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A Daughter of Eve
by Christina Rossetti
A fool I was to sleep at noon,
And wake when night is chilly
Beneath the comfortless cold moon;
A fool to pluck my rose too soon,
A fool to snap my lily.
My garden-plot I have not kept;
Faded and all-forsaken,
I weep as I have never wept:
Oh it was summer when I slept,
It’s winter now I waken.
Talk what you please of future spring
And sun-warm’d sweet to-morrow:—
Stripp’d bare of hope and everything,
No more to laugh, no more to sing,
I sit alone with sorrow.
___________________________
This is a poem about regret, the loss of innocence, and waiting too long to take advantage of a good opportunity. Interestingly, the title implies that this unspecified (except through metaphor) failure to act has either religious meaning, female-specific meaning, or both. You could easily read this poem from the perspective of Eve herself.
The language of the Speaker here implies that whatever the opportunity was, it won’t be coming back. Between that and the title, one wonders whether the Speaker has failed to prioritize marriage, or having a family, and now finds herself with those options now seemingly lost.
The poem is 15 lines, comprised of three five line stanzas (quintains.) The rhyme scheme in each stanza is ABAAB, with the A lines having four beats (8 syllables) and the B lines containing 3 and a half beats (7 syllables.) The effect of the meter is to giv the piece a melodic quality.
Stanza One:
A fool I was to sleep at noon,
And wake when night is chilly
Beneath the comfortless cold moon;
A fool to pluck my rose too soon,
A fool to snap my lily.
This stanza lets us know that the Speaker wasted a good opportunity and now finds herself with work to do in a colder and now dark night.
The last two lines of the stanza are not entirely clear in meaning. Plucking the rose too soon indicates that she made a decision sooner or with more haste than she should have done. Lilies are usually associated with purity or innocence, so we can infer that whatever the decision she made in haste did some damage to her innocence or her purity.
Perhaps the Speaker had a romantic relationship, in the prime of her young adult life, and it subsequently proved to be a harmful waste of time. Now that it’s over, she might find herself with fewer choices. We don’t know, though.
Stanza Two:
My garden-plot I have not kept;
Faded and all-forsaken,
I weep as I have never wept:
Oh it was summer when I slept,
It’s winter now I waken.
What happens if we do not start growing what we need from the garden until the cold season arrives? Well, nothing happens. Some things either must happen in the proper season, or not at all.
If we build on the hypothesis that this piece is about a relationship that proved a waste of time, we might infer here that the “garden” could refer to the Speaker’s ability to bear children. Women operate on a bit of a biological clock where that is concerned. Perhaps the Speaker spent her youth giving no thought to that and now finds herself desiring it greatly while the opportunity is gone.
The metaphor does not necessarily apply to that, though. It could more generally refer to misspent youth and wasted opportunity. In life, sometimes your future decisions are dictated by those made in our youths. It’s unfortunate that our youths tend to be the period in which we are least knowledgeable and wise. If someone were to dedicate their life to a silly and frivolous thing, when young, only to learn the the folly of that choice when it’s too late to change it, that might lead one to “weep as I have never wept.”
Stanza Three:
Talk what you please of future spring
And sun-warm’d sweet to-morrow:—
Stripp’d bare of hope and everything,
No more to laugh, no more to sing,
I sit alone with sorrow.
Here the Speaker tells the Reader – or anyone who might offer words of comfort or solace – that there will be neither comfort nor solace for her. The impression given is that whatever the missed opportunity was, it is gone forever.
Harkening back to the title, this sentiment may have been true of Eve herself. She paid too little heed to how good she had it, lost her innocence at the encouragement of the serpent, and ultimately found herself banished from the Garden of Eden and doomed eventually to die. Paradise was lost. The misspent youth theme from the life of Eve is relatable, so much so that “Daughter of Eve” feels fitting for the Speaker and also likely so for the Readers.
