surpasses—her own husband's readiness for death.
Ultimately, Skene's wife pushes him to kill her (before turning the gun on himself). She urges him to have "Courage" (i.e., enough to kill her before killing himself). She proves her own valor and honor by insisting, "I am not loth" to die. In the end, the couple exchange final kisses and bid each other goodbye. Though the poem hasn't completely overturned Victorian gender roles (and certainly isn't a blanket statement of human equality, given its British imperial sympathies!), there is a kind of balance between husband and wife in these last moments. Both display a determination to die on their own terms, and to do so with dignity and courage. You don't need to be a man, the poem implies, to show grace under fire.
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “In the Round Tower at Jhansi, June 8, 1857 (Indian Mutiny)”
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Lines 1-4
A hundred, a thousand to one: even so;
Not a hope in the world remained:
The swarming howling wretches below
Gained and gained and gained."In the Round Tower at Jhansi, June 8, 1857" starts in medias res—that is, right in the thick of the action. It drops the reader into a chaotic, frightening situation. Understanding this situation requires understanding the historical context, starting with the reference in the title.
On June 8, 1857, a massacre occurred at the Jhansi fort in India. The Sepoy Rebellion or "Indian Mutiny" was underway, as Indian sepoys (soldiers recruited to work for the British) rose up against the harsh rule of the British East India Company. Captain Skene, a British officer and superintendent of the area, ordered the Europeans under his charge to take refuge in the fort. He believed a deal had been struck to prevent the rebels from killing the Europeans. As the poem's first stanza suggests, he was wrong.
Right away, the speaker depicts the situation as hopeless. Line 1 emphasizes, via hyperbole, that Skene and his wife are totally outnumbered: "A hundred, a thousand to one." In real life, the Skene family fell to a much smaller band of rebels (a group from the 12th Bengal Native Infantry). By exaggerating the numbers, the poem suggests how scary and overwhelming these rebels seemed to Skene and his wife.
The first line also contains multiple caesuras:
A hundred, a thousand to one: even so;
These pauses break up the poem's rhythm before it can get going, making the line sound stuck—as if, like Skene and his wife, it has nowhere to run.
Line 2 is straightforward enough: the couple has no "hope in the world" of surviving. They know they'll die one way or another, but they have a chance to consider how that death will happen.
Lines 3-4 describe the approach of the Indian rebels as they break into the fort. The poem takes a one-sided, conventionally Victorian perspective: the Indians are depicted as evil, the Europeans as strong and honorable. The speaker describes the rebels as "swarming howling wretches," more animal than human (insects swarm, wolves howl). Though biased and disparaging, this description captures the fear the rebels inspire in Skene and his wife. Line 4 uses repetition to heighten the sense of terror, narrating how the rebels
Gained and gained and gained.
This intense diacope illustrates how the rebels draw closer and closer, bringing the certainty of death with them. Notice, too, how the repetition seems to slow time down: the rebels "below" keep "gain[ing]" on the tower, but they haven't reached it yet. This gives the poem a chance, in the following stanzas, to zoom in on Skene and his wife as they confront their final moments. (Of course, the poem hasn't fully explained the context of their deaths, but as it was written shortly after the massacre at Jhansi, UK readers at the time would have been familiar with the subject matter.)
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Lines 5-8
Skene looked at his pale young wife.
"Is the time come?"—"The time is come."
Young, strong, and so full of life,
The agony struck them dumb. -
Lines 9-12
Close his arm about her now,
Close her cheek to his,
Close the pistol to her brow—
God forgive them this! -
Lines 13-16
"Will it hurt much?" "No, mine own:
I wish I could bear the pang for both."—
"I wish I could bear the pang alone:
Courage, dear, I am not loth." -
Lines 17-20
Kiss and kiss: "It is not pain
Thus to kiss and die.
One kiss more."—"And yet one again."—
"Good-bye."—"Good-bye."
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“In the Round Tower at Jhansi, June 8, 1857 (Indian Mutiny)” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Apostrophe
A brief instance of apostrophe appears in line 12:
Close his arm about her now,
Close her cheek to his,
Close the pistol to her brow—
God forgive them this!This desperate appeal to God foregrounds the severity and moral complexity of Skene and his wife's predicament. The couple faces not only an external threat from the rebelling soldiers but also an implied internal conflict. They want to kill themselves to avoid a more violent death, but they may incur the wrath of God in the process. The speaker clearly believes they deserve forgiveness, and effectively petitions God on their behalf for the sin they are about to commit (suicide). But given their Christian beliefs, Skene and his wife would undoubtedly question the ethics of their own decision. (Of course, in real life, no such decision occurred; Rossetti is taking poetic license.) This tension elevates the poem's dramatic stakes.
