Title - Some ladies dress in muslin full and white

• The Title 'Some ladies dress in muslin full and white' presents an apparently neutral observation of Victorian women’s fashion, specifically referencing "muslin", a lightweight, breathable fabric associated with modesty and gentility - "White" suggests purity, virtue, and femininity - all traits idealised by Victorian society, especially in women - On this surface level, Rossetti appears to reflect on the aesthetic of respectable womanhood, rooted in tradition and social decorum
• The Title 'Some ladies dress in muslin full and white' adopts a tone of polite description, its very simplicity is laced with irony - The soft connotations of "muslin" and "white" mask a deeper critique - that these signifiers of innocence are superficial, concealing pretension or vanity - Rossetti’s understatement sets up the poem’s satirical momentum, which later explodes into ridicule, revealing that this genteel image is a façade
• The Title 'Some ladies dress in muslin full and white' and the use of “muslin” and “white” may be read as symbols of performative purity, where women don these materials not out of personal conviction but to meet societal expectations - Rossetti highlights how femininity is often reduced to a visual code (soft, virginal, and controlled) enforced by patriarchal ideals - The title thus critiques a kind of inauthentic self-fashioning, where identity is stitched from cloth rather than character
• The Title 'Some ladies dress in muslin full and white' and the gentle cadence of the title, with its smooth alliteration and unthreatening diction, belies the poem’s seething undercurrent - What begins with talk of "muslin full and white" soon escalates into an acrimonious diatribe, where Rossetti expresses violent contempt for those who cling to false youth and social posturing - This contrast weaponizes innocence - turning it into a satirical device to expose hypocrisy, vulgarity, and artifice
• The Title 'Some ladies dress in muslin full and white' and by pairing "muslin", a fragile, translucent fabric, with "white", the emblem of innocence, the title invokes symbols of transparency and goodness, yet the poem goes on to subvert both - The muslin becomes a metaphor for insubstantial character, and the whiteness a false purity worn like costume - Rossetti’s title thus functions as a commentary on the gulf between surface presentation and internal worth, preparing readers for her unmasking of social absurdities