Woodspurge (symbol)
Literary critics have come up with many possibilities for what the woodspurge might symbolize in Rossetti's poem. Some believe that the woodspurge is not a symbol for anything at all; because the speaker cannot find meaning in the face of his "perfect grief," he must observe the woodspurge as an ordinary object. In this reading, the speaker latches on to the woodspurge because of its tangible ordinariness—the object itself is arbitrary, and it could have been anything else that caught the speaker's attention (such as a different plant, a windowpane, a random object, etc).
Despite this, there are still several readings of "The Woodspurge" that sense that there is a symbolic element in the speaker's description of the plant. A more controversial reading of the plant's symbolism suggests that it stands for Christianity. St. Patrick described the Holy Trinity using a three-leaf clover: like the clover, the Holy Trinity is one being that is made up of three separate parts. The same might be said of the woodspurge, and the speaker seems to be caught off guard by this fact. The only instance of repetition in the poem is a description of the woodspurge's floral quality: "the woodspurge flower'd, three cups in one" (14), and "the woodspurge has a cup in three" (16).
Another possible aspect of the woodspurge's symbolism is the fact that the plant was used for medicinal purposes in the 19th century. It was used for "purging" the body of ailments. As scholar Catherine Maxwell argues, the fact that the woodspurge is a plant that "purges" works on two levels in the poem: "to begin with, in the basic narrative of the lyric, the apparently simple material fact of the plant is the end product of the speaker's grief and is a sign of purged vision." In other words, the woodspurge indicates a "purging" of the speaker's grief as he fixates on a seemingly meaningless plant. The plant's medicinal qualities become symbolic as the speaker is able to focus on something other than his overwhelming grief.
On the other hand, Stanley M. Holberg argues in "Rossetti and the Trance" that the woodspurge is a symbol for the speaker's emotional intensity while he spends the poem in a dream-like state. Holberg emphasizes his point: "the woodspurge as the object of a preternaturally intense awareness becomes a symbol of that emotional intensity." Because Holberg believes that the speaker in this poem is in a "mindless" state, the woodspurge—as a plant, thus a non-sentient being—acts of a kind of reminder of the strange, vacant state the speaker is in.
Finally, Wendell V. Harris suggests that Rossetti himself is the speaker in his essay "A Reading of Rossetti's Lyrics." Harris argues that the woodspurge is an indication of Rossetti's own poetic practice: "In the woodspurge Rossetti rediscovers the mystery of the world and the fact that he carries the image of the flower around with him rather than some symbolic or intellectual content like that just abstracted from it is his guarantee (within the poem's implied drama) that he will never lack sources of inspiration." Thus, the woodspurge might be a symbol for Rossetti's own poetic genius, as he demonstrates to his reader that he can find meaning in even the most mundane details, such as a woodspurge.
Wind (allegory)
The scene in the first stanza, in which the wind dictates the speaker's movements and the speaker mindlessly follows, could be read as an allegory for the speaker's complete lack of power and agency in the face of his grief. Grief hits individuals whether they like or not—they often have very little choice in the matter. The image of the speaker being tossed and turned in the wind speaks to this fundamental problem. He is powerless to avoid the "perfect grief" that afflicts him (13).
