Christina Rossetti
Biography
Collected
Works
Sample Poems
Inspired
Poems
Original
Poems
Bibliography
Presentation by Keana Karnopp, 2011
Biography
Collected
Works
Sample
Poems
Inspired
Poems
Original
Poems
Bibliography
Biography
Christina Rossetti
“Silence is more musical than any song” (“Christina Rossetti Quotes”). This quote
was said by Christina Rossetti, which shows the contradicting shy and outgoing sides
of her personality. These sides helped her in her flourishing career. She was one of
the most influential poets of her time. Full name, Christina Georgina Rossetti, she
was born in London on December 5, 1830 to her loving, talented parents Gabriele
and Frances Rossetti (Everett). Rossetti’s childhood was very unsociable and lonely,
making her poems very relatable and deep. Her social life was limited to her
brother’s friends that were introduced to her, because she kept to herself in her
home in London for most of her life (“Christina Rossetti”). At age 7 she spent most
of her time at home writing and learning from her mother for her education
(“Christina Georgina Rossetti Biography”). As Rossetti grew older she was
diagnosed, more than once, with a recurring disease called Grave’s Disease. Before,
she had been told it was angina or tuberculosis until they came up with the
diagnosis of Grave’s Disease (“Christina Rossetti” 1). Grave’s Disease is a disease
characterized by an enlarged thyroid, a rapid pulse, and increased basal metabolism
due to excessive thyroid secretion. Along with that factor Dante, Rossetti’s famous
brother, introduced her to his colleague Charles Cayley and they fell in love (Everett)
(“Christina Rossetti Biography”). Yet, Rossetti refused to marry Charles because he
wasn’t Christian. Rossetti’s beliefs got in the way of her love life, and she never
ended up marrying. She did like to imitate other people’s lives to see through their
eyes in her poems and writing (Everett). Although Rossetti’s life influenced her
poems, other experiences caused her to be very influential through her writing.
Biography
Collected
Works
Sample
Poems
Inspired
Poems
Original
Poems
Bibliography
It started with poems, and ended with children’s literature (Everett).
Christina Rossetti’s career began at home, writing for her mother for
schoolwork. Once her father had become tremendously ill, both Christina
and her mother attended day school to make up for the family’s lost
paycheck, as they were already considered poor (Everett). Her many wild
experiences, including working in a refuge with former prostitutes, came
in handy when she wrote her poems by giving her hands on experience in
the outside world, something she wasn’t familiar with (“Christina Georgina
Rossetti Biography”). Emily Dickinson, Ellen Alleyne, and her own
brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti influenced her writing through their ideals
and symbols (“Christina Rossetti” 1). Although her experiences are too
many to name, she wasn’t awarded with prizes, but she did manage to
complete three major volumes of poetry before her death (“Christina
Georgina Rossetti”). Some of her famous poems include A Birthday,
Goblin Market, Sleeping at Last, By the Sea, and After Death (“Collected
Works”). Rossetti’s poetry was through experience and unique style and
ideas. Rossetti’s thinking was far beyond boring and plain. Her poems were marked
by symbolism and intense emotion. Being a Victorian poet, she was enlightened by
her Christian roots (“Christina Rossetti” 1). Rossetti’s poems were written with
mystic religious lyrics that spoke in a fascinating tone (“Christina Georgina Rossetti
Biography”) and the phrases in her writing were worded with an earthy passion, like
a ballad (“Christina Rossetti Biography”). Allusions, blank verses, elegies, and
imagery are just a few of the poetic devices she so brilliantly used. Like in her last
contribution “Sleeping at Last”, ironically published after she died, she chose words
like “Singing birds in their leafy cover” and “No more a tired heart downcast or
overcast, No more pangs that wring or shifting fears that hover” (“Sleeping at Last”).
Famous for her highly sentimental religious poems, Christina Georgina Rossetti is
regarded as one of, if not the greatest female poet, or writer, of her time (“Christina
Rossetti Biography”).
