Name: Zheng Jiayin Class: 6C31 Index number: 11

Practical Criticism
The poem A Coast: Nightmare depicts the world of ghostland, which is shown to be a separate plane of existence from the real world, through the eyes of the narrator. Rossetti creates this impression by drawing on the elements of ghostland, such as its physical environment, atmosphere and inhabitants, which clearly contrasts with the reality that the reader is familiar with. Ghostland is depicted as being in a state of limbo --- a timeless space of uncertainty and non-resolution. The portrayal of ghostland as an island gives it a sense of isolation; of being apart from the reality of the narrator, as well as of the reader. Also, time appears to be suspended in the world of ghostland, as seen from the narrators description in the first stanza:

All unripened in the unended twilight: For there comes neither night nor day. Here, the narrator creates the feeling of otherness by using the affix un- in front of conventional words like ripened to subtly compare ghostland to the real world that the reader knows. The use of the word unended instead of unending gives the feeling of lacking an end or conclusion, of being confined within a fixed space, rather than a sense of continuity. This adds to the lack of hope which permeates the world of ghostland, and it is further reinforced by the narrators emphasis on the non-existence of life in ghostland:

Living flocks and herds are nowhere found there: Only ghosts in flocks and shoals:

The use of assonance (repetition of O sound) here gives a moaning effect, thereby intensifying the overall feeling of hopelessness. The constant use of sibilant sounds (sea, souls, space) in the poem also contributes to the sombre and grave atmosphere of ghostland. Furthermore, in these two lines, the image of the ghosts travelling as a collective whole, like animals (living flocks and herds), as well as the lack of reference to any singular ghost at this point, shows that the inhabitants of ghostland are indistinct from one another. The uniformity and lack of individual identity of these indistinguished ghosts, not only add to the ambiguity of ghostland, but also shows a lack of purpose and meaning of existence there --- harvest is not reaped, the vineyard is not tended to, and dead mens souls wander around aimlessly. This magnifies the sense of confinement in ghostland --- its inhabitants are trapped within an identity-less, ambiguous, meaningless state of existence. However, after thrusting the reader into the disorienting world of ghostland, the real world which the reader is familiar with is deliberately reintroduced in the last two stanzas of the poem and conventional order of reality is restored. The concept of time is established (All night long I feel his presence hover), acting as a contrast to the timelessness of the ghostland which the narrator described in the first three stanzas. Here, the narrators voice comes from outside of ghostland, instead of within, showing that she is in a midway state between sleeping and waking. It also implies that the ghostland is a construct of her imagination; it is at the edge of her mind. As such, the narrator seems to be trapped in an intermediate condition between sleeping and waking; a state of half-consciousness. The inhabitants of this dimension, the ghosts --disembodied spirits with hazy, vague and evanescent forms --- serve as a physical representation of the midway state of the world of ghostland. After knowing of the distinction between the narrators real world and imagined world of ghostland, the reader can now observe the transition from the former to the latter in the first stanza and note the differences between the two. Sea can be interpreted as a metaphor for life in the poem, hence making the blood-red seaweeds dripping along the coastland of ghostland the remnants of life, highlighting images of

bloodshed and violence in the real world. The tempestuous wrenches and tosses of the sea, a metaphor for the emotional upheavals of life, can be contrasted with the general absence of movement of Nature in ghostland (tideless waters). Water, which is believed to be a universal medium between separate dimensions, serves to connect ghostland and the real world in this poem. Also, as an unmarried woman poet in the Victorian era, Rossettis sociallyordained role as a wife and mother is unfulfilled; her desires in life (such as her longing for a partner and a child of her own) unsated. Such unfulfilled wants have no place in real life, especially due to the sexual repression of women in the Victorian era, so the ghostland may be an alternate dimension created by the poet, where she suspends these ungratified longings of her reality in a non-resolution state of limbo. As such, words such as unripe harvest in the poem are given an additional layer of meaning, as they can be seen as images of infertility, reflecting the poets sense of her own inadequacy stemming from her inability to fulfil her social role. This is further reinforced by the definition of love as an unseen presence, without any physical manifestation (without a voice, through the darkness black as ink), in the poem. Also, the narrators love in ghostland is seen as a haunting and horrifying experience instead of a pleasant one; one which keeps her perpetually confined within the state of limbo.