Selected Poems of Christina Rossetti

by Christina Rossetti

Christina Rossetti is widely regarded as the most considerable woman poet in England before the twentieth century. No reading of nineteenth century poetry can be complete without attention to this prolific and popular poet. Rossetti's inner life dominates her poetry, exploring loss and unattainable hope. Her divine poems have a freshness and toughness of thought, while many of her love poems are erotic, and as often express love for women as for men. The varied threads of Rossetti's concerns are drawn together in what is perhaps her greatest poem, the strange and ambiguous Goblin Market.304

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Victorian, Fiction, 19th Century, Literature, British Literature

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

Christina Georgina Rossetti, sister of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, wrote lyrical religious works and ballads, such as "Up-hill" (1861).

Frances Polidori Rossetti bore this most important women poet writing in nineteenth-century England to Gabriele Rossetti. Despite her fundamentally religious temperament, closer to that of her mother, this youngest member of a remarkable family of poets, artists, and critics inherited many of her artistic tendencies from her father.

Dante made seemingly quite attractive if not beautiful but somewhat idealized sketches of Christina as a teenager. In 1848, James Collinson, one of the minor pre-Raphaelite brethren, engaged her but reverted to Roman Catholicism and afterward ended the engagement.

When failing health and eyesight forced the professor into retirement in 1853, Christina and her mother started a day school, attempting to support the family, but after a year or so, gave it away. Thereafter, a recurring illness, diagnosed as sometimes angina and sometimes tuberculosis, interrupted a very retiring life that she led. From the early 1860s, she in love with Charles Cayley, but according to her brother William, refused to marry him because "she enquired into his creed and found he was not a Christian." Milk-and-water Anglicanism was not to her taste. Lona Mosk Packer argues that her poems conceal a love for the painter William Bell Scott, but there is no other evidence for this theory, and the most respected scholar of the Pre-Raphaelite movement disputes the dates on which Packer thinks some of the more revealing poems were written.

All three Rossetti women, at first devout members of the evangelical branch of the Church of England, were drawn toward the Tractarians in the 1840s. They nevertheless retained their evangelical seriousness: Maria eventually became an Anglican nun, and Christina's religious scruples remind one of Dorothea Brooke in George Eliot's Middlemarch : as Eliot's heroine looked forward to giving up riding because she enjoyed it so much, so Christina gave up chess because she found she enjoyed winning; pasted paper strips over the antireligious parts of Swinburne's Atalanta in Calydon (which allowed her to enjoy the poem very much); objected to nudity in painting, especially if the artist was a woman; and refused even to go see Wagner's Parsifal, because it celebrated a pagan mythology.

After rejecting Cayley in 1866, according one biographer, Christina (like many Victorian spinsters) lived vicariously in the lives of other people. Although pretty much a stay-at-home, her circle included her brothers' friends, like Whistler, Swinburne, F.M. Brown, and Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll). She continued to write and in the 1870s to work for the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. She was troubled physically by neuralgia and emotionally by Dante's breakdown in 1872. The last 12 years of her life, after his death in 1882, were quiet ones. She died of cancer.

Reviews

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first taste of Christina Rossetti's works, because apart from the famous 'Goblin Market' I haven't read much else. Initially, I had wanted to take this particular collection at a steady pace, but unsurprisingly, I devoured it faster than anticipated.

Rossetti's style is beautifully evocative, and sometimes painfully so. I felt the sorrow in her words and I wanted to stay there with her for a while. The emotion in her poetry is incredibly moving and each poem was composed with such care.

There were some I favoured more than others, of course, and I actually preferred some of the sadder and poignant poetry as opposed to anything else. I also appreciate that Rossetti's writing is sensual, and strikingly passionate.

I am going to leave two of my favourites here;

A PAUSE:

They made the chamber sweet with flowers and leaves,
And the bed sweet with flowers on which I lay;
While my soul, love-bound, loitered on its way.
I did not hear the birds about the eaves,
Nor hear the reapers talk among the sheaves:
Only my soul kept watch from day to day,
My thirsty soul kept watch for one away:--
Perhaps he loves, I thought, remembers, grieves.
At length there came the step upon the stair,
Upon the lock the old familiar hand:
Then first my spirit seemed to scent the air
Of Paradise; then first the tardy sand
Of time ran golden; and I felt my hair
Put on a glory,and my soul expand.


