As mentioned in the article “Christina Rossetti: gender and power” by Simon Avery, Elizabeth Barrett Browning was an inspiration to Christina Rossetti. They were very different poets but both had common concern with the politics of gender and power in their poetry. Rossetti’s poem “No Thank You, John” appears different at first glance but is actually similar to Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poem “A Man’s Requirements.”
Without close reading, “No Thank You John” is a poem of a woman denying a man’s love and “A Man’s Requirements” is a poem of a woman trying to please her man. They appear to be opposites. However, their implications of gender and power are closely related. “No Thank You John” depicts a female using her right to say no to a man. It asserts her independence and equality in a relationship. The last two lines of the poem read “Here’s friendship for you if you like; but love, No, thank you, John.” Rossetti is saying that a woman doesn’t have to love a man just because he loves her. She can choose who to be with and what she wants in a relationship.
The last two lines of “A Man’s Requirements” portray a similar message. The poem reads, “I will love thee-half a year- as a man is able.” Given the fact that the author of “A Man’s Requirements” is female, it is possible to interpret the poem as saying a woman can love just as much and as well as a man. Depending on who you interpret the speaker as (a male or female), the poem could also be depicting what a woman wants from her man. The “man’s” requirements could also be the women’s requirements from her man. By Browning giving requirements for a man to have her love, she too is asserting her independence and equal part in the relationship.
Though one poem denies love and the other seeks love, they both emphasize a woman’s power over her relationships. Women are equal counterparts to their significant male.
These requirements are also very different in terms of what they mean for women as a gender. In Lady Audley’s Secret, all Lady Audley appreciates is a man with money. As if society is pointing out that all women want is money and give no value to the man himself. The fact that in these poems a women might be trying to determine what she wants in a man, other than his money, is a show that women are human too. Trying to appeal at equality and rationality, Christina Rossetti looks to show women being as sensible as possible.