The use of apostrophe also underscores the couple's isolation. There's no one around to help them, and the speaker's appeal to God makes them seem even more alone. Unfortunately for them, no divine intervention takes place. Invoking God highlights both the hopelessness of their situation and the painful complexity of their decision—which, despite the potential consequences, seems the lesser of two evils.
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Caesura
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Repetition
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Dialogue
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"In the Round Tower at Jhansi, June 8, 1857 (Indian Mutiny)" Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Swarming howling wretches
- Gained and gained and gained
- Skene
- Struck them dumb
- About
- Bear the pang
- Loth
- Thus
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Rossetti's harsh description of the rebelling Indian sepoys (local soldiers who served in the East India Company and/or the British Indian Army). "Wretches" can mean "unfortunate people" or "terrible people."
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “In the Round Tower at Jhansi, June 8, 1857 (Indian Mutiny)”
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Form
"In the Round Tower at Jhansi, June 8, 1857" consists of five quatrains (four-line stanzas), which vary a bit metrically and rhyme on alternating lines. This simple, flexible form focuses readers' attention on the narrative action. The poem starts in medias res—that is, right in the middle of the action, with no build-up or context (other than the title). This effect drops the reader right into an atmosphere of chaos and panic. Note, though, that this poem was first published soon after the Jhansi massacre, so contemporary English readers would have been familiar with the subject matter. (In other words, they didn't need an extended introduction.)
The poem blends narration with dialogue, mixing the main speaker's omniscient perspective with the imagined speech of Skene and his wife. Increasingly, the couple's voices overtake the narrative. Through this technique, the poem effectively zooms in on their final moments as they face their doom.
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Meter
The meter in "In the Round Tower at Jhansi, June 8, 1857" mirrors the volatility of the couple's dire situation. Rossetti does use metrical patterning here, but it varies quite a bit. The poem's fluctuating rhythm helps capture the emotional intensity of its narrative. (By contrast, something like smooth iambic pentameter might sound too calm and measured in this context.)
The poem's opening line has five stresses and a choppy, irregular rhythm:
A hundred, a thousand to one: even so;
This erratic beat helps convey the chaos inside and outside the fort. By the last line of the poem, the meter has shrunk to dimeter (just two stresses):
"Good-bye."—"Good-bye."
The shorter line highlights the succinctness of the couple's farewells. As Skene and his wife prepare to die, they have no time for elaborate parting words.
In between these first and last lines, the meter shifts around considerably. Only the third stanza follows a truly steady rhythm, as it's made up entirely of trochaic lines (DUM-da, DUM-da, etc.):
Close his arm about her now,
Close her cheek to his,
Close the pistol to her brow—
God forgive them this!Fittingly enough, this strong beat sounds almost like a pounding pulse! But no other stanza is nearly this regular. Most of the poem's lines contain either three or four strong stresses—despite the variations in their syllable count and rhythm—so the poem might be said to use a loose accentual meter. Again, the metrical roughness suits the fast-paced, chaotic events of the narrative.
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Rhyme Scheme
The poem uses a simple alternating rhyme scheme from start to finish: ABAB / CDCD / EFEF, etc. These alternating rhymes build momentum and consistency, subtly underlining the inevitability of the couple's fate. In other words, the strictness of the rhymes suggests that Skene and his wife are trapped—and there's no possibility of escape.
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“In the Round Tower at Jhansi, June 8, 1857 (Indian Mutiny)” Speaker
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"In the Round Tower at Jhansi, June 8, 1857" effectively has three speakers.
First, there's an omniscient narrator who sets the scene, conjuring up an atmosphere of terror and helplessness in the first stanza. The narrator continues to speak here and there (e.g., throughout all of stanza 3), giving the poem a story-like framework.
Much of the poem, though, is given over to Skene and his wife. As the reader listens in on the young couple's final moments, their quoted dialogue sounds intimate and poignant. Consider the sad finality of their first exchange in line 6:
"Is the time come?"—"The time is come."
Quoted speech also demonstrates the couple's togetherness (both physical and emotional). As in the example above, their lines often mirror each other through parallelism or near-identical diction. This effect suggests their unity and strength, even in the face of certain death. In line 20, for instance, it's impossible to discern who says which "Good-bye." The similarity of these speakers helps show how impending doom brings them ever closer.
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“In the Round Tower at Jhansi, June 8, 1857 (Indian Mutiny)” Setting
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The poem announces its setting in the title: "In the Round Tower at Jhansi, June 8, 1857." The round tower is part of a fort in Jhansi, India. When Indian sepoys (soldiers) started rebelling against their English rulers, Captain Alexander Skene, an Englishman and superintendent (effectively manager) of Jhansi, instructed the small English population of the area to hide in the fort. The poem describes the final moments of Skene and his wife, who choose to die by their own hand (though in reality they were murdered outside of the fort). For contemporary readers, the poem's title would have made the subject matter immediately familiar.