Collected Works
Biography
Collected
Works
Sample
Poems
Inspired
Poems
Original
Poems
Bibliography
After Death
Aloof
Apple-Gathering, An
At Home
Before the Paling of the Stars
Beneath Thy Cross
Better Resurrection, A
Birthday, A
By the Sea
Cobwebs
Convent Threshold, The
Cousin Kate
Daughter of Eve, A
De Profundis
Dream Land
Echo
End, An
Eve
First Day, The
From Sunset to Star Rise
From the Antique
Goblin Market
Holy Innocents
In an Artist's Studio
In Progress
For more poems by this poet:
http://classiclit.about.com/library/bletexts/crossetti/bl-crossetticollected.htm
ANALYSIS POEM
Biography
Collected
Works
Sample
Poems
Inspired
Poems
Original
Poems
Bibliography
REMEMBER
by: Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)
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.
ANALYSIS
Biography
Collected
Works
Sample
Poems
Inspired
Poems
Original
Poems
Bibliography
In Christina Rossetti’s poem Remember, she uses a distinct mood to shield her
topic of remembrance and triumph after ones death. After reading this poem I
felt like I was being comforted by a deceased loved one, being told to forget
them to be happy. I think Rossetti conveyed her deep inner, and emotional
thoughts on death and how she hoped people would react to her death through
euphoria instead of grieving. 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. These lines in Rossetti’s poem set a mood by
revealing her innermost secret, wanting to be forgotten so people close to her
have a hint of bliss after her passing. Better by far you should forget and
smile/than that you should remember and be sad. Broadcasted through this
line of Remember is that Christina Rossetti would rather her admirers forget
about her and be joyful and happy than having them remember her and be in
mourn. The tone, or mood, of these excerpts sends a sorrowful message to the
readers, thus making the reader experience remorse. Remember relates to its
readers by digging deep into emotions and setting a unique, creative mood and
getting the reader to grasp their own emotions. Overall, Rossetti creates a
delicate picture in the minds of the unfortunate who have lost someone special
and are still hovering over their bereavement.
INTRODUCTIONS
Biography
Collected
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Sample
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Song by Christina Rossetti caught my attention by digging deep into sorrow
through nature. Be the green grass above me/with showers and dew drops wet.
Rossetti gets through to the reader with these lines by basically saying ‘watch
over her when she is deceased, through thick and thin’. Song is a great reminder
of letting go of loved ones, even though you won’t forget them.
SONG
By: Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)
WHEN I am dead, my dearest,
Sing no sad songs for me;
Plant thou no roses at my head,
Nor shady cypress tree:
Be the green grass above me
With showers and dewdrops wet;
And if thou wilt, remember,
And if thou wilt, forget.
I shall not see the shadows,
I shall not feel the rain;
I shall not hear the nightingale
Sing on, as if in pain;
And dreaming through the twilight
That doth not rise nor set,
Haply I may remember,
And haply may forget.
Biography
Collected
Works
Sample
Poems
Inspired
Poems
Original
Poems
Bibliography
I was intrigued by A Birthday because it is one of Rossetti’s only poems
with a bright mood. In this poem she talks about her love that has come to
her, which contradicts her reality because she never married. Her tone
stays at a high point throughout the poem, showing that even though most
of her poems are depressing in theme, she is still overall a happy person.
A BIRTHDAY
by: Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)
MY heart is like a singing bird
Whose nest is in a water'd shoot;
My heart is like an apple-tree
Whose boughs are bent with thick-set fruit;
My heart is like a rainbow shell
That paddles in a halcyon sea;
My heart is gladder than all these,
Because my love is come to me.
Raise me a daïs of silk and down;
Hang it with vair and purple dyes;
Carve it in doves and pomegranates,
And peacocks with a hundred eyes;
Work it in gold and silver grapes,
In leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys;
Because the birthday of my life
Is come, my love is come to me.
INSPIRED POEMS
Biography
Collected
Works
Sample
Poems
Inspired
Poems
Original
Poems
Bibliography
MY DREAM
by: Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)
HEAR now a curious dream I dreamed last night
Each word whereof is weighed and sifted truth.
I stood beside Euphrates while it swelled
Like overflowing Jordan in its youth:
It waxed and coloured sensibly to sight;
Till out of myriad pregnant waves there welled
Young crocodiles, a gaunt blunt-featured crew,
Fresh-hatched perhaps and daubed with birthday dew.
The rest if I should tell, I fear my friend
My closest friend would deem the facts untrue;
And therefore it were wisely left untold;
Yet if you will, why, hear it to the end.
