“Shut Out” Introduction

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“Shut Out” Summary

“Shut Out” Themes

• 

  Loss and Grief

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Shut Out”

• Lines 1-4

  The door was shut. I looked between
  Its iron bars; and saw it lie,
  My garden, mine, beneath the sky,
  Pied with all flowers bedewed and green:

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 5-8

  From bough to bough the song-birds crossed,
  From flower to flower the moths and bees;
  With all its nests and stately trees
  It had been mine, and it was lost.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 9-12

  A shadowless spirit kept the gate,
  Blank and unchanging like the grave.
  I peering through said: "Let me have
  Some buds to cheer my outcast state."

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 13-20

  He answered not. "Or give me, then,
  But one small twig from shrub or tree;
  And bid my home remember me
  Until I come to it again."
  The spirit was silent; but he took
  Mortar and stone to build a wall;
  He left no loophole great or small
  Through which my straining eyes might look:

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 21-24

  So now I sit here quite alone
  Blinded with tears; nor grieve for that,
  For nought is left worth looking at
  Since my delightful land is gone.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 25-28

  A violet bed is budding near,
  Wherein a lark has made her nest:
  And good they are, but not the best;
  And dear they are, but not so dear.

  

  

  

  

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“Shut Out” Symbols

• 

  The Garden

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“Shut Out” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Imagery

  

  

  

  

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• Caesura

  

  

  

  

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• Repetition

  

  

  

  

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• Allusion

  

  

  

  

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• Assonance

  

  

  

  

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“Shut Out” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Pied
• Bedewed
• Bough
• Stately
• Peering
• But
• Bid
• Mortar
• Nought
• Wherein

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Shut Out”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“Shut Out” Speaker

“Shut Out” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “Shut Out”

More “Shut Out” Resources

• External Resources

  • Rossetti at the Victorian Web — Visit the Victorian Web to find a treasure trove of information on Rossetti.

  • A Brief Biography — Read the Poetry Foundation's short essay on Rossetti's life and work.

  • The Poem Aloud — Listen to a reading of the poem.

  • A Contemporary Response — Read critic William Sharp's admiring reminiscence of Rossetti, written not long after her death.

  • Portraits of Rossetti — See some images of Rossetti via London's National Portrait Gallery.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Christina Rossetti

  • A Birthday

  • An Apple Gathering

  • At Home

  • Babylon the Great

  • Cousin Kate

  • Echo

  • From the Antique

  • Good Friday

  • In an Artist's Studio

  • In the Round Tower at Jhansi, June 8, 1857 (Indian Mutiny)

  • Maude Clare

  • No, Thank You, John

  • Piteous my rhyme is

  • Remember

  • Sister Maude

  • Soeur Louise de la Miséricorde

  • Some ladies dress in muslin full and white

  • Song (When I am dead, my dearest)

  • Twice

  • Up-Hill

  • Winter: My Secret