Christina Georgina Rossetti (5 December 1830 – 29 December 1894) was an English poet who wrote a variety of romantic, devotional, and children's poems. She is best known for her long poem
Goblin Market"Goblin Market" is a narrative poem by Christina Rossetti. In a letter to her publisher, Rossetti claimed that the poem, which features remarkably sexual imagery, was not meant for children. However, in public Rossetti often stated that the poem was intended for children, and went on to write...
, her love poem
Remember, and for the words of the Christmas carol
In the Bleak Midwinter"In the Bleak Midwinter" is a Christmas carol based on a poem by the English poet Christina Rossetti written before 1872 in response to a request from the magazine Scribner's Monthly for a Christmas poem....
.
Early life and education
Christina Rossetti was born at 38
Charlotte StreetCharlotte Street is a well-known street in Fitzrovia, central London, England. The southern half of the street has many restaurants and cafes, and a lively nightlife during the evening; while the northern part of the street is more mixed in character and includes the large office building of the...
(now 105 Hallam Street),
LondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
to
Gabriele RossettiGabriele Pasquale Giuseppe Rossetti was an Italian poet and scholar who emigrated to England.Born in Vasto in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, the original family of his ancestors was Della Guardia...
, a poet and a political exile from
VastoVasto is a town and comune on the Adriatic coast of the Province of Chieti in southern Abruzzo, Italy. The population is now just over 40,000.-History:According to tradition, the town was founded by Diomedes, the Greek hero...
, Abruzzo, and
Frances PolidoriFrances Mary Lavinia Polidori, later Rossetti, is noted for her family connections rather than in her own right; in particular, two of her children were co-founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, and another became a famous poet.Frances was the daughter of Italian exile Gaetano Polidori and...
, the sister of Lord Byron's friend and physician, John William Polidori.
[Profile at Poets.org] She had two brothers and a sister:
DanteDante Gabriel Rossetti was an English poet, illustrator, painter and translator. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 with William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais, and was later to be the main inspiration for a second generation of artists and writers influenced by the movement,...
became an influential artist and poet, and
WilliamWilliam Michael Rossetti was an English writer and critic.-Biography:Born in London, he was a son of immigrant Italian scholar Gabriele Rossetti, and the brother of Maria Francesca Rossetti, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Christina Georgina Rossetti.He was one of the seven founder members of the...
and
MariaMaria Francesca Rossetti was an English author. She was the sister of artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti as well as William Michael Rossetti and Christina Georgina Rossetti, who dedicated her poem Goblin Market to Maria...
both became writers.
Christina, the youngest, was a lively child. She dictated her first story to her mother before she had learned to write.
Rossetti was educated at home by her mother, who had her study religious works, classics, fairy tales and novels. Rossetti delighted in the works of Keats,
ScottSir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet, popular throughout much of the world during his time....
,
Ann RadcliffeAnne Radcliffe was an English author, and considered the pioneer of the gothic novel . Her style is romantic in its vivid descriptions of landscapes, and long travel scenes, yet the Gothic element is obvious through her use of the supernatural...
and Monk Lewis.
The influence of the work of
Dante AlighieriDurante degli Alighieri, mononymously referred to as Dante , was an Italian poet, prose writer, literary theorist, moral philosopher, and political thinker. He is best known for the monumental epic poem La commedia, later named La divina commedia ...
, Petrarch and other Italian writers filled the home and would have a deep impact on Rossetti's later writing. Their home was open to visiting Italian scholars, artists and revolutionaries.
[Lindsay Duguid, "Rossetti, Christina Georgina" (1830–1894)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, Jan 2009] The family homes in
Bloomsbury-Places:* Bloomsbury is an area in central London.* Bloomsbury , related local government unit* Bloomsbury, New Jersey, New Jersey, USA* Bloomsbury , listed on the NRHP in Maryland...
at 38 and later 50
Charlotte StreetCharlotte Street is a well-known street in Fitzrovia, central London, England. The southern half of the street has many restaurants and cafes, and a lively nightlife during the evening; while the northern part of the street is more mixed in character and includes the large office building of the...
were within easy reach of Madam Tussauds, London Zoo and the newly opened
Regent's ParkRegent's Park is one of the Royal Parks of London. It is in the north-western part of central London, partly in the City of Westminster and partly in the London Borough of Camden...