Each crocodile was girt with massive gold
And polished stones that with their wearers grew:
But one there was who waxed beyond the rest,
Wore kinglier girdle and a kingly crown,
Whilst crowns and orbs and sceptres starred his breast.
All gleamed compact and green with scale on scale,
But special burnishment adorned his mail
And special terror weighed upon his frown;
His punier brethren quaked before his tail,
Broad as a rafter, potent as a flail.
Biography
Collected
Works
Sample
Poems
Inspired
Poems
Original
Poems
So he grew lord and master of his kin:
But who shall tell the tale of all their woes?
An execrable appetite arose,
He battened on them, crunched, and sucked them in.
He knew no law, he feared no binding law,
But ground them with inexorable jaw:
The luscious fat distilled upon his chin,
Exuded from his nostrils and his eyes,
While still like hungry death he fed his maw;
Till every minor crocodile being dead
And buried too, himself gorged to the full,
He slept with breath oppressed and unstrung claw.
Oh marvel passing strange which next I saw:
In sleep he dwindled to the common size,
And all the empire faded from his coat.
Then from far off a wingèd vessel came,
Swift as a swallow, subtle as a flame:
I know not what it bore of freight or host,
But white it was as an avenging ghost.
It levelled strong Euphrates in its course;
Supreme yet weightless as an idle mote
It seemed to tame the waters without force
Till not a murmur swelled or billow beat:
Lo, as the purple shadow swept the sands,
The prudent crocodile rose on his feet
And shed appropriate tears and wrung his hands.
What can it mean? you ask. I answer not
For meaning, but myself must echo, What?
And tell it as I saw it on the spot.
Bibliography
Biography
Collected
Works
Sample
Poems
Inspired
Poems
Original
Poems
Bibliography
Premonition
(inspired by Christina Rossetti)
Hear now a curious dream I dreamed last night,
Each word whereof is weighed and sifted truth.
Two kites interlaced like wool twisting on a spindle.
The torrid wind nibbling at my skin, voices inside me tussled.
They murmured unspeakable thoughts.
My mother grabbed my arm with great tutelage as we walked
swiftly down the long gravel road.
My feet shuffled, crying from exhaustion, I was tangled.
In the midst of the scorching summer day, my kite was
kidnapped by the light blue sky,
Never to be returned.
Sleeping at Last
By Christina Georgina Rossetti
(1830-1894)
Sleeping at last, the trouble and tumult over,
Sleeping at last, the struggle and horror past,
Cold and white, out of sight of friend and of lover,
Sleeping at last.
No more a tired heart downcast or overcast,
No more pangs that wring or shifting fears that
hover,
Sleeping at last in a dreamless sleep locked fast.
Fast asleep. Singing birds in their leafy cover
Cannot wake her, nor shake her the gusty blast.
Under the purple thyme and the purple clover
Sleeping at last.
Biography
Collected
Works
Sample
Poems
Inspired
Poems
Original
Poems
Bibliography
Serendipity
(inspired by Christina Rossetti)
My heart beats pause as the water of a grandeur fountain
spills over stone palettes lining rusty spouts.
Like the grace of a winter’s day, my love screams with
triumph.
As time goes by, the golden sky awakes and I quiver with
devotion.
Your lips smeared against mine,
Looking across a vast ocean, we fell into everlasting peace.
ORIGINAL POEMS
Biography
Collected
Works
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Poems
Inspired
Poems
Original
Poems
Bibliography
FAITH
The mottled runners congregate at the start,
Conniving strategies, feeling excitement, yet solitude.
A sudden rush of adrenaline feels its way through their bodies,
Like a flash of lightning striking the ground.
A loud snap of the gun,
The runners steal the spotlight.
Names shouted across the field,
As the clocks tick,
Pressure’s on.
Finishing in qualifying times,
Runners embrace each other in celebration,
Pressures off, goals met.
A NIGHTMARE
Nightingales in the starry night sky sing,
My heart beats rapidly.
Ominous shadows envelope my path,
As my breath fogs the air.
In front of me I hear movements,
I confidently diverge.
My blue eyes catch a glimpse of the moon,
As I peer around the corner, I’m startled
Only to find my conscience,
Stalking my well-being.
