3. • Sister Maude is about the death of a loved one caused by the
actions of a jealous sister.
• The poem is written from the point of view of the betrayed
sister, left alone without her loved one, who was coveted by
Maude.
• The betrayed sister believes that even if she hadn't been born
her dead lover would "never have looked at" Maude, and
perhaps this provided motivation for Maude to destroy the
lovers' relationship.
• The betrayed sister asks who has informed her mother of her
‘shame’ and asks who has told her father of her ‘dear’. The
question is answered by the betrayed sister herself – it is her
sister Maude. The betrayed sister is angry, because Maude
was lurking, ‘to spy and peer’. Maude has evidently revealed
private matters to their parents.
4. • The poem opens with a rhetorical question, this opening makes it clear
that there is an implied audience for the poem – the speakers sister,
Maude, who is accused about the death of a lover.
• The third line in the poem makes use of a break in the centre (a
technique called 'caesura') to reflect the speaker's outrage and anger
that "Maude, my sister Maude" could have deliberately caused such a
tragedy.
• The repetition of "Maude" also adds to the strength of the narrator's
feelings.
• There are frequent religious references in the poem, reflecting
conventions within society at the time in which the poem was written, as
well as the seriousness of the events described. Maude has committed
such a terrible deed that, rather than going to heaven, her sister tells
her, "Bide you with death and sin". The narrator feels that Maude
deserves the eternal punishment of hell.
• Alliteration is used in the poem to express the feelings of the speaker.
• In the second stanza she describes the body of her dead lover using
several repetitions of the letter 'c', the hard sound echoing her outburst.
• In the final two lines there is alliteration of 's' sounds, mimicking the
hissing satisfaction that the speaker feels at the prospect of her sister
going to hell.
5. • Religious imagery “Heavens-gate”
• Sister Maude explores the darkness and jealousy and the
destructiveness of sisterhood. There is a suggestion that
Maude’s betrayal was unnatural or un-sisterly.
• This is a poem about opposites: good vs evil or in
religious context heaven vs hell. The additional two lines
at the end of the final stanza reveal the hatred the sister
feels for Maude’s behaviour, as well as the joy she feels
at the prospect of Maude in hell.
6. • Each stanza contains even lines that rhyme. This regular
pattern helps to reinforce the traditional source for the
poem because older poetry is often characterised by the
use of strict structural devices like rhyme, rhythm and
even line and stanza lengths.
• Of the five stanzas in the poem, four have four lines. The
fifth stanza offers an extra two lines in which there is a
mood change.
• The last stanza has six lines allowing Rossetti to
comment on the fate of her parents, lover, herself and her
sister.
• The rhyme scheme for the final stanza is ABCBDB. The
fact that the first and third lines have no rhyme gives
Rossetti more freedom in her choice of words.
7. Sister Maude is about not just sibling rivalry but a kind of
hatred and jealousy that rips the sisters apart from each
other. Maude has been led to the death of the boy the
speaker of the poem is in love with. While the speaker can
forgive her parents who did the right thing by forbidding
them to see each other, she cannot forgive Maude because
Maude's jealousy led her to tell her parents about the boy
that Maude was seeing.
The speaker was in love with a boy she shouldn't have
seen. Her sister was jealous and this somehow led to his
death because of the girls' parents.