, which she visited regularly; In contrast to her parents, Rossetti was very much a London child, and, it seems, a happy one.
[Packer, Lona Mosk (1963) Christina Rossetti University of California Press pp13-17]
In the 1840s, her family faced severe financial difficulties due to the deterioration of her father's physical and mental health. In 1843, he was diagnosed with persistent bronchitis, possibly tuberculosis, and faced losing his sight. He gave up his teaching post at King's College and though he lived another 11 years, he suffered from depression and was never physically well again. Rossetti's mother began teaching in order to keep the family out of poverty and Maria became a live-in governess, a prospect that Christina Rossetti dreaded. At this time her brother William was working for the Excise Office and Gabriel was at art school, leading Christina's life at home to become one of increasing isolation.
[Packer, Lona Mosk (1963) Christina Rossetti University of California Press pp20] When she was 14, Rossetti suffered a nervous breakdown and left school. Bouts of depression and related illness followed. During this period she, her mother, and her sister became deeply interested in the
Anglo-CatholicThe terms Anglo-Catholic and Anglo-Catholicism describe people, beliefs and practices within Anglicanism that affirm the Catholic, rather than Protestant, heritage and identity of the Anglican churches....
movement that developed in the
Church of EnglandThe Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
. Religious devotion came to play a major role in Rossetti's life.
In her late teens, Rossetti became engaged to the painter
James CollinsonJames Collinson was a Victorian painter who was a member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood from 1848 to 1850.Collinson was a devout Christian who was attracted to the devotional and high church aspects of Pre-Raphaelitism...
, the first of three suitors. He was, like her brothers Dante and William, one of the founding members of the avant-garde artistic group, the
Pre-Raphaelite BrotherhoodThe Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was a group of English painters, poets, and critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti...
(founded 1848).
[Packer, Lona Mosk (1963) Christina Rossetti University of California Press p29] The engagement was broken in 1850 when he reverted to
CatholicismThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
. Later she became involved with the linguist
Charles CayleyCharles Bagot Cayley was a linguist best known for translating Dante into the metre of the original, with annotations, besides metrical versions of the Iliad, the Prometheus of Æschylus, the Canzoniere of Petrarch. The translations from the Greek are a laboured attempt to mirror the versification...
, but declined to marry him, also for religious reasons.
The third offer came from the painter John Brett, whom she also refused.
Rossetti sat for several of Dante Rossetti's most famous paintings. In 1848, she was the model for the Virgin Mary in his first completed oil painting,
The Girlhood of Mary Virgin, which was the first work to be inscribed with the initials 'PRB', later revealed to signify the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The following year she modelled again for his depiction of the
AnnunciationThe Annunciation, also referred to as the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary or Annunciation of the Lord, is the Christian celebration of the announcement by the angel Gabriel to Virgin Mary, that she would conceive and become the mother of Jesus the Son of God. Gabriel told Mary to name her...
,
Ecce Ancilla Domini. In 1849 she became seriously ill again, suffering from depression and sometime around 1857 had a major religious crisis.
Career
Rossetti began writing down and dating her poems from 1842, mostly imitating her favoured poets. From 1847 she began experimenting with verse forms such as sonnets, hymns and ballads, drawing narratives from the bible, folk takes and the lives of the saints. Her early pieces often feature meditations on death and loss, in the Romantic tradition.
She published her first poem, which appeared in the
AthenaeumThe Athenaeum was a literary magazine published in London from 1828 to 1921. It had a reputation for publishing the very best writers of the age....
, in 1848 when she was 18.
["Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)," eNotes.com, Web, May 19, 2011.] Under the pen-name "Ellen Alleyne", she contributed to the literary magazine,
The GermThe Germ was a periodical established by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood to disseminate their ideas. It was not a success, only existing for four issues between January and April 1850....
, published by the Pre-Raphaelites from January - April 1850 and edited by her brother William.
This marked the beginning of her public career.
[The Cambridge Companion to English Poets (2011) Claude Rawson. Cambridge University Press pp424-29]
Her most famous collection,
Goblin Market and Other PoemsGoblin Market and Other Poems was Christina Rossetti's first volume of poetry, published in 1862. It contains her famous poem "Goblin Market" and others such as "Up-hill", "The Convent Threshold", "Maude Clare", etc....
