Author: juyi allen (204.211.32.---)
Date: 01-29-04 11:53
If there is anyone out there that can help me please do so.. I have read this poem about a thousand times and still it not quit right in my mind . who is she talking to?
Uphill
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.
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.
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.
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.
-- Christina Rossetti
As Hugh has suggested there is a discussion of the poem here:
[www.cs.rice.edu] />
Les
Perhaps it is her imagination of a 'conversation with God' or with some angel speaking on behalf of the supreme being. Perhaps it is an internal dialogue, between the worldy, mortal part of herself and the spiritual, immortal part of herself. Perhaps these interpretations amount to much the same thing.
The poem is an allegory which is a type of poetry that is meant to convey a message or doctrine by using people places or things to stand for abstract ideas. Rosetti had a very strong belief in the afterlife. Now read the poem again and think of the road as the journey of life and the respondent who answers the questions as God. So in the first stanza the traveler asks Does the road wind uphill all the way? (Is the journey of life uphill all the way?) and God answers "Yes, to the very end" (death). The traveler then asks, "Will the day's journey take the whole long day?" (Will there be any rest during the day from my long journey) God answers no, you will struggle from beginning to end. Then the traveler asks "But is there for the night a resting-place" (Is there life after death) God Answers, "You cannot miss the Inn" (Heaven) I will let you figure out the rest. I hope this helps.