"Ferry Me Across the Water" Christina Rossetti 'Ferry me across the water, Do, boatman, do.' ‘If you've a penny in your purse I'll ferry you.’ ‘I have a penny in my purse, And my eyes are blue; So ferry me across the water, Do, boatman, do.’ ‘Step into my ferry-boat, Be they black or blue, And for the penny in your purse I'll ferry you.’ | The holistic and moral Christina Georgina Rossetti, lead a relatively unremarkable life, born amongst artistic siblings, and and raised as a pious evangelist. She became a characteristic Victorian spinster, associating only with the friends of her brothers, and leading a reclusive life fraught with literary expression. Recognized for her children's literature including nursery rhymes, and shadowy yet balladic works of somber beauty. I wrote earlier of her composition, “Who Can Hear the Wind,” a slightly more lighthearted work of her later years. Here, I covered some additional periods during her life, which notice-ably impacted the subjects, tone, and audience of her work. So despite the fact that she choose a uncomplicated life, surrounded by her family and fellow Pre-Raphaelite artists and affiliates, the events that occured during it were nonetheless fascinating if only for their repercussions in her work. An admired and cherished author, Rossetti’s works remain a favorite of children and devotees alike. “Who Can Hear the Wind,” is linked below. |
The organization of “Ferry Me Across the Water” is classic and archaically traditional as is typical of Pre-Raphaelite poetry. Written in lyrical iambic tetrameter alternating with lines of four or five syllables, “Ferry Me Across the Water” is composed of three quatrains(a stanza of comprised of four lines) in the format of ballad stanzas( or quatrains with ABCB rhyme scheme, often dictated in alternating iambic tetrameter). The poem as a whole has a unusual and unnamed rhyme scheme, with each stanza consisting of a slightly differentiated version of the original ABCB rhyme scheme, Rossetti’s rhyme scheme is ceaselessly consistent and has a carried rhyme throughout her entire poem. Using a consistent end sound as she demonstrates is fairly rare, not often seen it carries an original eloquence. The rhyme scheme of the first quatrain is classic, ABCB, a highly traditional format it starts off with the poem with a familiar cadence. This is contrasted by the following quatrain which has a CBAB rhyme scheme continuing the B rhyming sound of the first quatrain, this strategy keeps the pace of the poem constant and rapid. The last quatrain also continues the alternating B rhyming sound of the first two quatrains keeping the scheme perpetual throughout. The D line is an oddball, the only line not to have a correspondingly rhymed line. One of the features that allows Rossetti to keep the B line rhyme consistent throughout the poem is her use of repetition. The first line is repeated as the seventh line, and the second as the eighth, the C lines have identical endings. The repetition re-enforces the stable fairy-tale like feel of the poem as well as it’s fast paced fluency. The Rossetti's format is traditional in structure, whereas her arrangement and rhyme are completely original.
The theme of Christina Rossetti’s poem, “Ferry Me Across the Water” may seem nonsensical when it is first read, but on further inspection morals and truths can be found beneath the seemingly chimerical events of the dialogue. Rossetti's poem records the events of an encounter between two individuals, a dialog that discusses the payment for a ferry ride. “Ferry me across the water, do boatman do,” introduce the action of the poem, and as well as the first speaker. The second two lines introduce the second speaker, and the issue of the discussion: “If you've a penny in your purse, I'll ferry you.” It is evident from the first quatrain that the language is playful with fictional cadence. The second quatrain begins with the first speaker’s response, “I have a penny in my purse, and my eyes are blue.” The beginning part of the first speaker’s response is logical however the conjoined second section, does not correspond with the question originally asked. This statement is followed by an altered repeat of the first two lines: “So ferry me across the water, do, boatman, do.” This adds an element of fantasy and a tone of lighthearted humor, but if you look under the original pretense a more allegorical meaning can be found. Especially, when the boatman, disregards the second part of the statement, he makes it clear he does not care about the aesthetics of her appearance, he only cares for her due payment: “Step into my ferry boat, be they black or blue, and for the penny in your purse I'll ferry you.” Although, the arrangement of the poem is akin to that of a nursery rhyme, many interpreters have found a darker theme contained inside. A popular association is the “boatman” with Charon, who in Greek mythology, is the ferryman who carries the souls of newly deceased across the river Styx and into Hades the realm of the dead. However, to reach the underworld every soul must pay the toll which was in folklore, was a single golden Drachma( the ancient Greek coinage first used in 1100 B.C., it was reintroduced in the May of 1832 and remained the Greek currency until 2001 when it was replaced by the European euro). The drachma was often placed on the eyelids or mouth of the deceased by family members. Following this interpretation the moral of Rossetti's poem is presented in subtle inflections and attenuated in the forthright actions of her characters. Christina Rossetti illustrates her “Boatman” as a omen, or symbol of death, this entity does not discriminate or base his toll on the visual characteristics of his victims. Death takes no prisoners and makes no exceptions. In the afterlife, it matters not how you may have appeared when you were alive, you will pay the toll the same as everyman. The unusual presentation of such a sombre and morbid moral in such light-hearted dimensions has a startlingly captivating effect on the reader.
Rossetti’s poem, “Ferry Me Across the Water,” is often set to music, and has been recorded by composers such as the most recently: Allan Blank( his composition was the voice and piano duet published in 1969) Matthew Emery( who wrote a two part chorus and piano in 2013), Gerald Finzi( also wrote a two part chorus and piano piece, however his was comprised of equal voices in the year 1924), and several others since it’s original publication in 1872 in the poetic anthology “Sing-Song: A Nursery Rhyme Book”. Each composer created a singularly unparalleled rendition, and due to the simple structure and light composition of Rossetti’s original, versions of “Ferry Me Across the Water,” are often used to teach chorus and the reading of musical notation to children.
Christina Georgina Rossetti, is one of the most iconic female poets of 19th-century England, she was born in London, the last child of Gabriele and Frances (Polidori) Rossetti. Through her life, Christina Rossetti experienced a myriad of events that could have to lead a remarkable existence, from her extraordinary birth into such flourishing creativity to her early but brief engagement to the minor Pre-Raphaelite affiliate James Collinson, Rossetti’s choices were largely influenced by her zealous evangelical Protestantism and declining health. Instances, which exemplify her faith were forfeiting her love of chess due an enjoyment of winning, her refusal of two proposals(both her 1860’s lover Charles Cayley and James Collinson due to their religious inclinations, and also in how she only allowed her herself to enjoy Swinburne's Atalanta in “Calydon” after she had blocked out the anti-religious portions with paper strips, additionally in her refusal to view Wagner's Parsifal, for it’s celebration of Pagan mythology. After, she rejected her second proposal, Christina Rossetti’s life came that of a idiosyncratic Victorian Spinster. One biographer even claims she came to live vicariously through the lives of others, including some of the many intriguing friends of her brothers such as Whistler, Swinburne, F.M. Brown, and Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll), and these artistic men and women became her only acquaintances and friends. In the last twelve years of her life, following the nervous collapse of her beloved brother Dante, and the beginning of her bouts of neuralgia, even the writing that had kept Rossetti alive in her declining years lost its appeal, and her final years were quiet ones. Nonetheless, Christina Rossetti was considered for the next poet laureate after Alfred Lord Tennyson’s death in 1892, and though the idea was never substantiated, she was respected long after for her beautiful eloquence and saint-like temperament.