Delphi Complete Poetical Works of Christina Rossetti

1876 Pages·2012·5.36 MB·English

by  Christina Rossetti

CHRISTINA ROSSETTI
(1830–1894)

Contents
The Poetry Collections
VERSES, 1847
GOBLIN MARKET AND OTHER POEMS
THE PRINCE’S PROGRESS AND OTHER POEMS
SING-SONG: A NURSERY RHYME BOOK
A PAGEANT AND OTHER POEMS
VERSES, 1893
SOME FEASTS AND FASTS
GIFTS AND GRACES
THE WORLD: SELF-DESTRUCTION
DIVERS WORLDS:TIME AND ETERNITY
NEW JERUSALEM AND ITS CITIZENS
SONGS FOR STRANGERS AND PILGRIMS
PRIVATELY PUBLISHED POEMS
UNPUBLISHED POEMS
The Poems
LIST OF POEMS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER
LIST OF POEMS IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER
The Fiction
COMMONPLACE AND OTHER STORIES
MAUDE: A STORY FOR GIRLS
The Biography
CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI by Theodore Watts-Dunton

© Delphi Classics 2012
Version 1

CHRISTINA ROSSETTI

By Delphi Classics, 2012
NOTE

When reading poetry on an eReader, it is advisable to use a small font size,
which will allow the lines of poetry to display correctly.
The Poetry Collections

38 Charlotte Street (now 105 Hallam Street), London — Rossetti’s birthplace
The poet with her mother, painted by her brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the famous Pre-Raphaelite artist.
Their mother Frances Polidori was the sister of Lord Byron’s friend and physician, John William Polidori.
The poet’s father, Gabriele Rossetti, a poet and political exile from Vasto, Abruzzo
VERSES, 1847

Christina Rossetti was the first member of the Pre-Raphaelites to achieve
widespread literary success, following the 1862 publication of her narrative
poem Goblin Market. Born in London in 1830, her parents were Gabriele
Rossetti, a poet and a political exile from Vasto and Frances Polidori, the sister
of Lord Byron’s friend and physician, John William Polidori. Christina was the
youngest of four children in a family fused with literary and artistic interests.
Like her older siblings, Christina began writing and drawing at an early age. Her
maternal grandfather Polidori doted on Christina and in 1847 he had the
following collection of her verses privately published. Her first public poems
appeared later in the Athenaeum, when she was only eighteen years old. She
wrote poetry, fiction and non-fiction works prolifically throughout her life.
Christina’s early poetry reflects her deep religious devotion. She was a High
Church Anglican and a disciple of Tractarianism, a radically conservative
position. When she was 13, Christina began attending Christ Church with her
mother and sister Maria. About this time, Christina went through a
transformation that her friends and family were at a loss to explain. As a girl, she
was spirited, passionate and hot-tempered to the point of self-destruction: she
reports once ripping her arm with scissors after her mother chastised her for
some small offense. Her brother William Michael Rossetti wrote that “In innate
character she was vivacious and open to pleasurable impressions, and during
girlhood, one might readily have supposed that she would develop into a woman
of expansive heart, fond of society and diversions, and taking part in them of
more than average brilliancy.”