The Victorian poet Christina Rossetti wrote "Song (When I am dead, my dearest)" in 1848 at the age of 18, though it wasn't published until 1862 in her collection Goblin Market and Other Poems. The poem focuses on death and mourning, with the speaker urging a loved one not to waste too much time grieving for her when she dies. Instead, the speaker tells this person to move on with life: while the speaker isn't exactly sure what happens after death, she does seem sure that she won't notice whether or not the living remember her.
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The Full Text of “Song (When I am dead, my dearest)”
1When I am dead, my dearest,
2Sing no sad songs for me;
3Plant thou no roses at my head,
4Nor shady cypress tree:
5Be the green grass above me
6With showers and dewdrops wet;
7And if thou wilt, remember,
8And if thou wilt, forget.
9I shall not see the shadows,
10I shall not feel the rain;
11I shall not hear the nightingale
12Sing on, as if in pain:
13And dreaming through the twilight
14That doth not rise nor set,
15Haply I may remember,
16And haply may forget.
The Full Text of “Song (When I am dead, my dearest)”
1When I am dead, my dearest,
2Sing no sad songs for me;
3Plant thou no roses at my head,
4Nor shady cypress tree:
5Be the green grass above me
6With showers and dewdrops wet;
7And if thou wilt, remember,
8And if thou wilt, forget.
9I shall not see the shadows,
10I shall not feel the rain;
11I shall not hear the nightingale
12Sing on, as if in pain:
13And dreaming through the twilight
14That doth not rise nor set,
15Haply I may remember,
16And haply may forget.
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“Song (When I am dead, my dearest)” Summary
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“Song (When I am dead, my dearest)” Themes
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Love, Death, and Mourning
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Song (When I am dead, my dearest)”
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Lines 1-2
When I am dead, my dearest,
Sing no sad songs for me; -
Lines 3-6
Plant thou no roses at my head,
Nor shady cypress tree:
Be the green grass above me
With showers and dewdrops wet; -
Lines 7-8
And if thou wilt, remember,
And if thou wilt, forget. -
Lines 9-12
I shall not see the shadows,
I shall not feel the rain;
I shall not hear the nightingale
Sing on, as if in pain: -
Lines 13-14
And dreaming through the twilight
That doth not rise nor set, -
Lines 15-16
Haply I may remember,
And haply may forget.
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“Song (When I am dead, my dearest)” Symbols
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Roses and the Cypress Tree
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Green Grass
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The Nightingale
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“Song (When I am dead, my dearest)” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Anaphora
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Consonance
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Alliteration
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Imagery
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Metaphor
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Allusion
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“Song (When I am dead, my dearest)” 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.
- Thou
- Cypress tree
- Dewdrops
- Wilt
- Nightingale
- Doth
- Haply
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Song (When I am dead, my dearest)”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“Song (When I am dead, my dearest)” Speaker
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“Song (When I am dead, my dearest)” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “Song (When I am dead, my dearest)”
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More “Song (When I am dead, my dearest)” Resources
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External Resources
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The Poem Read Aloud — The poem as performed by Mairin O'Hagan.
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Goblin Market — Scans of the second edition of Rossetti's collection Goblin Market, in which this poem originally appeared, from the British Library.
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Rosetti's Life and Work — A biography of Christina Rossetti and additional poems from the Poetry Foundation.
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A Musical Arrangement of the Poem — "Song (When I am dead, my dearest)" as arranged by Saskia Kusrahadianti, one of many musical performances of the poem.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Christina Rossetti
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