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Home » Christina Georgina Rossetti

Christina Georgina Rossetti

Biography Christina Georgina Rossetti

Christina Georgina Rossetti, one of the most important women poets of the 19th Century, was born in December 1830, into a family of poets and artists. Devoutly religious, she refused two offers of marriage because of religious differences. Much of her poetry is religious, though she wrote some passionate love-poetry and much which celebrates the joy of the natural world. She also wrote a book of rhymes for very young children. She was close to her brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and was linked through him with the Pre-Raphaelite movement in art. After his death, she lived a secluded life. She died of cancer in December 1894.

Christina Rossetti was the youngest of four children of Gabriele Rossetti, an Italian patriot who came to London in 1824. Born on 5 December 1830, she had one sister, Maria, and two brothers, Dante Gabriel and William. Christina and her sister were mainly educated at home by their mother, and brought up as devout Anglo-Catholics. Christina’s elder sister Maria eventually became an Anglican nun.

Rossetti’s brothers, Dante Gabriel and William Michael, went to Kings College School in London, and were founder members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. This group of artists, poets and critics approached art by studying nature in close detail and by choosing subjects that they thought were morally uplifting. They chose the name of their group to indicate that they thought all art since Raphael (an Italian painter who lived from 1483 to 1520) was degenerate. Dante Gabriel Rossetti was a painter and poet. William later acted as Christina’s editor.

Although some of Christina Rossetti’s earliest verse was published in The Germ, a magazine produced for a short time by the Pre-Raphaelites, and she sat as a model for several of Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s paintings, she was not a member of the movement. By modern standards, their poetry seems rich and cloying; hers is more sensitive.

In sketches made by her brother Dante, the young Christina seems attractive. In 1848 she became engaged to James Collinson, a member of her brother’s PreRaphaelite circle. However, she broke it off when he became a Roman Catholic. Later, in her early thirties, she fell in love with Charles Cayley. Again she broke it off because of religious differences. Her brother William later said; she enquired into his creed and found he was not a Christian. Rossetti’s definition of Christianity was narrower and more evangelical than most people’s.

Like many unmarried middle-class women of that period, Rossetti did not have any paid employment, except for about a year when she and her mother tried to run a day school after failing health and eyesight forced her father to retire in 1853. However, she mixed with many celebrated artists and men of letters of her day, such as Whistler, Swinburne, and the Reverend Charles Dodgson (author of Alice in Wonderland under the name of Lewis Carroll) who were friends of her brothers. Christina Rossetti’s religious views were so strong that she would only read Swinburne’s long narrative poem Atalanta in Calydon after she had stuck strips of paper over what she considered the anti-religious parts. After that she was able to enjoy the poem very much. She continued to write poetry throughout her life, and in the 1870s she worked on a voluntary basis for the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.

Christina Rossetti’s family was very important to her. Although she loved two different men, and it is clear from her poetry that she could express feelings of love and the heartbreak of losing love, she never married or broke away from home. Her brothers and sister were central to her emotions and she was deeply upset by Dante Gabriel’s nervous breakdown in 1872. After he died in 1882, she lived as a recluse at home, concentrating on her religious life. After a period of ill health Christina Rossetti died of cancer on 29 December 1894.

Baby Lies So Fast Asleep

Christina Georgina Rossetti

One Day

Christina Georgina Rossetti

Aloof

Christina Georgina Rossetti Heart, Hope, Life, Rainbow, Remember, Sea, Silence, Solitude, Sometimes, World

Fluttered Wings

Christina Georgina Rossetti Grief, Heart, Rose, Star, Sun

Death’s Chill Between

Christina Georgina Rossetti

Cobwebs

Christina Georgina Rossetti Fear, Future, Home, Hope, Night, Rain, Sea, Time, Wind

An Emerald Is As Green As Grass

Christina Georgina Rossetti

Consider The Lilies Of The Field

Christina Georgina Rossetti

The Horses Of The Sea

Christina Georgina Rossetti

Up-Hill

Christina Georgina Rossetti Dark, Friend, Journey, Night, Travel, Wind

In The Willow Shade

Christina Georgina Rossetti Alone, Death, Hope, Joy, Night, Red, Rose, Sky, Song, Spring, Summer, Sun, Sunshine, Swimming, Tree, Water, Wind, Winter, Work, World

