The poem I chose is “Rosa Rosarum” By Agnes Mary Frances Robinson. It’s known that she had lesbian relationships, most notably with Vernon Lee (Violet Piaget). Although she marries a man, she was known as a lesbian. Without this context, the poem would not overtly read as a poem about lesbian relationships. There is however a theme of shame. In the poem she is talking about keeping her relationship a secret. It can be seen in the second stanza : “Give me the secret of thy life to lay / Asleep within mine own” (5-6). Here the speaker is asking her lover to to keep their relationship secret together because of the society they live in. Although it’s not explicitly said that the poem is aimed at a woman, the only reason to keep a relationship a secret would be if it was a lesbian relationship.

Their relationship also fits under the theme of requited love, since she is describing having to separate from her lover. She obviously will miss her lover and wants to have something form her to remember her by : “Cast thou a rose ; give me a rose to keep, / My friend, before we part” (19-20). It seems like they do not actually break up at the end of the poem, but that they instead keep some physical distance between themselves. While staying apart they try not to let it divide them : “So that the leagues which keep our lives apart / May not our souls divide” (3-4). While I knew that same-sex couples at that time, and even know, have to hide their relationships, I didn’t think I realized how prevalent it could be in poetry. If I had not known that Robinson was a Queer poet, I wouldn’t have realized that this poem could fit the theme of queerness. However, seeing how the poem describes having to hide a relationship shows what it was like to be queer at that time. Perhaps her not being explicit by referring to her “friend” as a she was a way to hide herself in literature.