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The Full Text of “Up-Hill”
1Does the road wind up-hill all the way?
2 Yes, to the very end.
3Will the day's journey take the whole long day?
4 From morn to night, my friend.
5But is there for the night a resting-place?
6 A roof for when the slow dark hours begin.
7May not the darkness hide it from my face?
8 You cannot miss that inn.
9Shall I meet other wayfarers at night?
10 Those who have gone before.
11Then must I knock, or call when just in sight?
12 They will not keep you standing at that door.
13Shall I find comfort, travel-sore and weak?
14 Of labour you shall find the sum.
15Will there be beds for me and all who seek?
16 Yea, beds for all who come.
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“Up-Hill” Introduction
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"Up-Hill" is the final poem in Christina Rossetti's classic 1862 collection Goblin Market and Other Poems. Structured as a question-and-answer dialogue, it presents a simple, yet haunting allegory comparing life to a "journey" and death to a "resting-place" after that journey. The poem warns that death is inevitable and universal, but doesn't explicitly guarantee any reward beyond the grave—apart from the simple "comfort" of rest itself. Yet it can also be read in consoling terms, as a suggestion that heaven awaits like a welcoming "inn" for weary souls.
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“Up-Hill” Summary
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Is all of life an uphill struggle? Yes, right until the end. Will the journey (of life) last the entire day? Yes, my friend: all the way from morning till evening.
Will there be a place to stop and rest at night after the journey? Yes, there will be lodging when those long, dark hours start. Is it possible I'll overlook this lodging in the darkness? No, you can't miss it.
Will I encounter other travelers during the night? Yes, all those who have journeyed on this road before you. So do I need to knock on the door, or call for entry when I see the place? They won't keep you waiting there before they let you in.
Will I find relief in this lodging when I'm tired and aching from travel? You'll find all that your hard work has earned you. Will there be enough beds for me and everyone who seeks the place? Yes, enough for everyone who makes it.
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“Up-Hill” Themes
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The Difficult Journey of Life
Christina Rossetti's "Up-Hill" is an allegory about the "journey" from life to death, explained through a series of questions and answers. As the title suggests, the poem depicts life's journey as an uphill struggle. Completing the climb takes "the whole long day," and in the end, the only "resting-place" is an "inn," which might represent death in general or heaven in particular. The poem is a stoic, realistic reminder that life is tiring and "comfort" hard to come by. But given the poet’s Christian faith, it can also be read as suggesting that people aren’t entirely alone—there are other "wayfarers" along life's journey—and that the end of the road offers some solace in the form of heavenly rest.
The poem's allegory or extended metaphor suggests that life is inherently difficult. The poem makes this point through a series of questions and answers. The questioner appears to be an average person and the answerer a sage or omniscient spirit (such as God, the universe, or death itself). The answerer addresses the questioner, ambiguously, as "my friend" (a phrase that might be read as sincere or ironic). The answerer confirms the questioner's suspicion that "the road"—meaning the road of life—goes "up-hill all the way." In other words, life is a constant series of trials. And life's journey, as even the questions make clear, is a "long" one, which leaves people "travel-sore and weak" and seeking any "resting-place" they can find. The only true "resting-place" this journey affords is the final one: death. The answerer promises the questioner that "You cannot miss that inn," metaphorically suggesting that the grave is where all the living end up. Indeed, the grave holds "beds for all who come."
Still, the poem offers hints of possible consolation for "wayfarers" along life's road. For example, "You cannot miss that inn" might also mean that heaven is where all the virtuous end up. Once they're on the difficult road to heavenly redemption, they're guaranteed that comforting rest eventually; no "darkness" (of pain, sorrow, etc.) can "hide it from [their] face[s]." The poem's ending can also be read in this gentler light: perhaps it's heaven, not the grave, that holds "beds for all who come." In this light, even the answerer's phrase "my friend" might hold some reassurance. It might suggest that, during life's "Up-Hill" battle, people are not completely fending for themselves. They have a "friend" in God, perhaps, or in human companions willing to guide and support them along the way.
