The Convent Threshold

The speaker begins her dramatic monologue [see Literary Devices] with a shocking declaration that “[t]here’s blood between” herself and her audience, whom she calls her “love” (Line 1). By stating that blood connects them, the speaker seems to be describing her first sexual encounter. Yet the next line uses the image of blood differently to describe the judgment of familial relationships. Because there is “father’s blood” and “brother’s blood” (Line 2), the speaker believes there is “a bar” that she “cannot pass” (Line 3). This suggests that their families do not approve of their relationship.

The speaker wants to now make a new, better choice, as she chooses “the stairs that mount above” (Line 4). These stairs symbolize her choice to commit to her Christian faith as she takes “[s]tair after golden skyward stair” (Line 5). She hopes to reach the “city” (Line 6), a reference to heaven, and a “sea of glass” (Line 6). This phrase appears in Revelations 4:6, where God’s throne is in a sea of glass.

This journey is for the speaker to purify her soul. Her formerly “lily feet are soiled with mud” (Line 7). Because the color white is associated with purity, her muddy feet symbolize that the impurity of sin has physically marked her body. Rossetti connects the sin to sexuality through the use of assonance, which is the repetition of a vowel sound. The words “love” (Line 1), “blood” (Line 3), and “mud” (Lines 7, 8) connect the lover, sex, and sin together. The speaker acknowledges her complicated feelings about her actions when she describes how the mud “tells a tale / Of hope that was, of guilt that was, / Of love that shall not yet avail” (Lines 8-10). The speaker seems reluctant to deny the joy of her sinful experiences, even in the face of guilt and despair.

This sinful experience affects her physically and emotionally, as on her heart is “this self-same stain” (Line 12). She must “seek” (Line 13) heaven to “wash the spot, to burn the snare” (Line 14) that has trapped her soul. Her faith, like stairs, is “meant to lift us higher” (Line 15). She pleads with her lover to “[m]ount with me, mount the kindled stair” (Line 16) so that he, too, may be saved.

In an attempt to persuade her lover, the speaker compares how his “eyes look earthward” while she “look[s] up” (Line 17). When she looks up, she sees the celestial heaven as a distant city in a lush natural setting. The “righteous” (Line 21) might have suffered in life as martyrs who were “[r]acked, roasted, crushed, [and] wrenched limb from limb” (Line 27), but now they eat in “mansions” (Line 21) and “sleep at ease among their trees” (Line 22). When they wake, angels “sing a cadenced hymn” (Line 23). By “offscouring” (Line 27), or rejecting, worldly ways, these souls feast with the angels, recalling both the Eucharist and the Last Supper. The speaker’s vision of heaven is crafted to appeal to her lover, and Rossetti seeks to use this image to persuade her reader.

This persuasion continues in the next stanza, where the speaker describes earth. Despite her desire for her lover to choose to commit his life to God, the speaker cannot completely dismiss the pleasures of earth. She describes the people as “wine-flushed” (Line 31) with “Love-music warbling in their throat” (Line 36). This raucous celebration mirrors the mythological celebrations of the god Bacchus. The speaker dismisses this debauchery by pointing out its fleeting nature, as “[y]oung men and women come and go” (Line 37). Human life is short when compared to eternity, and thus, seeking the promise of heavenly pleasures outweighs the immediate pleasures of earth.

The speaker notices her lover’s hesitation, noting how he “linger[s]” (Line 38). Here, the speaker becomes more urgent as “time is short” (Line 38). She tells her listener to flee three times as danger is imminent. It is not “time for smile and sigh” (Line 43). Repeating the idea that “time is short” (Line 46), the speaker expresses her frustration that the speaker “stay[s]” (Line 46). This delay prompts the speaker to ask “Why will you die? why will you die?” (Line 50). For the speaker, this choice is life or death. Not repenting is the equivalent to choosing to die.

The speaker reminds the listener that her lover sinned “a pleasant sin” (Line 51) with her. The speaker’s inability to condemn her past actions reflects her conflict. She enjoyed sinning, even if she recognizes the danger now. Her feelings of guilt drive her to continue pressing her lover, insisting, “Repent with me, for I repent” (Line 52). She expresses her guilt by twice bemoaning, “Woe’s me” (Lines 53-54), as she must not continue on this “easy way” (Line 54) and must “unlearn” (Line 53) her sinful ways. She worries that she does not have much time, thrice asking “[h]ow long” (Lines 56, 57, 60) she has left, revealing her increasing panic and creating an urgent tone.

