Which type of sonnet is Remember?

Petrarchan, with an octave and a sestet

Why does Rossetti repeat "gone" in "gone away, / Gone far away"?

To stress how far away death will take her

Remember by Christina Rossetti: context, form and key methods

A dying speaker asks her beloved to remember her, then changes her mind: she would rather he forgot her and was happy. This poem is out of copyright, so you can quote it freely.

International GCSE · 4ET1 · Paper 1 Section B: Anthology Poetry
About 18 minutes

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Context and themes

Christina Rossetti (1830 to 1894) was an English poet with strong religious beliefs. She wrote Remember in 1849, as a young woman, and it was published in Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862).
Themes: love and death; memory; selflessness; grief; a calm, faithful view of dying.

Form and structure

A Petrarchan sonnet: 14 lines of iambic pentameter, an octave (ABBAABBA) and a sestet (CDDECE).
The octave repeats the request to be remembered.
The volta comes at "Yet" (line 9): she changes her mind and tells her lover not to grieve if he forgets her for a while.

Language and key methods

Euphemism: death is being "gone away, / Gone far away into the silent land". The repetition of gone stresses distance.
Anaphora: "Remember me" opens the poem and returns in line 5; the imperative sounds urgent.
Tender physical images: "When you can no more hold me by the hand, / Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay".
Contrast in the closing lines: "Better by far you should forget and smile / Than that you should remember and be sad." Forget and smile is set against remember and sad, and she chooses his happiness.
"darkness and corruption" hints at the decay of the body after death.

Compare with: Sonnet 116 and Do not go gentle into that good night

Sonnet 116 (Shakespeare): both are sonnets about lasting love. Shakespeare declares that love never changes; Rossetti shows love by letting go.
Do not go gentle (Thomas): both face death. Rossetti's speaker accepts her own death calmly and puts her lover first; Thomas's speaker begs his father to fight death.

Exam tips

Paper 1 Section B gives you a choice of two questions. One question usually names both poems; the other names one poem and asks you to choose a second from the anthology (30 marks: AO2 15 for language, form and structure; AO3 15 for links between the poems).
Strong points for Remember: the volta and what it reveals about her love; the gentle euphemisms for death; the contrast in the final couplet of the sestet.
Always say where the volta is and what changes. Comparing it with Shakespeare's final couplet is an easy way into AO3.

Worked example

Plan a comparison: how do Remember and Do not go gentle present attitudes to death?

Thesis: Rossetti accepts death gently; Thomas urges his father to resist it.
Point 1 (ideas): Rossetti's concern is her lover's happiness; Thomas's concern is his father's spirit.
Point 2 (language): Rossetti's soft euphemisms; Thomas's images of light and dark and his imperatives.
Point 3 (form): Rossetti's volta turns towards acceptance; Thomas's villanelle refrains keep repeating his plea.

Answer: The two poems face death in opposite ways. Rossetti's speaker calls death "the silent land", a gentle euphemism, and at the volta she lets go, wanting her lover to "forget and smile". Thomas's speaker refuses to let go: his villanelle keeps returning to the same two refrains, urging his father to fight. Rossetti's sonnet turns towards peace, while Thomas's repeating form shows a son who cannot accept his father's death.

Key idea

Rossetti, written 1849, published 1862. Petrarchan sonnet: octave ABBAABBA, sestet CDDECE, volta at "Yet". "Remember me" (anaphora); death as "the silent land"; "Better by far you should forget and smile / Than that you should remember and be sad." Love as selflessness.

Key words

Context: The circumstances in which a text was written and set, such as historical events, social attitudes and the writer's life (AO3 in the GCSE, AO4 in the International GCSE).
Form: The type and shape of a text: for example sonnet, ballad, free verse, tragedy, comedy, novel or play.
Speaker: The voice of a poem. The speaker is not always the poet.
Petrarchan sonnet: A sonnet divided into an octave (eight lines) and a sestet (six lines), with a volta between them.
Sonnet: A fourteen-line poem, traditionally about love, usually in iambic pentameter.
Octave: The first eight lines of a Petrarchan sonnet, usually setting up a problem or idea.

All GCSE and International GCSE English Literature key terms and definitions →

Common mistakes

Not “Shakespearean, ending in a couplet”. That is Sonnet 116; Remember splits into eight lines and six.
Not “A sonnet sequence”. It is a single sonnet.
Not “A villanelle”. A villanelle has 19 lines; Remember has 14.
Not “When”. When appears in the octave, before the turn.

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Sources and references

Pearson Edexcel International GCSE English Literature (4ET1) specification, topic Paper 1 Section B: Anthology Poetry

Last updated 6 November 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us and we will fix it.