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Death's Inevitability and Restfulness
"Up-Hill" offers an ambiguous commentary on death and the afterlife. The poem stresses that death is inevitable, but its account of what comes afterward (or doesn't) can be read as either bleak or consoling. For example, the poem presents death as the "sum" of all "labour" (i.e., what all our work comes to), which might or might not imply a heavenly reward. Likewise, its promise that life leads to an "inn" with "beds for all who come" might merely mean that we'll all die—or it might hold out the prospect of a welcoming afterlife. That is, the "inn" might be death alone, or it might be heaven. Either way, the poem portrays death as at least some form of respite from the endless trials of life.
Without ever mentioning death explicitly, the speaker stresses that everyone must die—and doesn't explicitly promise any life after death. The poem's allegory imagines death as an inn that travelers "canot miss" at the end of the road. In other words, all people must die, and go to a grave that holds "beds for all who come." But even as it urges readers to reconcile themselves to their own suffering and mortality, it doesn't guarantee any kind of resurrection or redemption after life's "journey" is done. It can be read as philosophically stoic and realistic, or even pessimistic. Indeed, when the questioner asks if they will "find comfort" in death, the answerer can say only that death is the "sum" of all "labour." In other words, it's what all our work comes to—which may be nothing at all. The answerer never openly promises any kind of heaven or happy afterlife.
Still, the poem also allows for a more optimistic reading: a view of death that includes solace and companionship beyond the grave. The questioner asks whether they'll "meet other wayfarers" at death's "inn," and the answerer confirms that they'll meet "Those who have gone before." The presence of others adds to the idea that death isn’t necessarily a terrible place to end up. Indeed, it might be paradise. Asked whether travelers must "knock" at the inn's door, the answerer promises, "They will not keep you standing at that door." This might imply quick admission into heaven, as in Jesus's famous promise in the Gospels: " Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." Meanwhile, the revelation that death is the "sum" of all "labour" could have a positive spin, too. If heaven waits for virtuous souls after the grave, it's the cumulative reward for all life's work. It's the "comfort" travelers seek along life's road.
In short, Rossetti—a Christian believer—might be writing a poem of faith, not doubt. Ultimately, readers can interpret the poem's tone as reassuring or foreboding according to their own spiritual inclinations. In any event, the poem makes clear not only that death is certain but that it guarantees rest to weary souls.
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Up-Hill”
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Lines 1-4
Does the road wind up-hill all the way?
Yes, to the very end.
Will the day's journey take the whole long day?
From morn to night, my friend.The opening stanza introduces the poem's two speakers, structure, and allegorical subject.
The speakers are never named; this guide will call them the "questioner" and the "answerer." They speak at regular intervals, with each question and answer occupying a single end-stopped line. The questions are typically a few syllables longer than the answers, so the answers sound blunt and direct, perhaps even ominous, by comparison.
On the surface, the speakers are discussing a "road" and a "journey." But their language is so generalized (for example, they don't mention any specific place names) that it starts to sound figurative. In fact, it sets up an allegory or extended metaphor for the journey of life:
- The "road" in line 1 is the road of life, which takes "the whole long day" to travel. That is, it spans the whole distance from birth to death (or youth to old age), the metaphorical "morn[ing]" and "night" of life.
- And it "wind[s] up-hill all the way": in other words, life is always an uphill struggle, with many twists and turns en route. There's never a straightforward, downhill stretch—a time in one's life when one can just relax and coast.
At the end of the stanza, the answerer calls the questioner "my friend." This is the poem's only hint at the relationship between the two—and of course, "my friend" doesn't have to be read literally. The answerer is simply an individual with far more knowledge of life and death than the questioner. Perhaps this is a god talking to a mortal, a ghost to a living person, or an elder sage to someone starting out on life's journey. Perhaps they mean "my friend" literally, perhaps with a touch of condescension or irony. (In general, it's possible to interpret the poem as very comforting, totally comfortless, or anywhere in between—much depends on the reader's own beliefs and attitudes.)