The speaker invokes the new uses for her body. Instead of seeking the “joy that went before, / For joy that dies, for love that dies” (Lines 63-64), her lips now “cry, Repent!” (Line 66). Rather than kiss her lover, she now speaks to save his soul. By using her body in this new way, she seeks to save both of their souls.

If she is unsuccessful, the speaker worries that she won’t “rest in Paradise” (Line 69) and “sit on steps of Heaven alone” (Line 70). The speaker’s inner conflict is apparent in her inability to imagine a future without her lover, even when she is in heaven. She appeals to the love he must feel for her by describing how she will “turn with yearning eyes” (Line 75) to look back “earthwards with a pitiful pang” (Line 76) if he does not repent. She insists that he must “save [her] from a pang in Heaven” (Line 77). The word “repent” is then quickly repeated, twice in Line 79 and then again in Lines 81 and 84.

After this pleading, the speaker describes one of her dreams. This dream describes Lucifer climbing to heaven, “shrieking: ‘Give me light!’” (Line 92). When he drinks from the sea because of a “thirst [that] could not slake” (Line 99), he becomes “drunk with knowledge” (Line 100). Despite this knowledge, he “left his throne to grovel” (Line 103) at the angels’ feet. The speaker interprets this dream to show that “Knowledge is strong, but love is sweet” (Line 106). The “progress” (Line 107) made possible by this knowledge reveals that “all is small / Save love, for love is all in all” (Lines 108-109). The speaker tries to use this dream to bolster her faith and quell her doubts.

Her next dream leaves her “drenched” (Line 112) in sweat, symbolizing a continued struggle. An ambiguous “you” (Line 113), perhaps her lover, comes to the speaker. The continued use of sexual imagery supports this reading, as the encounter takes place in her bed, her “pillow is damp,” and her “sheets are red” (Line 117). In the Bible, God often used dreams to communicate with those devoted to Him. The visitor’s question, “Do you dream of me?” (Line 114), then becomes God questioning the speaker on her faith. Imagining God as a lover was a common conceit of the time, most notably used by John Donne in “Holy Sonnet XIV.” The speaker uses the comparative word forms “warmer” (Line 119) and “kinder” (Line 121) to describe her unsuitability for her “playfellow” (Line 119) and “love” (Line 121). Unlike with her earthly lover, the speaker attempts to reject God as he deserves someone better. God worried over her, while the speaker “like lead / Crushed downwards through the sodden earth” (Lines 122-123). The speaker continued to choose sin over living a Christian life, which caused God to “reel[]” (Line 125), even though He was “not drunk with wine” (Line 125).

The speaker experiences religious turmoil as a result of this dream. She dreams, wakes, prays, and then repeats the cycle. As a result, her “silence spoke / Like thunder” (Lines 132-133). This oxymoron, the use of contradictory terms to create a surprising truth, reveals the power of the speaker’s prayer. Even though she is not speaking, this prayer has a monumental effect. This dream physically changes the speaker, as now her “face was pinched” and her “hair was gray” (Line 134). The power of this silence might also allude to the silence she would experience if she decided to enter a convent. Now, her blood is “frozen” on the threshold, the “sill” (Line 135), which reflects the “stifling” of her “struggle” (Line 136). In this moment, it appears the speaker’s internal conflict is resolved, as she decides to cross the metaphorical threshold between earthly pleasure and heavenly joy, doubt and faith.

After the expression of her own personal conversion story, the speaker seems to return her attention to her lover. If he wonders, “Where is the face I used to love?” (Line 138), the speaker will tell him it is no longer there but rather in heaven. The pair can “stand safe within the door” (Line 143) of heaven during the Second Coming if only her lover will “[l]ook up, rise up” (Line 145). Yet the ambiguity of “we” (Line 147) suggests that the speaker is not as sure of her faith as she wants the listener to be. This could be an inversion of the poem’s opening imagery. God is now an “old familiar love” (Line 148), with “familiar” describing his relationship to her as a part of her family, replacing the earthly family she describes in the first stanza. She could be marrying God, another common trope of the time, with God “lift[ing] the veil” (Line 144) she wears. However, the speaker could also be addressing her lover, promising a reunion in heaven where they will experience the familiar sexual love of their relationship, which marriage would sanctify.

The poem ends with the reaffirmation that love is more powerful than knowledge. Even if the speaker does not know for sure what will happen and might have doubts, her faith in her beliefs is grounded in a powerful, redemptive love.