, appeared in 1862, when she was 31. It received widespread critical praise, establishing her as the main female poet of the time.
HopkinsGerard Manley Hopkins, S.J. was an English poet, Roman Catholic convert, and Jesuit priest, whose posthumous 20th-century fame established him among the leading Victorian poets...
, Swinburne and
TennysonAlfred, Lord Tennyson, the first Baron Tennyson, was an English poet.Tennyson may also refer to:-People:* Baron Tennyson, the barony itself** Alfred, Lord Tennyson , poet...
lauded her work.
and with the death of
Elizabeth Barrett BrowningElizabeth Barrett Browning was one of the most prominent poets of the Victorian era. Her poetry was widely popular in both England and the United States during her lifetime. A collection of her last poems was published by her husband, Robert Browning, shortly after her death.-Early life:Members...
in 1861 Rossetti was hailed as her natural successor.
The title poem is one of Rossetti's best known works. Although it is ostensibly about two sisters' misadventures with goblins, critics have interpreted the piece in a variety of ways: seeing it as an allegory about temptation and salvation; a commentary on
VictorianThe Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
gender roles and female agency; and a work about erotic desire and social redemption. Rossetti was a volunteer worker from 1859 to 1870 at the St. Mary Magdalene "house of charity" in
HighgateHighgate is an area of North London on the north-eastern corner of Hampstead Heath.Highgate is one of the most expensive London suburbs in which to live. It has an active conservation body, the Highgate Society, to protect its character....
, a refuge for former prostitutes and it is suggested
Goblin Market may have been inspired by the "fallen women" she came to know.
[Packer, Lona Mosk (1963) Christina Rossetti University of California Press p155] There are parallels with
Coleridge'sSamuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, Romantic, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. He is probably best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla...
The Rime of the Ancient MarinerThe Rime of the Ancient Mariner is the longest major poem by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, written in 1797–98 and was published in 1798 in the first edition of Lyrical Ballads. Modern editions use a later revised version printed in 1817 that featured a gloss...
given both poems' religious themes of temptation, sin and redemption by vicarious suffering. She was ambivalent about
women's suffrageWomen's suffrage or woman suffrage is the right of women to vote and to run for office. The expression is also used for the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending these rights to women and without any restrictions or qualifications such as property ownership, payment of tax, or...
, but many scholars have identified feminist themes in her poetry. She was opposed to slavery (in the American South), cruelty to animals (in the prevalent practice of
animal experimentationVivisection is defined as surgery conducted for experimental purposes on a living organism, typically animals with a central nervous system, to view living internal structure...
), and the exploitation of girls in under-age prostitution.
Rossetti maintained a very large circle of friends and correspondents and continued to write and publish for the rest of her life, primarily focusing on devotional writing and children's poetry. In 1892, Rossetti wrote
The Face of the Deep, a book of devotional prose, and oversaw the production of a new and enlarged edition of
Sing-Song, published in 1893.
In the later decades of her life, Rossetti suffered from Graves Disease, diagnosed in 1872 suffering a nearly fatal attack in the early 1870s.
In 1893, she developed breast cancer and though the tumour was removed, she suffered a recurrence in September 1894. She died the following year on 29 December 1894 and was buried in
Highgate CemeteryHighgate Cemetery is a cemetery located in north London, England. It is designated Grade I on the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England. It is divided into two parts, named the East and West cemetery....
.
Recognition
Although Rossetti's popularity during her lifetime did not approach that of
Elizabeth Barrett BrowningElizabeth Barrett Browning was one of the most prominent poets of the Victorian era. Her poetry was widely popular in both England and the United States during her lifetime. A collection of her last poems was published by her husband, Robert Browning, shortly after her death.-Early life:Members...
, her standing remained strong after her death. In the early 20th century Rossetti's popularity faded in the wake of
ModernismModernist poetry in English is generally considered to have emerged in the early years of the 20th century with the appearance of the Imagists. In common with many other modernists, these poets wrote in reaction to the perceived excesses of Victorian poetry, with its emphasis on traditional...
