After Death

As I was reading “After Death” by Christina Rossetti, my brain couldn't help but paint a picture of who these two people in the poem were, and what exactly their story was. It is clear from reading the poem that the narrator has just died, and she is speaking this poem once she is already dead. She is describing the surroundings of where her dead body lay and how the man that is mourning her death is reacting. The way the narrator was describing the man gave me the impression that he was either her past lover or husband. Either way, it made me think that they once had a romance that tragically faded or ended. Maybe the man left her for another woman or because he just didn't love her anymore, or maybe they were still married and up until she died their marriage had grown cold. She mentions that although he did not love her while she was living; he pitied her once she was dead and it was sweet knowing that he was still warm even though she was cold. I interpreted this part of the poem to be saying that although she is dead and her body is physically cold, it brought her some happiness knowing that the cold heart of this man that she knew so well had now grown a little warmer at the sight of her dead body. Maybe it took the narrators death for him to show a little warmth and emotion. It ends the poem with a sense of hope that the woman’s death was not in vain. Her death may be the coming alive of this unknown man.