The poem is typical of C. Rossetti's religious poetry and the more tight-laced aspects of the Victorian period. Life is recognized as a painful task (it's up-hill all the way), yet it is the duty of mankind to undertake the trip in hopes of a peaceful rest in heaven as a reward. This message had social ramifications in the mid-late Victorian period, when many were sacrificed to the unceasing demands of growing capitalist production and imperialism. The starving seamstress ought not complain, but travel on. Pain and suffering are to be expected, not resisted; one benefits from them in the end.