. Scholars began to explore Freudian themes in her work, such as religious and sexual repression, reaching for personal, biographical interpretations of her poetry.
In the 1970s academics began to critique her work again, looking beyond the lyrical Romantic sweetness to her mastery of prosody and versification. Feminists held her as symbol of constrained female genius, placed as a leader of 19th century poets.
Her work strongly influenced the work of such writers as
Ford Madox FordFord Madox Ford was an English novelist, poet, critic and editor whose journals, The English Review and The Transatlantic Review, were instrumental in the development of early 20th-century English literature...
,
Virginia WoolfAdeline Virginia Woolf was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century....
,
Gerard Manley HopkinsGerard Manley Hopkins, S.J. was an English poet, Roman Catholic convert, and Jesuit priest, whose posthumous 20th-century fame established him among the leading Victorian poets...
,
Elizabeth JenningsElizabeth Jennings was an English poet.-Life and career:Jennings was born in Boston, Lincolnshire. When she was six, her family moved to Oxford, where she remained for the rest of her life. Couzyn, Jeni Contemporary Women Poets. Bloodaxe, pp. 98-100. There she later attended St Anne's College...
, and
Philip LarkinPhilip Arthur Larkin, CH, CBE, FRSL is widely regarded as one of the great English poets of the latter half of the twentieth century...
. Critic
Basil de SelincourtBasil de Sélincourt was a British essayist and journalist.In 1902 he married the orientalist Beryl de Zoete, but the marriage failed, and in 1908 he married the writer Anne Douglas Sedgwick .-Works:*Giotto...
stated that she was "all but our greatest woman poet … incomparably our greatest craftswoman … probably in the first twelve of the masters of English verse".
Rossetti's Christmas poem "
In the Bleak Midwinter"In the Bleak Midwinter" is a Christmas carol based on a poem by the English poet Christina Rossetti written before 1872 in response to a request from the magazine Scribner's Monthly for a Christmas poem....
" became widely known after her death when set as a Christmas carol first by
Gustav HolstGustav Theodore Holst was an English composer. He is most famous for his orchestral suite The Planets....
, and then by
Harold DarkeDr Harold Edwin Darke was an English composer and organist.Darke was born in Highbury, London the youngest son of Samuel Darke & Arundel Bourne...
. Her poem "
Love Came Down at Christmas"Love Came Down at Christmas" is a Christmas poem by Christina Rossetti. It was first published without a title in Time Flies: A Reading Diary in 1885...
" (1885) has also been widely arranged as a carol. Rossetti is honoured with a feast day on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church (USA) on April 27.
Poetry collections
- Verses. London: private, 1847.
- Goblin Market
"Goblin Market" is a narrative poem by Christina Rossetti. In a letter to her publisher, Rossetti claimed that the poem, which features remarkably sexual imagery, was not meant for children. However, in public Rossetti often stated that the poem was intended for children, and went on to write...
and Other Poems. London: Macmillan, 1862.
- 1876 Author's revised edition
- The Prince's Progress and Other Poems. London: Macmillan, 1866.
- Goblin Market, The Prince's Progress, and other poems. London: Maacmillan, 1879.
- Sing-Song: a Nursery Rhyme Book (1872, 1893)
- Speaking Likenesses. London: Macmillan, 1874.
- A Pageant and Other Poems (1881)
- Verses. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1893.,)
- New Poems London: Macmillan, 1896.
- The Rossetti Birthday Book. London: private, 1896.
- The Poetical Works of Christina Georgina Rossetti. Edited by William Michael Rossetti. London: Macmillan, 1904.
- The Complete Poems of Christina Rossetti. Edited by Rebecca W Crump. 2 vols. to date. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1979-85.
Fiction
- Commonplace and Other Stories. London: Ellis, 1870.
- Maude: A Story for Girls. London: Bowden, 1897.
Non-fiction
- Called to Be Saints. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1881.
- "Dante, an English Classic." Churchman's Shilling Magazine and Family Treasury 2 (1867): 200-205.
- "Dante. The Poet Illustrated out of the Poem." The Century (February 1884): 566-73.
- The Face of the Deep. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1893.
- Seek and Find: A Double Series of Short Studies of the Benedicte. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1879.
- Time Flies: A Reading Diary. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1885.
External links