Original subtitle of “What happened to me” - but Rossetti removed it — to make it more public

• Opens abruptly / monosyllabic
• Women shut out / exiled — Eve restricted / She’s restricted from society
  • “My garden” - sense of defiance & something she deserves
  • Iron bars - maybe self imposed

<aside> ⚠️ Written just after end of relationship - broke up because of religious differences

</aside>

• “a shadowless spirit” — a metaphor for her imagination,

  • Restricting herself, struggle behind her own bars of religious conflict.

• “or give me... one small twig”

  • Acceptance of lesser than she wanted,
  • wanting garden → Bud → Small twig

• “He answered not” - pitiful to narrator, not even worthy of response, spirit = god?

Gender

• Spirit - “he”,
• Singing lark - “her”
  • Male oppression

In or out of society / there’s a divide either way.

Nora shut out of all the doors to the public sphere - shut into domesticity,

Nora shut out of domesticity - shut into public sphere.