She emphasises this by talking about freedom and avoiding a situation where one or the other would have to lie to another and they be cast in a permanent state of affairs or behaviour.

Our poetic voice states that she neither wants nor wants to give promises to the person being addressed – presumably this is a lover and the promise she is referring to is marriage and commitment to each other. A promise is meant to be a solid statement that is unbreakable or unmovable and pastry is made to be smashed by a hungry, fork wielding maniac. Pastry and piecrust crumble (although my mum would argue against this with a good pastry) and if you compare them to a promise, it is not ideal. The title may remind you of some lyrics from an Ed Sheeran song (if not listen here and see if you can spot the line I’m on about) and the sentiment is the same. Unusually for Rossetti it doesn’t appear in the poem itself. I’d associate this with gender as it is quite a strong and bold image of a woman calling the shots in the patriarchal Victorian society.Īlso, I think there is a clear connection with the struggle between faith and earthly temptation if you choose to interpret the poem as being focused on avoiding heartbreak rather than just being an expression of disinterest. Please help if you have any other details. If the date is correct then this would place the composition between Rossetti’s second and third rejected proposal and could be her positioning herself into accepting that friendship was a more suitable type of relationship for her to pursue. I am quite prepared and hoping to be corrected on this. I can’t find any information about where this was first published as it doesn’t seem to have been published in any of her collections other than the posthumously published Poetic Works of Christina Rossetti, which notes that it was composed in 1861, just before Goblin Market and Other Poems was published (1862).

Depending upon the way you read it, you could see this as the paranoid fear of heartbreak from our poetic voice or the poetic voice communicating that she is not satisfied with the relationship and doesn’t want to commit.Ĭlick through the tabs below to explore my analysis of different aspects of the poem.Ĭompletely forgot to fill this in before publishing – how unprofessional! I hope you can forgive me. Quite a sad poem where our poetic voice puts a stop to the dreams of a potential lover or husband by refusing to make a promise she fears could be broken either by herself or him.

Promise me no promises