De Profundis

Christina Rossetti's De Profundis

Christina Rossetti's poem "De Profundis" is a poignant exploration of human longing and spiritual yearning, set against the backdrop of an unreachable celestial realm. The title, Latin for "Out of the Depths," immediately evokes a sense of profound emotional and spiritual struggle, drawing on the tradition of biblical lamentations. Through its four quatrains, the poem weaves together themes of earthly limitations, cosmic insignificance, and the relentless human desire for transcendence.

The opening stanza establishes the central conflict of the poem: the vast distance between earth and heaven, between the mortal and the divine. The repetition of "Oh why" in the first two lines emphasizes the speaker's frustration and incomprehension at this seemingly arbitrary separation. The use of "built" and "set" implies a deliberate construction of this divide, perhaps by a divine architect. The speaker's inability to reach even "the nearest star" underscores the extreme remoteness of the heavenly realm and the speaker's sense of earthbound helplessness.

In the second stanza, Rossetti introduces an element of paradox. The moon, while closer than the stars, is dismissed as "monotonous" and repetitive. This suggests that mere proximity is not enough to satisfy the speaker's longing; there is a desire for something more profound than physical closeness. The phrase "Beyond my range" echoes the unreachability expressed in the first stanza, reinforcing the theme of limitation.

The third stanza shifts focus from the specific celestial bodies to the broader spectacle of the night sky. The "scatter'd fire / Of stars" and the "sun's far-trailing train" evoke images of beauty and grandeur, yet the speaker cannot fully appreciate them. Instead, these cosmic wonders only intensify the "one desire" that consumes the speaker's heart. The repetition of "all" in "all my heart" and "all in vain" emphasizes the totality of this desire and the completeness of its frustration.

The final stanza brings the poem's themes to a powerful conclusion. The speaker acknowledges being "bound with fleshly bands," a phrase that encapsulates the physical and mortal limitations of human existence. This earthly tether prevents access not only to the celestial bodies mentioned earlier but also to abstract concepts like "Joy" and "beauty." The capitalization of these words elevates them to a quasi-divine status, further emphasizing their unattainability.

The poem's concluding lines present a striking image of desperate reaching: "I strain my heart, I stretch my hands, / And catch at hope." This physical metaphor for spiritual and emotional longing is particularly effective, conveying both the intensity of the speaker's desire and the futility of the effort. The use of "catch at hope" is especially poignant, suggesting that even hope itself is elusive and perhaps illusory.

Throughout the poem, Rossetti employs a regular rhyme scheme (ABAB) and a consistent meter, with alternating lines of iambic tetrameter and trimeter. This structured form contrasts with the turbulent emotions expressed, perhaps reflecting the tension between earthly constraints and spiritual aspirations. The shorter fourth line in each stanza creates a sense of incompleteness or falling short, mirroring the poem's thematic content.

Rossetti's choice of imagery is particularly noteworthy. The celestial bodies - stars, moon, and sun - serve as potent symbols of the divine or the ideal, their distance and inaccessibility representing the gap between human experience and spiritual fulfillment. This use of cosmic imagery places "De Profundis" within the tradition of Romantic poetry, with its emphasis on nature as a source of spiritual insight and its exploration of human smallness in the face of the infinite.

In conclusion, "De Profundis" is a masterful exploration of the human condition, capturing the tension between mortal limitations and spiritual longings. Rossetti's skillful use of form, imagery, and language creates a poem that resonates with universal themes of desire, frustration, and the quest for transcendence. The poem's final image of straining and reaching, despite the acknowledged impossibility of success, encapsulates a fundamentally human characteristic: the persistence of hope and aspiration in the face of cosmic indifference and mortal constraints.