Christina Rossetti
Christina Georgina Rossetti (December 5, 1830 – December 29, 1894) was a Victorian era English poet. Her family was artistically talented and the four siblings included brothers, Dante Gabriel Rossetti an artist, and the critic and writer William Michael Rossetti. The two brothers were among the founding members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
Although Rossetti's poetry was largely overlooked in the wake of modernism, feminists in recent years have taken a new look at her body of work. In her time, she was considered one of Britain's greatest living poets next to Alfred Lord Tennyson and Gerard Manley Hopkins, who was a great admirer of her work. Although she was sometimes considered a children's poet in her lifetime, many poems, particularly her later sonnets and devotionals reflect religious themes and sentiments.
Biography
Early Life
Rossetti was born in London and educated at home by her mother. Their father, Gabriele Rossetti, was an Italian poet and a political asylum seeker from Naples Italy; and their mother, Frances Polidori, was the sister of Lord Byron's friend and physician, John William Polidori. She also had a sister, Maria Francesca Rossetti who entered the convent.
In the 1840s her family was stricken with severe financial difficulties due to the deterioration of her father's physical and mental health. When she was 14, Rossetti suffered a nervous breakdown which was followed by bouts of depression and related illness. During this period she, her mother, and her sister became seriously interested in the Anglo-Catholic movement that was part of the Church of England. This religious devotion played a major role in Rossetti's personal life: in her late teens she became engaged to the painter James Collinson but this ended because he reverted to Catholicism; later she became involved with the linguist Charles Cayley but did not marry him, also for religious reasons.
Poetry
Rossetti began writing at an early age but she was 31 before her first work was published — Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862). The collection garnered much critical praise and, according to Jan Marsh, "Elizabeth Barrett Browning's death two months later led to Rossetti being hailed as her natural successor as 'female laureate'." The title poem from this book is Rossetti's best known work and, although at first glance it may seem merely to be a nursery rhyme about two sisters' misadventures with goblins, the poem is multi-layered, challenging, and complex. Critics have interpreted the piece in a variety of ways: seeing it as an allegory about temptation and salvation; a commentary on Victorian gender roles and female agency; and a work about erotic desire and social redemption. Some readers have noted its likeness to Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" given both poems' religious themes of temptation, sin and redemption by vicarious suffering.
Her Christmas poem "In the Bleak Midwinter" became widely known after her death when set as a Christmas carol by Gustav Holst and others. The easy musicality of this piece makes it accessible to present day readers. An excerpt reads:
- In the bleak mid-winter
- Frosty wind made moan,
- Earth stood hard as iron,
- Water like a stone;
- Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
- Snow on snow
- In the bleak mid winter
- Long ago
Later Life Sonnets
Rossetti continued to write and publish for the rest of her life although she focused primarily on devotional writing and children's poetry. She maintained a large circle of friends and for ten years volunteered at a home for prostitutes. She was ambivalent about women's suffrage but many scholars have identified feminist themes in her poetry. Furthermore, as Marsh notes, "she was opposed to war, slavery (in the American South), cruelty to animals (in the prevalent practice of animal experimentation), the exploitation of girls in under-age prostitution and all forms of military aggression."
End of Life and Legacy
In 1893 Rossetti developed cancer and Graves' disease then died the following year, due to the cancer, December 29, 1894; she is buried in Highgate Cemetery. In the early 20th century Rossetti's popularity faded as many respected Victorian writers' reputations suffered from Modernism's backlash. Rossetti remained largely unnoticed and unread until the 1970s when feminist scholars began to recover and comment on her work. In the last few decades Rossetti's writing has been rediscovered and she has regained admittance into the Victorian literary canon.
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Clifford, David and Roussillon, Laurence. Outsiders Looking In: The Rossettis Then and Now. London: Anthem, 2004. ISBN 1843311054
- Marsh, Jan. Introduction. Poems and Prose. By Christina Rossetti. London: Everyman, 1994. xvii – xxxiii.
- McGowran, Katharine. Selected Poems of Christina Rossetti. Wordsworth Poetry Library, 1995. ISBN 1853264296
Works
- Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862)
- The Prince's Progress and Other Poems (1856)
- Commonplace (1870)
- Sing-Song: a Nursery Rhyme Book (1872, 1893)[1]
- A Pageant and Other Poems (1881)
- Verses (1893)
External links
- Works by Christina Rossetti. Project Gutenberg, Retrieved April 4, 2007.
- "Christina Rossetti's Grave", Poet's Graves, Retrieved April 4, 2007.
- Vanessa Warne, The Literary Encyclopedia, May 17, 2004;"Christina Rossetti", The Literary Encyclopedia, Retrieved April 4, 2007.
- "Biography", Books and Writers, Retrieved April 4, 2007.
- "Christina Rossetti", Retrieved April 4, 2007.
- "Christina Rossetti", Poet Seers, Retrieved April 4, 2007.
- "Christina Rossetti", The Victorian Web, Retrieved April 4, 2007.
- "Christina Georgina Rossetti (133 Poems)", Poetry Archive, Retrieved April 4, 2007.
- "Echo", Reely's Poetry Pages, Retrieved April 4, 2007.
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