No, Thank you, John

• John

  • ‘John’ - ‘the one whom Jesus loved’ - how men seem more loved in the eyes of God / isolated in the line - microcosm of all men in victorian society
  • John Brett a man who painted her / stands for the ‘Everyman’ 
• Context - wrote at the age of 30 - later poetry discusses the impact of life - past her prime 
• “I never said I loved you, John:”

  • May have been romantically involved with the painter John Brett who painted her in 1857 and abandoned the work halfway. Generic name - microcosm for for men in victorian society
  • Causera - separates John from the rest of the line - isolates him
  • The meaning of this line changes depending on which word you put emphasis on - shes shutting down all his intentions
  • assertive / caesura isolated him as a target / definition change dependent of emphasised word
• Why will you tease me, day by day,

  • ‘day by day’ - Goblin market - unity of God / ‘tease’ - fabric - tearing at her very being - unclear
• And wax a weariness to think upon

  • ‘w’ alliteration - from the antique -slowing down every word 
• With always "do" and "pray"?

  • imperatives - the role of women / female expectation to always be Godly - mocking 
• ‘As shows an hour old ghost’

  • John is conveyed as a tragic and unconscious figure- his description of been an ‘old ghost’  makes him seem like a thinkingless being that acts on his own accord, ghastly haunting the speaker will his trivial attempts to propose
  • Assonance within ‘ghost’ and ‘shows’repeated sounds, highlights John’s everlasting and continuous persistence. 
• “I dare say Meg or Moll would take / pity upon you, if you’d ask: / And pray don’t remain single for my sake / Who can’t perform that task.”

  • Names are interchangeable, tells him to go to his average woman
• “I have no heart? - Perhaps I have not; / But then you’re mad to take offence / That I don’t give you what I have not got: / Use your own common sense.”

  • Asks a question, yet answers it herself. Doesn’t care for his feelings. Tone of mockery, has no time or energy for him.
  • hypophora - rhersed 
• Let bygones be bygones:

  • ahead of her time - the cyclical nature of the masculine ego 
• ‘I’d rather say ‘No’ to fifty Johns then say ‘Yes’ to you’

  • Here the speaker has a clear and direct motive- personal pronouns (first person) demonstrates her firmness and autonomy over the situation. ‘No’ and ‘Yes’ are syntactic parallels- contrasting relationship between the words, presents a conflict between John and the speaker. This emphasises their incompatibility and ambivalence. 
  • enjambement - Volta - so specific
• Let us strike hands as hearty friends;

  • masculine - ‘hands and hearty’ - body parts - physical and emotional - friendship it is entirety - juxtaposing 
• No more, no less: and friendship's good:

  • ‘good’ - low diction / show their surface level relation - after thought - as a means to maintain the metre
• Only don't keep in view ulterior ends,

  • ‘eye’ - ‘The eye is the lamp of the body’ Matthew 6 - ‘who lusts at a woman with his eyes commits adultery in his heart’ - imperatives - taking control 
• ‘And points not understood/ In open treaty’

  • Metonymy of treaty - peace +agreement through negotiation, sense of self- agency as chooses to reject him - rationale and autonomy.
  • Enjambment- the speaker is a heroine; control over the situation
  • John loses his personhood by remaining silent, only communicating frivolous remarks.- The male voice is repressed. 
  • Alternate reading- Androcentrism- Although speaker presents an outward control over the situation -John still has sense of agency over speaker as he is in the right to continuously question her and be present in the speaker’s life.
• “Here’s friendship for you if you like; but love, - / No, thank you, John.”

  • Unequivocal. She is firm in her opinion. Cyclical device as poem ends with the title - symbolic of Rossetti choosing to move on with her life and close off this memory/ event hence the end-stopping.