The first stanza creates a claustrophobic atmosphere of hopelessness. Skene and his wife are surrounded by "swarming howling wretches" (the speaker's problematic term for the rebelling sepoys). After this first stanza, though, the setting becomes more intimate. The focus is less on what's happening outside and more on the couple in the tower. The quoted dialogue—in which husband and wife often echo each other through parallelism/repetition—makes the poem all the more private and poignant.
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Literary and Historical Context of “In the Round Tower at Jhansi, June 8, 1857 (Indian Mutiny)”
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Literary Context
Christina Rossetti (1830-1894) was one of the most important poets of the Victorian era. A popular writer of strange and fantastical verse, Rossetti contributed to a growing 19th-century vogue for fairy tales and old romances. She also wrote numerous devotional poems steeped in Christian tradition and theology.
"In the Round Tower at Jhansi, June 8, 1857" first appeared in the periodical Once a Week in 1859, and then in her debut collection, Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862). Rossetti added the third stanza to the poem after its initial publication, most likely to address the issue of suicide as sin.
Though based on real events, the poem is historically inaccurate. Rossetti was inspired by a letter to The Times that claimed Captain Alexander Skene, during the "Indian Mutiny" of 1857, shot his wife Margaret before turning the gun on himself. In truth, the rebelling sepoys (Indian soldiers) massacred the couple outside the fort, also slaying another 40 or so English Christians. Rossetti later included a note with the poem: "I retain this little poem, not as historically accurate, but as written and published before I heard the supposed facts of its first verse contradicted." (However, it's not just the first verse that takes poetic license!) "In the Round Tower at Jhansi, June 8, 1857" is an unusual poem in Rossetti's body of work, as she rarely used topical events as subject matter.
Rossetti was associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, an artistic movement dedicated to recapturing the beauty of a (much-mythologized and romanticized) Middle Ages. Her brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti, a founder of the group, was also an accomplished painter, poet, and wombat enthusiast. Rossetti was further influenced by Elizabeth Barrett Browning—another popular female poet with strong ties to Italy—and some of her contemporaries saw her as the older poet's natural successor.
Historical Context
Christina Rossetti lived in a world marked both by revolutionary change and reactionary conservatism. England reshaped itself considerably under the reign of Queen Victoria, its first truly powerful queen since Elizabeth I. A primarily rural population made an unprecedented shift to the cities as factory work outpaced farm work, and writers from Dickens to Hardy worried about the human effects of this kind of change.
This poem is set against the backdrop of the British Empire, and in particular India. The East India Company—which was once the world's largest corporation, closely tied to the British state and monarchy—was formed for the exploitation of trade with East/Southeast Asia, including India. The Company wielded immense influence over India during this period, and employed local soldiers, or sepoys, to bolster its power.
By the mid-1800s, tensions were running high between the British and the sepoys. In 1857, the sepoys rebelled against their rulers for a complex set of reasons, including poor pay and mounting British disregard for cultural/religious sensitivities towards Hindus and Muslims. (Some sepoys, for example, suspected the British of using animal fat to line bullet cartridges. Preparing these cartridges involved biting them, so sepoys feared violating their religious beliefs by consuming taboo animal products.) The name of the conflict remains contested: the Victorians called it the Indian Mutiny, but it has also been called the Indian Rebellion of 1857, or even the First War of Independence (though India was not a unified nation at the time).
Captain Alexander Skene was superintendent—effectively manager—of the Jhansi area when fighting broke out. He instructed the British living in Jhansi to take refuge in the fort and believed that a deal would be struck with Rani Laskhmibai, a local and influential ruler. No such peace was made, and the rebels massacred Skene, his wife Margaret, and dozens of other Europeans outside the city walls. Contrary to the poem's account, Alexander and Margaret did not turn a "pistol" on themselves, nor were the sepoys as numerous as "a thousand" (or even a "hundred").
Though the Rebellion was subsequently quashed, it brought about the end of the East India Company. The British government set up their own direct rule of India—the British Raj—which lasted in varying forms until the mid-20th century.
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More “In the Round Tower at Jhansi, June 8, 1857 (Indian Mutiny)” Resources
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External Resources
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A Contemporary Response — Read critic William Sharp's admiring reminiscence of Rossetti, written not long after her death.
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A Brief Biography — Read the Poetry Foundation's short essay on Rossetti's life and work.
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Rossetti at the Victorian Web — Visit the Victorian Web to find a treasure trove of information on Rossetti.
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Goblin Market and Other Poems — Dive into the book in which "In the Round Tower at Jhansi, June 8, 1857" first appeared.
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The East India Company and the Sepoy Rebellion — Read an overview of the 1857-58 conflict that led to the death of Captain Skene and his wife, Margaret.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Christina Rossetti
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