Sleeping At Last

Christina Georgina Rossetti Fear, Friend, Heart, Purple, Sleep

Mix A Pancake

Christina Georgina Rossetti

No, Thank You John

Christina Georgina Rossetti Friend, Rose, Song, Thanks, Today

When I Am Dead, My Dearest

Christina Georgina Rossetti Dream, Green, Pain, Rain, Remember, Rose, Sad, Song, Tree

A Daughter Of Eve

Christina Georgina Rossetti Alone, Daughter, Future, Hope, Moon, Night, Rose, Sleep, Sorrow, Spring, Summer, Sun, Winter

Seasons

Christina Georgina Rossetti

De Profundis

Christina Georgina Rossetti Beauty, Change, Fire, Heart, Heaven, Hope, Joy, Moon, Star, Sun

Is The Moon Tired? She Looks So Pale

Christina Georgina Rossetti

Sonnets Are Full Of Love

Christina Georgina Rossetti

Passing Away, Saith The World

Christina Georgina Rossetti Beauty, Change, Dark, Fear, God, Hair, Heaven, Hope, Night, Sister, Spring, Trust, Winter, World

An Echo From Willowood

Christina Georgina Rossetti

O Lady Moon

Christina Georgina Rossetti

Cousin Kate

Christina Georgina Rossetti Change, Father, Hair, Heart, Home, Howl, Joy, Love, Pride, Son, Sun, Wedding, Work

Is It Well With The Child?

Christina Georgina Rossetti Child, Children, Hope, Snow, Sun

A Frog’s Fate

Christina Georgina Rossetti

A Frisky Lamb

Christina Georgina Rossetti

Heart’s Chill Between

Christina Georgina Rossetti

A Bruised Reed Shall He Not Break

Christina Georgina Rossetti

Herself A Rose Who Bore The Rose

Christina Georgina Rossetti

What Would I Give

Christina Georgina Rossetti Friend, Heart, Smile

An Apple-Gathering

Christina Georgina Rossetti Green, Hair, Home, Mother, Night, Pink, Sky, Smile, Song, Sunset, Tree

From Sunset To Star Rise

Christina Georgina Rossetti Alone, Friend, Heart, Rose, Sometimes, Star, Summer, Sunset, Wind

Silent Noon

Christina Georgina Rossetti Peace, Silence, Silver, Sky, Smile, Song, Sun

If Stars Dropped Out Of Heaven

Christina Georgina Rossetti

In The Bleak Midwinter

Christina Georgina Rossetti

Love Came Down At Christmas

Christina Georgina Rossetti

Goodbye In Fear, Goodbye In Sorrow

Christina Georgina Rossetti

Later Life

Christina Georgina Rossetti Beach, Dream, Fog, Friend, Life, Memory, Sick, Today, Wind

A Rose Has Thorns As Well As Honey

Christina Georgina Rossetti

The Thread Of Life

Christina Georgina Rossetti Death, Heart, Hope, Kiss, Life, Music, Rainbow, Remember, Sea, Silence, Smile, Solitude, Sometimes, Song, Sun, Tree, Wind, World

Beauty Is Vain

Christina Georgina Rossetti

Beneath Thy Cross

Christina Georgina Rossetti Grief, Loss, Moon, Sky, Sun, Woman, Women

A Motherless Soft Lambkin

Christina Georgina Rossetti

An End

Christina Georgina Rossetti

Easter Even

Christina Georgina Rossetti

A Hope Carol

Christina Georgina Rossetti

A Better Ressurection

Christina Georgina Rossetti Alone, Fear, Fire, Grief, Heart, Hope, Life, Rose, Spring, Water

Bride Song

Christina Georgina Rossetti Hair, Joy, Red, Rose, Running, Sleep, Smile, Snow, Song, Wind

At Home

Christina Georgina Rossetti Friend, Green, Home, Hope, House, Sad, Sea

Eve

Christina Georgina Rossetti

Mirage

Christina Georgina Rossetti Change, Dream, Heart, Hope, Life, Tree, World

Memory

Christina Georgina Rossetti

May

Christina Georgina Rossetti

A Bird’s-Eye View

Christina Georgina Rossetti

Fata Morgana

Christina Georgina Rossetti

A Pause Of Thought

Christina Georgina Rossetti

Before The Paling Of The Stars

Christina Georgina Rossetti Angel, Christmas, God, Mother, Star, Together, Weather, Winter, World

Paradise: In A Dream

Christina Georgina Rossetti

A House Of Cards

Christina Georgina Rossetti

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