Nightingales in the starry night sky sing,
My heart feels no pulse.
BIBILIOGRAPHY
Biography
Collected
Works
Sample
Poems
Inspired
Poems
Original
Poems
Bibliography
http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/crossetti/rossettibio.html
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/716
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=2753
http://www.bookrags.com/biography/christina-georgina-rossetti/
http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/christina_rossetti/biography
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/c/christinar147533.html
http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/crossetti/bl-crossetti-collected.htm
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.lisisoft.com/imglisi/5/Themes/150980s
un-over-the-ocean.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.lisisoft.com/fulldownload/desktoputilities/themes-list/20page/&usg=__Ayj28YrmeTancKE2pivO5gcjmp0=&h=768&w=1024&sz=157&hl=en&start=21
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6&hovh=194&hovw=259&tx=194&ty=168&page=4&ndsp=6&ved=1t:429,r:3,s:21&biw=763
&bih=439
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.windsorct.org/sagelmc/GRADE
8/kite.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.windsorct.org/sagelmc/GRADE8/kites.htm&usg=_
_Td8LHApE_UC7v4Y554StQZKblDg=&h=365&w=291&sz=5&hl=en&start=0&zoom=
1&tbnid=US2lSoE08OaEtM:&tbnh=141&tbnw=111&ei=ZLS1TfCuL4fuvQPpKGdBw&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dkite%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26biw%3D76
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:7,s:0
http://www.poetry-archive.com/r/my_dream.html
http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/crossetti/bl-crossetti-sleep.htm
Biography
Collected
Works
Sample
Poems
Inspired
Poems
Original
Poems
Bibliography
http://www.poetry-archive.com/r/song.html
http://www.poetry-archive.com/r/remember.html
http://www.poetry-archive.com/r/a_birthday.html
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.nndb.com/people/825/000086567/chri
stina-rossetti1877.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.nndb.com/people/825/000086567/&usg=__4aFsrXJWbTHK
zBOaMqASJhEw95c=&h=293&w=240&sz=15&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=n93_9EYBAZM
muM:&tbnh=173&tbnw=144&ei=YBC3TevIK5H0tgOy1u2oAQ&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dchristin
a%2Brossetti%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26biw%3D1276%26bih%3D839%26gbv%3D2
%26tbm%3Disch&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=456&vpy=91&dur=2574&hovh=234&hovw=192&tx=
112&ty=133&page=1&ndsp=28&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:0
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.turnbacktogod.com/wpcontent/uploads/2008/09/cross-of-christ0101.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.turnbacktogod.com/september-14-triumph-of-the-holycross/&usg=__n53NlugCeNLe411YY2yhWburKdI=&h=1080&w=1440&sz=593&hl=en&start=0
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35&ty=88
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://eagletreks.com/assets/galleries/15/crocodile_
in_rapti_river.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.eagletreks.com/jungle-safari-innepal.html&usg=__FOtm6ZdUqB2qH57rNUo5OOCYe9w=&h=427&w=640&sz=99&hl=en&sta
rt=40&zoom=1&tbnid=C0wr1j8hnEXDM:&tbnh=153&tbnw=204&ei=pending&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dcrocodile%2Bb
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2%26site%3Dsearch%26tbm%3Disch0%2C1762&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=347&vpy=297&dur=34
79&hovh=183&hovw=275&tx=134&ty=104&page=3&ndsp=20&ved=1t:429,r:16,s:40&biw=1
276&bih=839
Biography
Collected
Works
Sample
Poems
Inspired
Poems
Original
Poems
Bibliography
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.wallpapers247.com/images/wallpap
ers/bird-1-wallpaper-1024x768853745.jpeg&imgrefurl=http://www.wallpapers247.com/wallpaper/Bird-TanagerPanama/&usg=__SAxJuLTeSghNDSVcaON3Jt5qd5U=&h=768&w=1024&sz=63&hl=en&star
t=0&zoom=1&tbnid=uigRy9KjnXzlPM:&tbnh=165&tbnw=247&ei=gLG5TZOnEIatwemtfHdBA&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dbird%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26biw%3D12
76%26bih%3D839%26gbv%3D2%26tbm%3Disch&itb