This opening stanza also establishes the poem's basic form: quatrains (four-line stanzas) that rhyme on alternating lines (ABAB) and follow a loose accentual meter. Specifically, the stanzas tend to alternate between four or five and three stressed syllables per line, somewhat like a traditional ballad. But this rhythm is rough and variable. Often the lines fall into an iambic (da-DUM) pattern, but not always; sometimes a line that's supposed to have three stressed syllables has at least four. The poem combines formal roughness with formal predictability, in a way that seems to fit the image of a hard road to a predictable destination.
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Lines 5-8
But is there for the night a resting-place?
A roof for when the slow dark hours begin.
May not the darkness hide it from my face?
You cannot miss that inn.
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Lines 9-12
Shall I meet other wayfarers at night?
Those who have gone before.
Then must I knock, or call when just in sight?
They will not keep you standing at that door. -
Lines 13-16
Shall I find comfort, travel-sore and weak?
Of labour you shall find the sum.
Will there be beds for me and all who seek?
Yea, beds for all who come.
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“Up-Hill” Symbols
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The Road
The "road" in the poem symbolizes life itself: the path or journey from birth to death. When the questioner asks, "Does the road wind up-hill all the way?" they're really asking, "Is all of life an uphill struggle?" Or, "Is life always this hard?"
The other party in the dialogue answers "Yes": life's road remains an uphill climb "to the very end." There's never a chance to simply coast along. And traveling this road takes "the whole long day," from "morn to night": that is, from the dawn of youth to the darkness of old age and death. The journey of life feels "long" and tires out the traveler. At the end of the road waits an "inn," which might represent the grave, heaven, or both (see the next Symbols entry for more).
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The Inn
The "inn" at the end of the "road" is a slightly ambiguous symbol. It clearly represents a "resting-place" (line 5) at the end of life, but it's a little unclear whether that means death or something after death.
Christina Rossetti was a devout Anglo-Catholic, so it's quite possible that the inn represents heaven. In this case, it would be a warm and hospitable place, full of fellow "wayfarers" (other virtuous souls) and "beds for all who come" (i.e., room for everyone who makes it to heaven's gate). As the "sum" of all "labour" (line 14), it would offer reward and "comfort" after all of life's hardships. In fact, some of the poem's quasi-biblical language seems to support this reading: for example, lines 11-12 ("Then must I knock," etc.) might allude to Jesus's saying "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you" (from the Gospel of Matthew).
But there's also a darker, more skeptical way to interpret the inn: it might simply represent the grave. A graveyard, too, holds "beds for all who come" (that is, plots for all who are brought there). Likewise, the claim that the inn offers "the sum" of all "labour" might be sobering, not comforting. It might mean that, when we die, all our work and struggle come to nothing—or, as another famous poem puts it, "The paths of glory lead but to the grave."
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“Up-Hill” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Extended Metaphor
"Up-Hill" could be described as one long extended metaphor. Similarly, it could be described as an allegory, meaning that it conveys a hidden meaning via elaborate metaphor and symbolism.
Broadly, the poem is a metaphor for life and death, although it never mentions either of those words explicitly. It compares life to a "road" that runs "up-hill all the way" and death to an "inn" or "resting-place" at the end of the road. In other words, it suggests that life is always exhausting and that only death provides some relief from the exhaustion. Then again, death is unavoidable, like an inn the traveler "cannot miss."
Whether death's "inn" represents the afterlife (heaven, in Christian terms) or simply the grave is left to the reader to decide. The inn shelters other "wayfarers," meaning either fellow souls in heaven or fellow bodies in the graveyard. It offers "beds for all who come," perhaps meaning that heaven admits everyone who arrives at its gates—or that the graveyard admits everyone who's carried to its grounds. To a religious believer, the poem might seem consoling; to a religious skeptic, sobering. In that way, Rossetti's extended metaphor remains a little ambiguous.
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End-Stopped Line
Unlock all 174 words of this analysis of End-Stopped Line in “Up-Hill,” and get the poetic device analyses for every poem we cover.
