1. Winter: My Secret
Nayma, LS, Harvinder

2. IMAGERY
Winter - The poem presents winter as a dangerous season. To avoid the biting winds and the draughts that cannot be excluded, the speaker must wrap herself securely in a ‘shawl, / A veil, a cloak' (lines 11-12). Otherwise, she suggests that the snow and the wind have the potential to envelop and freeze the life out of her.
The speaker suggests that anyone who ‘ever shows / His nose to Russian snows' (lines 18-19) opens himself up to being ‘pecked at' by the wind and the cold rendering him numb and frozen. Russia is a country renowned for its cold winters.

3. Spring - The speaker describes spring as ‘an expansive time' (line 23) in view of the expansion and abundance of natural phenomena at this time. With flowers blossoming, fruit ripening and animals giving birth, spring is considered as a period of new life. However, the speaker voices her distrust in the season. Recognising the transient and fleeting nature of spring, she realises that it can't be relied upon:

4. Summer - The speaker describes summer as a ‘languid' time
When drowsy birds sing less and less, And golden fruit is ripening to excess. (28-30)
In view of the tiredness that the summer weather gives rise to, she suggests that the season is the one in which her secret is most likely to be revealed. Without the need for ‘a veil, a cloak and other wraps' (line 12), she is not protected as she might be and therefore, stands in danger of revealing more than previously.
Throughout her poetry, Rossetti associates the singing of birds with divine inspiration and joy. With this in mind, the diminishment of the bird songs in Winter: My Secret can be associated with the lack of divine inspiration, natural activity and pure expression.

5. Themes
Identity
The use of the personal pronouns ‘my' and ‘I' throughout the poem point to the speaker's sense of her individual identity. Holding a secret in the face of persistent enquiry implies a strong sense of self for the person who does so. The first line both begins and ends with the pronoun ‘I'. This suggests that the speaker encloses her secret within her own individual identity and that nothing can break through and disturb the concealed interior.
Nonsense
The speaker suggests that she may be only teasing the listener when she declares that her secret may be ‘just my fun'. Nonsense was the poem's title in the manuscript version and hints at the playfulness of the speaker's tone.
The revelation that there may in fact be ‘no secret after all' (line 8) suggests that the poem is more about the act of concealment and the practice of secrecy than it is about a particular secret itself.
Curiosity
Reprimanding the reader for being ‘too curious' (line 4), the speaker emphasises that the secret is hers to give away or to conceal as she wishes. She suggests that her reticence to share her secret is a direct result of the reader's curiosity.
In Goblin Market, Rossetti highlights the dangers of curiosity when she suggests that it was Laura's own curiosity that caused her downfall. In her later book of devotional prose, The Face of the Deep, Rossetti warns her readers against curiosity, which she perceives as a sin and compares to obedience. Referring to Eve's decision to eat the fruit in the Garden of Eden, she highlights the dangers of approaching God with ‘idle curiosity' instead of acceptance and obedience (p. 531).

6. Copied and pasted context of Russian WINTER
More on Russian winters: The whole of northern Russia is within the Arctic Circle and parts of the year experience Arctic temperatures. The harsh Russian winters have helped to defeat invaders such as Napoleon. In 1812, he sent his armies into Russia in an attempt to invade. Many died because of the freezing conditions. As a result, he had to withdraw his troops from the country.

7. CRITICS FEMINIST INTERPRETATION:
Simon Avery, : “Behind this playfulness, however, is an intriguing study in the manipulation of power. For the speaker denies entry to the reader and instead metaphorically wraps herself in protective clothing which will keep others out. Her privacy is not to be intruded upon and she consequently leaves the reader guessing at her knowledge….This therefore becomes an intriguing poem about what is not said, where the speaker skillfully withholds power and control. The game is hers and she will only ‘tell’ when and if she chooses.
In poems such as these, then, Rossetti’s speakers demonstrate both an awareness of, and resistance to, those social and political expectations which define acceptable roles for women and which potentially leave them powerless. While poems such as ‘From the Antique’ and ‘In an Artist’s Studio’ emphasise the ways in which women might be trapped by convention, other poems such as ‘Maude Clare’, ‘No, Thank You, John’, and ‘Winter: My Secret’ reveal a much more complex negotiation of power which enables the women to achieve agency, equality and self-sufficiency. As such, Rossetti’s poems make an intriguing contribution to those crucial debates around the Woman Question and gender relations which were central to the second half of the nineteenth century and beyond.
TAKE THE IMPORTANT PARTS FROM IT