Sonnets are full of love by Christina Rossetti

Kakatiya University Warangal-

 Degree General English- 

       Semester 5-unit 3

 Sonnets are full of love

Sonnets are full of love, and this my tome

Has many sonnets: so here now shall be

One sonnet more, a love sonnet, from me

To her whose heart is my heart’s quiet home,

To my first Love, my Mother, on whose knee

I learnt love-lore that is not troublesome;

Whose service is my special dignity,

And she my loadstar while I go and come

And so because you love me, and because

I love you, Mother, I have woven a wreath

Of rhymes wherewith to crown your honored name:

In you not fourscore years can dim the flame

Of love, whose blessed glow transcends the laws

Of time and change and mortal life and death.

Christina Rossetti

Christina Georgina  Rossetti, pseudonym Ellen Alleyne, was born on December 5, 1830, in London. In 1862, Christina published Goblin Market and Other Poems.

She wrote this sonnet expressing her love for her mother, Francis Piludori. Her Sonnets are full of love, and this my tome was published in the anthology A Pageant and Other Poems (1881). 

The poem Sonnets are full of love, and this my tome is a tribute on the occasion of poet mother's eightieth birthday. It was published in the year 1881. A sonnet is a short poem of fourteen lines. It is composed of two parts- the octave, a stanza of eight lines and the sestet, a stanza of six lines.

Her book has many sonnets, and this poem is an addition to those love sonnets. The poem celebrates precious mothers' love. It is written eulogizing her mother's unconditional and reciprocal love for her. It was a gift to her mother's 80th birthday. 

The poet comments that she learned wisdom and traditional knowledge with ease from her mother. She considers her mother her first love, and her heart is home for her. Her mother's heart is compared to a quiet home which provides comfort and love. Service to her mother is her primary duty filled with dignity. She compares her mother to a loadstar, as she guides and shows a right path to her. She with love weaves a wreath of rhymes to crown her. Her love for her mother is never ending and the flame of love never goes off or becomes dim, even though she reached her eighties. Her mother's love is eternal and continues even after death. 

Sonnet=Sonnet is a poem consisting of 14 lines with a fixed rhyme scheme. 

Tome=a book

Lore=traditional knowledge and stories about a subject. 

Loadstar=guiding star; a star that is used as a reference point in navigation or astronomy.

Fourscore=eighty

Transcend=to go beyond or rise above a limit, or be greater than something ordinary, to surpass. 

Wreath= an arrangement of flowers and leaves in a circular shape, used as a decoration