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Caesura
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Dialogue
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“Up-Hill” 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.
- Morn
- Wayfarers
- Travel-sore
- Sum
Morn-
Old-fashioned synonym for "morning."
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Up-Hill”
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Form
The poem contains four quatrains (four-line stanzas), all of which are part of a Q&A dialogue between unnamed speakers. There are two questions and two answers per quatrain. The questioner speaks in the first and third lines of each quatrain, the answerer in the second and fourth. (So all questions are answered, and the answerer—who speaks indirectly but authoritatively about life and death—always gets the last word.)
This highly regular structure is matched by a strict rhyme scheme (ABAB CDCD, etc.). At the same time, the poem uses a rough accentual meter, generally (but not always) alternating four and three stressed syllables per line. This mix of roughness and regularity might suit the poem's overall message: life is a rough journey with a predictable ending!
Overall, the poem's form could be considered a variation on the ballad. The ballad is a centuries-old popular form that employs rhymed quatrains and often features narratives and characters (including, sometimes, Q&A dialogues, as in the famous example of "Lord Randall").
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Meter
The poem's meter is open to interpretation. It's possible to define it as accentual—that is, the number of accented (stressed) syllables per line follows a fairly consistent pattern, whereas the total number of syllables per line doesn't. In general, the first and third lines of each quatrain contain four or five stressed syllables, whereas the second and fourth lines contain three. This helps to differentiate between the poem's two speakers: the questions are longer than the answers, which as a result, perhaps feel firmer and more direct.
Listen to the first stanza, for example:
Does the road | wind up- | hill all | the way?
Yes, to | the ve- | ry end.
Will the | day's jour- | ney take | the whole | long day?
From morn | to night, | my friend.Lines 1 and 3 have a different syllable count and slightly different rhythm; lines 2 and 4 follow different rhythms as well. But the number of stressed syllables (four and three in alternation) remains mostly consistent. (Note that it's also possible to read "wind up-" as a spondee.)
As readers can see here, many (though not all) of the poem's feet are iambs: poetic units with two syllables arranged in an unstressed-stressed syllable pattern. Indeed, the first and third lines of each stanza often fall into rough iambic pentameter (five iambs) while the second and third fall into iambic trimeter (three iambs).
In fact, it's possible to read the second stanza as consistently iambic (adhering to a da-DUM, da-DUM rhythm):
But is | there for | the night | a rest- | ing-place?
A roof | for when | the slow | dark hours | begin.
May not | the dark- | ness hide | it from | my face?
You can- | not miss | that inn.While readers can squeeze the lines into a regular iambic beat, however, it may sound somewhat forced when read aloud. Read more naturally, the stanza's scansion looks more like this:
But is | there for | the night | a rest- | ing-place?
A roof | for when | the slow | dark hours | begin.
May not | the dark- | ness hide | it from | my face?
You can- | not miss | that inn.In sum, the overarching pattern in this case might be iambic or accentual. In general, there are grounds for different rhythmic interpretations over the course of the poem (meter is not an exact science!). This combination of rhythmic roughness and ambiguity with the overall formal predictability might reflect the poem's view of life as a rough, yet predictable road.
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Rhyme Scheme
The poem's rhyme scheme runs ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH. In other words, the first and third lines of each quatrain rhyme, as do the second and fourth lines.
This scheme reinforces the dialogue structure that carries across each stanza. The first and third lines of each quatrain are spoken by one voice (the questioner), while the second and fourth are spoken by another (the answerer). Thus, the rhymes help mark the difference between the two voices. They also underscore the poem's extremely consistent rhythm, which comes of each line being a self-contained, end-stopped sentence.
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“Up-Hill” Speaker
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The poem has two speakers, since it takes the form of a dialogue. The two speak in alternating lines, with one posing questions and the other offering answers. Neither speaker is named or identified in any way. That said, one clearly has more authority and knowledge than the other. The questioner expresses pretty common anxieties about life's difficulties; the answerer, meanwhile, comes across as firm and omniscient in their responses. Perhaps, then, the first speaker is addressing God, the universe, or even a manifestation of death itself.
