I chose the word “poor” out of Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s poem, Jenny. At first I was struggling to decide what word to use. I felt like I needed to pick one out before going to the site to see what I was really doing. I decided to put the poem into a wordle and see what came up. A few words were larger, but ‘poor’ caught my attention most. Here is the link to that wordle: http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/5867430/Dante_Gabriel_Rossetti%27s_Jenny
After this, I went to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) to discover one useful definition of the word poor, which states, “of a person or people: having few, or no, material possessions; lacking the means to procure the comforts or necessities of life” and on. The entry then goes on to give more information than one person could ever possibly need on the word ‘poor’. There are many definitions accompanied by dates and authors and writings to further understanding. Knowing that “poor” doesn’t always refer to money, I continued down to another entry. Letter C of the OED’s definition states that “poor” is, “…usually with reference to a person’s soul, spirit, etc”.Now that we’ve established what poor means, what does it mean in the context of Jenny?
Jenny is a prostitute. Generally she would have gotten there from poverty. Her clothes and attitude would all be a mask for her poor self worth and the fact that she was a poor woman. But then there’s the other side of poor, and how it is to pity. Poor Jenny, poor flower, poor fair face. All these things are said within the poem. The word poor really does appear often, and seems overwhelmingly to intend to sympathize with Jenny and not to point out her lack of wealth.
Each time the word, poor, is mentioned in Jenny, it seems to be reflecting on something. “Poor beauty, so well worth a kiss!” It’s like he’s looking on an opportunity he could have had. “Poor flower left torn since yesterday” This line specifically gives the mood that he is longingly remembering the flower that yesterday was not torn.
(10.15.12 Hybrid Class– Olivia)
