“Up-Hill” Summary

“Up-Hill” Themes

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  The Difficult Journey of Life

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• 

  Death's Inevitability and Restfulness

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Up-Hill”

• Lines 1-4

  Does the road wind up-hill all the way?
     Yes, to the very end.
  Will the day's journey take the whole long day?
     From morn to night, my friend.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 5-8

  But is there for the night a resting-place?
     A roof for when the slow dark hours begin.
  May not the darkness hide it from my face?
     You cannot miss that inn.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 9-12

  Shall I meet other wayfarers at night?
     Those who have gone before.
  Then must I knock, or call when just in sight?
     They will not keep you standing at that door.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 13-16

  Shall I find comfort, travel-sore and weak?
     Of labour you shall find the sum.
  Will there be beds for me and all who seek?
     Yea, beds for all who come.

  

  

  

  

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“Up-Hill” Symbols

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  The Road

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• 

  The Inn

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“Up-Hill” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Extended Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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• End-Stopped Line

  

  

  

  

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• Caesura

  

  

  

  

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• Dialogue

  

  

  

  

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“Up-Hill” 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.

• Morn
• Wayfarers
• Travel-sore
• Sum

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Up-Hill”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“Up-Hill” Speaker

“Up-Hill” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “Up-Hill”

More “Up-Hill” Resources

• External Resources

  • The Poem Aloud — Actress Helen Mirren reads "Up-Hill."

  • The Poet's Life and Work — Read the Poetry Foundation's biography of Christina Rossetti.

  • More About the Poet — An extensive summary of Rossetti's life and career, via the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

  • The Rossetti Siblings — Learn about Christina Rossetti's working relationship with her brother, artist and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti, along with other sibling partnerships and rivalries in literature.

  • Rossetti, Gender, and Power — A British Library feature on Rossetti and male-female power dynamics in Victorian England.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Christina Rossetti

  • A Birthday

  • An Apple Gathering

  • Babylon the Great

  • Cousin Kate

  • Echo

  • From the Antique

  • Good Friday

  • In an Artist's Studio

  • In the Round Tower at Jhansi, June 8, 1857 (Indian Mutiny)

  • Maude Clare

  • No, Thank You, John

  • Remember

  • Shut Out

  • Sister Maude

  • Soeur Louise de la Miséricorde

  • Song (When I am dead, my dearest)

  • Twice

  • Winter: My Secret