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“Up-Hill” Setting
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"Up-Hill" describes numerous features of what sounds like a physical setting. It mentions a "road" that "wind[s] up-hill all the way," an "inn" at the end of the road, "wayfarers" staying in the inn, and "beds for all who come" to the inn.
Because the poem is an allegory, however, the reader is meant to understand all these details as symbolic. The uphill "road" represents the difficult journey of life, while the "inn" is either heaven or plain old death, which waits to receive all human bodies/souls at the end of that journey. (That the inn has beds "for all who come" helps give away the symbolism: no earthly hotel has endless vacancies, but the grave, or heaven, does!)
Similarly, the "wayfarers," who "have gone before" along the same road, represent everyone who's died and/or gone to heaven in the past. Their readiness to open the "door" to the traveler suggests that death is inevitable, and (in a Christian reading) might also allude to one of Jesus's promises in the Gospel of Matthew: "Seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." (In the biblical context, "it" means the kingdom of heaven.)
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Literary and Historical Context of “Up-Hill”
Literary Context
Christina Rossetti (1830-1894) was one of the most important poets of the Victorian era. A popular writer of strange and fantastical poems, Rossetti contributed to a growing 19th-century vogue for fairy tales and old romances. This poem first appeared in her 1862 collection Goblin Market and Other Poems, the title poem of which tells the tale of two sisters' sinister adventures in fairyland.
Rossetti was associated with the Pre-Raphaelites, an artistic movement dedicated to recapturing the beauty of a (much-mythologized and romanticized) Middle Ages. Her brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti, a founder of the group known as the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, was also an accomplished painter and poet.
Many of Rossetti's poems focus on mortality, religious devotion, and the complexities of women’s lives in a conservative Victorian society. She has often been compared to her predecessor Elizabeth Barrett Browning, whose work shares some similarities with Rossetti's. However, Rossetti’s work is generally considered more plainspoken and less openly political in its language and ideas. Her other influences include Dante and Petrarch (her father’s ties to Italy meant that she was well-schooled in Italian forms such as the Petrarchan sonnet), the Bible, and fairy tales and folklore. Her poetry, including "Up-Hill," often reflects her Anglo-Catholic faith, though in unorthodox and complex ways.
Historical Context
Christina Rossetti lived in a world defined by drastic, revolutionary change and by the conservative backlash that followed.
England reinvented itself under Queen Victoria, cementing its status as the center of the world's most powerful empire. Even as this period ushered in a great deal of innovation and expansion (often through colonial violence), it saw a return to traditional family values. English women of the "Victorian age" were expected to conform to strict expectations regarding everything from education to sexuality and marriage. Christian piety was the norm in public life (and in literature, too; there are veiled biblical allusions in the third and fourth stanzas of "Up-Hill," for example).
In spite of—or, perhaps, in reaction to—these restrictive norms, female writers such as Rossetti began to write about (and receive popular and critical recognition for) their own lives, affirming the significance of women’s experiences. Indeed, alongside writers like Elizabeth Barrett Browning and George Eliot, Rossetti was part of a 19th-century groundswell of women's voices. ("George Eliot" was the masculine pen name of one Mary Ann Evans, a mask that helped open the difficult door to publication in a world that mostly wanted women to keep quiet.) Widely respected in her own day, Rossetti remains one of the most popular and critically admired poets of her period.
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More “Up-Hill” Resources
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External Resources
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The Poem Aloud — Actress Helen Mirren reads "Up-Hill."
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The Poet's Life and Work — Read the Poetry Foundation's biography of Christina Rossetti.
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More About the Poet — An extensive summary of Rossetti's life and career, via the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
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The Rossetti Siblings — Learn about Christina Rossetti's working relationship with her brother, artist and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti, along with other sibling partnerships and rivalries in literature.
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Rossetti, Gender, and Power — A British Library feature on Rossetti and male-female power dynamics in Victorian England.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Christina Rossetti
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