ECHO:

Come to me in the silence of the night;
Come in the speaking silence of a dream;
Come with soft rounded cheeks and eyes as bright
As sunlight on a stream;
Come back in tears,
O memory, hope, love of finished years.

Oh dream how sweet, too sweet, too bitter sweet,
Whose wakening should have been in Paradise,
Where souls brimfull of love abide and meet;
Where thirsting longing eyes
Watch the slow door
That opening, letting in, lets out no more.

Yet come to me in dreams, that I may live
My very life again tho’ cold in death:
Come back to me in dreams, that I may give
Pulse for pulse, breath for breath:
Speak low, lean low,
As long ago, my love, how long ago.

[Brooklyn Tayla · Rating 5 out of 5]

So I confess I had hoped to savour these probably as I should've done but aah once I started reading them I couldn't stop. They were all so moving and effective and beautifully composed. I definitely need to read more of her poetry and learn more about her. Definitely the book I needed to read to pull me back into my love of poetry.

Full review to come.

[Joy Chalaby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this collection of Rossetti's poems. One of my favourite authors!

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rossetti is definitely my new favorite poet. I love her style, especially the feeling of motion and energy and life in her use of participles and her use of nature. Many of her religious poems were especially reflective and powerful.

[tee · Rating 5 out of 5]

who knows not love begetteth love?

i went into this with a truckload of doubt for i know her themes are religious and i am not, but i have come to adore her style! this was an absolute pleasure to read - there were pieces that made me pause and stare off into the distance for dear life.

it seemed to mean so little, meant so much;
if only now i could recall that touch,
first touch of hand in hand - did one but know!

favorites: a birthday, in the lane, twilight calm, echo, at home, what good shall my life do me? mirage, a dumb friend, youth gone and beauty gone, i wish i could remember, l.e.l., spring & song!

[Grace McCracken · Rating 3 out of 5]

i just wanted my reading goal ngl

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Echo


Come to me in the silence of the night;
Come in the speaking silence of a dream;
Come with soft rounded cheeks and eyes as bright
As sunlight on a stream;
Come back in tears,
O memory, hope, love of finished years.

Oh dream how sweet, too sweet, too bitter sweet,
Whose wakening should have been in Paradise,
Where souls brimfull of love abide and meet;
Where thirsting longing eyes
Watch the slow door
That opening, letting in, lets out no more.
Yet come to me in dreams, that I may live
My very life again tho’ cold in death:
Come back to me in dreams, that I may give
Pulse for pulse, breath for breath:
Speak low, lean low,
As long ago, my love, how long ago.


Remember

Remember me when I am gone away
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you plann'd:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.

[Wouter · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was meant to read this during my exchange year but at the time I only read about 5 of the poems in order to pass my exam. I did like those 5 poems, so I decided to revisit Rossetti, and I wasn't disappointed. I didn't care much for the overly religiously-themed pieces but I think Rossetti is fascinating in the context of feminist theory and gender studies. Would recommend if you enjoy (Victorian) poetry!

[Peace · Rating 4 out of 5]

from Sing-Song

What are heavy? sea-sand and sorrow:
What are brief? today and tomorrow:
What are frail? Spring blossoms and youth:
What are deep? the ocean and truth.

[ivana · Rating 3 out of 5]

If Rossetti knows one thing, that is how to achieve the perfect cottagecore atmosphere, at times depressive, but still pretty and that is the thing I loved the most about her poetry, the stunning descriptions of nature: flowers, animals, seasons and weather. She has this ability to pull you into the song and perfectly visualise her words. Another strong point of hers is this ability to talk about love long passed not with sadness, but with a sense of hope that the love will be rekindled in the future, in death or life; which is undoubtedly the influence of Christianity on her poetry.

Her earlier works generally suit my style more and the later poems really didn't catch my eye as much as them, that brought down the rating to 3 stars. Still, the woman knew how to do her thing and I respect that.

Favourites: From the Antique, In an Artist's Studio, An Echo from Willow-wood, Remember, Song, The Bourne, No Thank You John, Sonnet 4 of Monna Innominata

[Salem ☥]

DNF. Wanted to love her poetry considering a lot of her other stuff interested me, but I didn't care for more than half of this collection.

[jess :£ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Goblin market….

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the beautiful prose. Favorite poem The Goblin Market.

