Who shall deliver me?
God strengthen me to bear myself;
That heaviest weight of all to bear,
Inalienable weight of care.
All others are outside myself;
I lock my door and bar them out
The turmoil, tedium, gad-about.
I lock my door upon myself,
And bar them out; but who shall wall
Self from myself, most loathed of all?
If I could once lay down myself,
And start self-purged upon the race
That all must run! Death runs apace.
If I could set aside myself,
And start with lightened heart upon
The road by all men overgone!
God harden me against myself,
This coward with pathetic voice
Who craves for ease and rest and joys
Myself, arch-traitor to myself;
My hollowest friend, my deadliest foe,
My clog whatever road I go.
Yet One there is can curb myself,
Can roll the strangling load from me
Break off the yoke and set me free
Christina Georgina Rossetti’s themes were faith and the peace of the eternal spiritual life. Her religion was not theological or doctrinal, however, in the manner of Victorians, for she concentrated on simple faith and pure lyrics to celebration of that faith. In this simple faith, Jesus being the object of much of her devotion: she wrote a number of poems on the incidents in His life and used Good Friday and the Resurrection as a subject for several of her best poems (Magill, 1960). Faith, an attitude of the entire self, including both will and intellect, directed toward a person, an idea, or—as in the case of religious faith—a divine being (Macquarrie, 2008).
Rossetti is a poet which is also referred to as by Plato as the imitator. According to Plato,
“A fine imitator he will surely be in his knowledge of the things he works on.”
As for Rossetti, she imitates what she feels and put it on a poem. By this, it instructs readers what to do if they are having questions about life and the challenges it render. According to Plato,
“I mean that for all such things there are three crafts, those of the user, the maker and the imitator. Then the virtue of beauty and correctness of any implement of life and action is determined by nothing else than the need because of which each one is made or brought forth.”
Christina Rossetti’s life is undeniably subjected to her religion. Her acts and motives are of her emotions. Example is she can’t express herself freely to her suitors due to her religion. She is the user, maker and the imitator of her poems.
The poem expresses the theme of hope and faith that is found in the hands of God. The persona of the poem is searching for hope as he is humbled of his life. For the persona, there is nothing about him for he is a sinner, but all about God that He is the only one who could help him in his miseries and problems in this world. He offers his problems to God and let Him decide for his life. He seeks for the hope that is found only in God.
In the poem Who Shall Deliver Me? the persona let its readers perceive how heavy the burden he carries and prays to God to lighten it. It is found on the first lines of the poem,
God strengthen me to bear myself;
That heaviest weight of all to bear,
Inalienable weight of care.
And the cause of this weight is her isolation from the others due to her faith. For deeper understanding, Christina Rossetti isolated herself from her suitors because of faith. Her suitors believe in other religion than hers or have no religion. This causes her to break free from them as seen on these lines,
All others are outside myself;
I lock my door and bar them out
The turmoil, tedium, gad-about.
I lock my door upon myself,
And bar them out; but who shall wall
Self from myself, most loathed of all?
The persona thinks of a solution that is undesirable for she is to give up and to end her life. Hence, the solution is death to lighten her burden as she thinks that in life death comes. She will only quicken the process as seen in these citations,
If I could once lay down myself,
And start self-purged upon the race
That all must run! Death runs apace.
If I could set aside myself,
And start with lightened heart upon
The road by all men overgone!
Now, the persona of the poem begs for God’s guidance as she is thinking of ridiculous things as the previous citations say. In life, men are sometimes quitter from the game and thus, end life. Man must think of the reason why they live and not by the mistakes they did or the burdens they carry.
God harden me against myself,
This coward with pathetic voice
Who craves for ease and rest and joys.
Here, the persona says that her greatest traitor, foe and clog is his own self and this is right. In reality, the most dangerous person is not the other persons but the person himself because a man can betray himself by not perceiving it. Thus, man should think of the ways that prohibit this to happen. Think of the beautiful things that God has given you and live in His accordance for there you can find freedom. Yoke here symbolizes the persona, like a person still on his “shell” or comfort zone who needs to be appreciated, elevated and motivated to have confidence and find happiness in the outside world of his shell. The One represents God as the letter “O” is in the uppercase. The word curb is parallel to discipline. The persona states that God can help in disciplining himself.
Myself, arch-traitor to myself ;
My hollowest friend, my deadliest foe,
My clog whatever road I go.
Yet One there is can curb myself,
Can roll the strangling load from me
Break off the yoke and set me free
Basically, the poem instructs readers to have faith in God all the time. It persuades people to have faith and hope in God no matter what circumstances a person may be struggling from. Plato said,
“If it is true for poetry, we shouldn’t trust merely to the likeness of poetry with painting, but should also consider that a part of the reason with which the imitation is concerned, and see whether it is bad or excellent.”
At this point, the poem Who Shall Deliver Me? is not sentimental and it gives instructions to the readers to have faith in God at all times. The persona gives this instruction from his viewpoint and understanding as she was undergoing a certain struggle herself. She derives her ideas from her experiences and forms a good imitation of it. There is no exaggeration of the feelings found in the poem because all the ideas that can be extracted from it are may be felt in real life situations, thus, the reader may also be inclined unto it. Plato again said,
“The law says it is a splendid thing to bear the utmost affliction with a calm mind and not to cry out, because one cannot be sure what is good and what is bad in such things, and there is no future advantage in chafing under them, nor is anything human deserving of great eagerness, and grief hinders us from doing what should be done as quickly as possible in the circumstances.”
“..but we should train the soul to seek a remedy as quickly as possible and to raise up what is fallen and sickly and dispel laments by remedies.”
“We agree, then, that the best part of the soul wishes to follow reason.”
These three citations are truthfully said by Plato on his Republic. Being sentimental, as said a while ago, has nothing to do well for a person. What is needed is not to adhere to those sentimentalities but to find answers for the resolution of the problem. In the poem of Rossetti, the first stanza already has the remedy for the struggle and it is the remedy that God will be bringing. Thus, self-control is always needed in all aspects of life.
As to conclude, here is Plato on two citations from his work the Republic,
“At any rate we know we are not to suppose this sort of poetry admirable because it has attained the truth and is of great worth, but when we listen we must be on guard, as though in fear for the city within out souls, and must observe the laws we have laid down for poetry.”
“..between the good and evil, and we must not allow honor or wealth or any kind of authority or even poetry to make us neglect justice and the other virtues.”
Works Cited
Macquarrie, J. (2008). Faith. Redwood, WA: Microsoft Corporation.
Magill, F. N. (1960). Master Piece of World Literature: In Digest Form. 10 East 53rd Street, New York, New York 10022: Harper and Row Publishers, Inc.
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