Maude Clare- Christina Rosetti

1: How is the story told within the poem you are studying? E.g. from whose perspective, 1^st/2^nd/3^rd person is there a beginning, middle and end?

We believe it is being told from an onlookers view, in third person. We felt the beginning was the first five stanzas. The next three are the middle, and the last four are the end.  The narrative is omniscient as they know all the inner feelings and turmoil of the characters.  Within the narrative it is suggested that Thomas’ father has been through a similar experience in the past, yet had more conviction than his son does. 

It is told with backstory, adding into the poem how they feel and why their emotions are as such, making the poem very narrative and understandable.

2: What themes are explored within the poem?

The themes explored are vindication, love, lust, and betrayal. The poem says a lot through its sing song couplets. Love is at the crux of the situation, with two women in love with the same man in very different ways, and one man at a total loss as to what he has done and what he should do. Maud Clare is obviously lust, stimulation, and she considers herself as his equal. She is fierce, clever and fiery, but also clearly the woman he is deeply in love with, as he cannot cross her even as she denounces him at his own wedding. Nell on the other hand, his wife, is very demure and “pale with pride.” She considers it her duty to love him and now that they are wed she knows that he will come to forget his passionate affair and come to appreciate a loving, uncomplaining, and totally submissive life partner. Far more reliable and steadfast.  Thomas does not, however, love her. Maude is portrayed as flighty. You get the impression that Thomas' mother very strongly agrees with the match. It may even have been arranged. You gather from the information that the affair with Maude Clare may have been from childhood, and his mother did not approved so he forsook her, to her anger and despair, and settled for something much less, but much more suitable. 

3: What poetry and poetic devices are used for what effect?

An awful lot of imagery is used during Maude Clare's speech, where she describes intensely and with some passion the things they did when together, such as "waded ankle-deep for lilies in the beck".  This produces such an image in your head that you can sense the coolness of the water and the tickling of gentle currents.

There also seems to be somewhat of an extended metaphor through the choice of memories she tells of.  She speaks of spring moments when they were happy, which may suggest that their relationship was like the changing seasons, and by the next spring they had finished and he had a new love.