[Evie Humphries · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this for my english course, and I have to say
I have fallen in love with Rossettis writing styles, the only think I struggle with is understanding some of it

[Rosamund · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rossetti's poetry is wonderfully direct and emotionally frank, as well as skilful. The religious content of a fair proportion of her work was important to her although it doesn't speak to me. But some poems in this collection are sublime.

[Clare · Rating 4 out of 5]

Being ill during spooky season with only my red velvet couch for company, I decided to go the whole hog and, in between catching up on my correspondence and staring in the general direction of the water asking “When will my love be home from the war(hammer tournament)” I read through Selected Poems of Christina Rossetti, which I got in college but had only read bits and pieces from. I am very out of practice reading volumes of poetry from cover to cover; I found myself forgetting to pause between poems and then being confused when they were all running together in my head. I also really don’t know how to review poetry; it’s been decades since I had to try to write anything coherent about poetry of any kind.

Anyway. The most famous poem in this selection is probably The Goblin Market, and it was the line “We must not look at goblin men” getting stuck in my head (who knows why) that prompted me to read this volume. The Goblin Market is an eerie little fairy story that is clearly about any number of things but resists obvious allegory; the imagery in it has become classic for a reason, though. While a lot of the poems are full of the kind of subjects beloved of the pre-Raphaelites–pseudo-Medieval romantic stuff, and natural beauty, and sentiments of love and loss–there’s also quite a lot of range: there’s at least one poem about a story Rossetti read in a newspaper; there’s quite a lot of religious poetry; some tell little stories about people being petty and mean to each other. The funniest poem in the whole lot is probably No, Thank You, John, a mildly brutal rejection of a suitor that contains such gems as “I have no heart?--Perhaps I’ve not/But then you’re mad to take offence/That I don’t give you what I have not got/Use your common sense.” Oh, that Christina Rossetti, what a little shit she can be.

Most of the poems are not funny; most of them are sad and beautiful and generally very good for sitting around in a long robe feeling moody with. Because I never read poetry I also feel like I have gotten additionally Cultured and ought to be rewarded with a copy of the fancypants clothbound edition of The Goblin Market and Other Poems (https://www.abebooks.com/978024130306...).

Originally posted at Keep love for youth, and violets for the spring.

[hazel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little unsure what to say about this - Rossetti's poems, are of course, extremely readable, simple in their moral overtones and have some delightful nature imagery and theming. Many of her poems start as allegorical fairytales or nursery rhymes, which she builds on to allude to religious or social ideas. Of note are also her sonnets, which she often subverts from their recognised structure as a 'love poem'.

Equally, her poems seem to stagnate. Some of her darker, more Gothic subject matter becomes a preoccupation with death (The Poor Ghost, A Chilly Night), her own death (Introspective, After Death), maturing into a martyrdom complex (A Portrait) as she leans more and more into the religious aspect of her life and by extension her poems (almost with a desperate tone? Like one trying to convince themselves?) Her life and therefore literature was almost certainly shaped by her suffering from Grave's disease, her dedication to her faith and refusal of two marriage proposals.

But, I think it spoils Rossetti's intentions to frame her as solely a poet who wrote simple picturesque poems for children and housewives and then wrote some fairly strict devotional work. Many of her poems seem to incorporate some religious ideals in a way that is slightly more engaging (notably, one reading of the Goblin Market, or A Daughter of Eve). She has a a lot more of a light hearted, knowing, satirical tone in some of her poems than might be expected, which I wasn't fully aware of before going into this collection and attempting to annotate some poems, and she does often have a teasing sense of humour directed at the reader (Winter: My Secret). A lot of her poems do concern love (A Bride Song, An Echo From Willow-wood) though often unrequited (A Sketch, Twice) but Rossetti also includes concepts of love (Cousin Kate, A Triad, Sister Maude) antithetical to the tradition of courtly love and the idea that she only wrote sentimental love poetry, and criticise the accepted contemporary role of women as passive, waiting for men who are often fickle (The Prince's Progress, A Birds-eye View).

[Cameron H · Rating 5 out of 5]

No, Thank You, John
BY CHRISTINA ROSSETTI

I never said I loved you, John:
Why will you tease me, day by day,
And wax a weariness to think upon
With always "do" and "pray"?

You know I never loved you, John;
No fault of mine made me your toast:
Why will you haunt me with a face as wan
As shows an hour-old ghost?

I dare say Meg or Moll would take
Pity upon you, if you'd ask:
And pray don't remain single for my sake
Who can't perform that task.

I have no heart?—Perhaps I have not;
But then you're mad to take offence
That I don't give you what I have not got:
Use your common sense.

