Poetry Analysis: Promises Like Pie Crust, by Christine Rosetti

The Perfect Pie Crust

Christina Georgina Rossetti ( 1830-1984), a poetess born in London, England , leaves a legacy of romantic, devotional and children's poetry. (1)

Take a moment to read this piece of poetry, taking into consideration the figurative language and the metaphor of the perfect pie crust inevitably crumbling, as one bites into it.

Promises Like Pie-Crust: Christina Georgina Rossetti

Promise me no promises,
So will I not promise you:
Keep we both our liberties,
Never false and never true:
Let us hold the die uncast,
Free to come, as free to go:
For I cannot know your past,
And of mine, what can you know?

You, so warm, may once have been
Warmer towards another one:
I, so cold, may once have seen
Sunlight, once have felt the sun:
Who shall show us if it was
Thus indeed in time of old?
Fades the image from the glass,
And the fortune is not told.

If you promised, you might grieve
For lost liberty again:
If I promised, I believe
I should fret to break the chain.
Let us be the friends we were,
Nothing more, but nothing less:
Many thrive on frugal fare
Who would perish of excess. (2)

As I read through this poetry, I am reminded of the words of one of my professors. He said that a person can make promises, but promises, by their very nature, are destined to be broken.

If one considers the origin of the word promise, it dates back to the fifteenth century and is used many times, with respect to betrothal. There is a degree of obligation that is encompassed in the word promise, as it is a declaration that one will do or refrain from doing something that is specified. It also gives the person to whom the promise is made a right to claim that which has been promised. It can be considered as legally binding in some contexts. (3)

But, if one does not make promises, then one cannot break those promises either.

In some ways, this is a melancholic poem and yet in its own way, it is romantic, but romantic in a way that maintains the relationship on the level of friends, rather than lovers. True lovers invariably are friends, first.

Somehow, lovers not making promises that have to be kept to the significant other, demonstrate a higher or more elevated kind of love, than lovers who merely make and break their promises.

Freedom is a wonderful aspect of love, where there are no promises made and thus, no promises broken. 

The true lover sets his or her lover free.

There is an old saying.

"Set a bird free; if it comes back to you, it is yours. If it does not come back, it never was."

Obviously, the poetess is requesting the same non-promise, from the person who she loves dearly. There is no obligation with respect to disclosure of the other and no inquiry into the possibility of previous lovers.

Sometimes, just allowing love to be love and lovers to be lovers is sufficient. While it does seem like frugal fare on another plane of thought, perhaps the agony of unfulfilled and broken promises is far greater.

There are times when people who love one another sincerely, know that for whatever reason, that love has to and will remain unrequited. There can be a certain amount of pain in this kind of a relationship, but perhaps the reality of a higher plane of love numbs that pain.

It is sufficient that "I love you and you love me."

Promises, from a divine perspective, are perfect promises that can and will be kept. After all, in a heavenly realm, everything is perfect. On a human plane of existence, promises have an element of imperfection.

Even though it is possible to keep some promises, it is more than likely that her awareness of the reality of love, on the human plane of existence, rather than on the divine plane of existence, has led Christian Georgina Rossetti to write this wonderful piece of poetry.

The perfect pie-crust crumbles.

(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christina_Rossetti

(2) http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/crossetti/bl-crossetti-promise.htm

(3) Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, Inc., Springfield MA, 1983