Title - At Home

• The Title 'At Home' is laden with irony, as the speaker is no longer truly "at home" in the physical or emotional sense - Although the setting is familiar, the ghost is invisible and forgotten, highlighting a stark disconnection - Rossetti subverts the expectation of comfort by turning the home into a space of exclusion and sorrow
• The Title 'At Home' was often idealised as a haven of lasting emotional bonds - 'At Home' challenges this ideal by showing how quickly the memory of the dead fades within it - The title suggests permanence, yet the poem reveals that domestic belonging is both fragile and transient
• The Title 'At Home' can be read metaphorically, signifying the emotional exile experienced after death - The speaker's inability to engage with the living reflects a broader theme of disconnection from one's former self and community - Rossetti uses this to question whether we ever truly belong, even in spaces once filled with intimacy
• The Title 'At Home' subtly evokes the spiritual liminality of the speaker, who exists between life and death - The title suggests a return to familiarity, yet what unfolds is an eerie confrontation with absence and detachment - Rossetti captures the haunting in-betweenness of the soul’s unfinished journey
• The Title 'At Home' may also serve as a commentary on societal forgetfulness and emotional complacency - While the living continue their routines, the speaker observes their quick dismissal of the past - Rossetti uses the domestic setting to critique how easily people move on, even in the most intimate spaces