Let bygones be bygones:
Don't call me false, who owed not to be true:
I'd rather answer "No" to fifty Johns
Than answer "Yes" to you.

Let's mar our pleasant days no more,
Song-birds of passage, days of youth:
Catch at to-day, forget the days before:
I'll wink at your untruth.

Let us strike hands as hearty friends;
No more, no less: and friendship's good:
Only don't keep in view ulterior ends,
And points not understood

In open treaty. Rise above
Quibbles and shuffling off and on:
Here's friendship for you if you like; but love,—
No, thank you, John.

[Eloise · Rating 3 out of 5]

I studied a few of Rossetti's poems in one of my university classes, and had meant to get around to reading the rest for a while. I'm not that interested in devotional poetry but since hers is important to understand who she was and what informed the rest of her writing, I persevered and read this cover to cover. Needless to say, my favourite poems in the collection were not the religious ones; I particularly enjoyed the poems with nature themes and her children's book poems were really fun.

Favourites: Goblin Market (of course), No Thank You John, Winter: My Secret, A Birthday, Winter Rain, Who Has Seen The Wind, An Emerald Is As Green As Grass, An Old-World Thicket, Song (She Sat And Sang Alway), Remember.

Apart from those standout poems, I must say the rest quickly became repetitive as Rossetti focuses on the same themes and uses similar imagery in a lot of her writing.

[Rose]

DNFd. Didn't end up being for me, although she does have some bangers.

[Miri · Rating 5 out of 5]

The introduction to this book kinda made me laugh bc it gave very old academic vibes, but this is an excellent selection and Rossetti's introspective Pre-Raphaelite verse is a real delight

[Lenne Veireman · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Later Life: A Double Sonnet of Sonnets” actually altered something within me. Enkele “good reads” te vinden in deze bundel.

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved these poems. Varied styles, not terribly complex, but evocative and moving nonetheless.

[Phoebe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Living unloved, to die unknown,
Unwept, untended and alone.

[Alex]

3/5

I'm honestly pretty disappointed, although this may just be because this is the follow-up to Wheatley, Wordsworth, and Tennyson in my poetry class. I found a lot of Rossetti's writing just not very engaging, the structure not very interesting, and the stories, not that deep/meaningful. While I did find her self-elegies and Goblin Market fantastic poems, the rest of the collection felt a bit like a letdown :/

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have loved Christina Rossetti's poems for years. I picked this volume up from the library on impulse as I have not read any of her work for a while. It was nice to re-read some old favourites like Cousin Kate, Echo, Song (When I am dead my dearest), Goblin Market and Remember.

What I liked about this volume was that it included more of her religious poetry than other "selected poems" editions that I have read. I found a new one to add to my list of favourites - Who shall deliver me?

Recommended.

[Bruno Oliveira · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tempus Fugit

Lovely Spring,
A brief sweet thing,
Is swift on the wing;
Gracious Summer,
A slow sweet comer,
Hastens past;
Autumn while sweet
Is all incomplete
With a moaning blast,—
Nothing can last,
Can be cleaved unto,
Can be dwelt upon;
It is hurried through,
It is come and gone,
Undone it cannot be done,
It is ever to do,
Ever old, ever new,
Ever waxing old
And lapsing to Winter cold.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very fine Christian poet.

[Steven Belanger · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m heavily annoyed that I’ve misplaced my list of preferred poems from this collection, which I read while recovering from Covid, so excuse my short attitude while I write this review.

Overall, Rossetti is not my poetic cup of tea, though in her time, like most popular poets, she was very popular for a time until she very suddenly wasn’t. Then after she died her poems went very out of fashion, until she and they resurfaced after a time. Today she is either really liked or really not. I’m a rare partial-appreciator.

“Goblin Market” is the heavily anthologized one you’ve maybe seen before. It’s longer than usual for her, and more slice of life than usual for her, and it doesn’t really do it for me. More pastoral in a way, as it says more about specific people she knew in poetic guises, which she did frequently in shorter poems. She wrote a lot of Christian poems, too, which is what she’s mostly known for today. These don’t exactly do it for me, but they may for you. To each his own.

Some of her other poems are morality checks in poetic disguise, such as “Behold, I Stand at the Door and Knock.” These were popular in their time, but are heavily moralizing and preachy. Not for me.

But many did. “A Birthday,” was popular then and is now. It has stood the test of time for a reason. The joy is obvious and real, unlike some of her more manufactured-sounding stuff. Look this one up. “Cobwebs” is a surreal possibility of the afterlife, rare for her stuff. The title is a good fit. “Day-Dreams” is a melancholy look at her constant days, looking out her windows, home bound. Sometimes contentedly, sometimes not. Very Emily Dickinson sounding, as much of her good stuff is. Dickinson definitely read her and would have liked her, as they had much in common. “Sonnets of A Later Life” is excerpted here, and is very good. More bitter than usual for her, but strong. “For Each” is very good, with a fine tone of resignation and acceptance. “Goblin Market,” as I said, is overrated, but longer poems were where the money was. Her better stuff is her shorter stuff. “The Heart Knoweth Its Own Bitterness,” is a very strong poem, not forced like some of her worse ones. The back and forth poems that read like a short play were the style of the time, like short Greek plays, but they probably won’t work for most today. They didn’t for me. “Looking Back” is a very short poem that works. Looking back is a common theme in her best poems as well. “Memory” is excellent. The first line of stanza two could’ve been straight from Dickinson: “I have a room whereinto no one enters / Save I myself alone.” I don’t want “No, Thank You, John,” to be excellent, because it superficially sounds so forced. But it does work, and it’s surprisingly autobiographical, which is why it rings so true. “On the Wing” is another dream poem. This one works better than others, though most are okay. She wrote a lot of them. “Remember” is maybe my favorite poem of hers, and is very strong today. It’s the best expression of a constant theme for her. This one is very Shakespearean, very similar to 91 (71?) that starts “No longer mourn for me when I am dead,” and is about remembering the person after death, unless it makes you sad. “Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay,” is my favorite of her lines. Rossetti had an uncommonly great number of single lines in poems that overall did not live up to their potential greatness. But if you’re looking, and patient enough, for the diamond in the rough, Rossetti is amongst the best ever. “Shut Out,” is okay and takes lines directly from Shakespeare’s 29, including the phrase “outcast state.” “Up-Hill” is a Christian poem in a Wordsworth cloak, but it sounds and works well, and is in fact a small nugget of wisdom. “Song” is another Shakespearean poem about remembrance after death, closer to the one I mentioned before.

You’ve probably heard that her brother was the great Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and that she and he had all the popular and genius artists going back and forth through their place all the time. It must’ve been an exhilarating yet e haunting time. She was a victim of bipolar depression, as her brother was as well, and Elizabeth Siddall, who you might know was Milias’s model/wife, his Ophelia. There were drugs and alcohol aplenty going on, though Christina mostly stayed away from it all, rare in that group. She had a debilitating disease, maybe Graves, that left her bedridden later in life. You could hear her screams and moans from homes away. A fascinating figure amongst many fascinating figures amidst an artistically fascinating time.

[Charlotte · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wasn’t a fan of Rossetti’s poetry. She had a habit of using too many syllables and it threw off the rhythm. It didn’t help that I also found her language and themes repetitive and bland. I only managed twenty pages before I started skim-reading. There were a few poems, however, that stood out from the rest and were actually likeable.

‘Two Pursuits’ was one. Its positive simplicity was a welcome change from the depressed, religious tone that pre-dominated the rest of the anthology. ‘After Death’ intrigued me too. It was a story, like many of the other poems, but it was the first poem not to have that woe-is-me whine. ‘Next of Kin’ had a maudlin tone – Rossetti’s go-to style, I assume- but I appreciated the change in structure. ‘Seasons’ offered vivid, natural imagery but the stanza-for-each-season framework was heavily over-used in the anthology as a whole. Someone forgot to tell Rossetti that variety was her friend. ‘Winter: My Secret’ was perhaps one of my favourites. It was playful and engaging and so pleasingly different from the cut-and-paste poetry that came before it. ‘L.E.L’ fascinated me much for the same reasons as ‘After Death’. It wandered away from the boringly familiar and took a stroll in new territory. ‘No, Thank You, John’ just made me laugh. That last line was a stunner.

The anthology’s longest, and probably most famous, poems were ‘Goblin Market’ and ‘My Cousin Kate’. ‘Goblin Market’ was rich with ripe, sexual imagery. Reading it was like eating chocolate on a diet. ‘My Cousin Kate’ was honest, regretful and smug. I read it as an accurate representation of human nature – we give in to temptation, we regret it but we often gain something from the transgression.