Who was Christina Rossetti?
Christina Rossetti (1830-1894) British writer. Christina Rossetti was part of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, and famous for “Goblin Market,” “A Birthday,” and “Up-Hill.” . Song 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. .
she is overshadowed by her more colourful brother, Dante Gabriel. Yet most of us have read Goblin Market and My Heart is Like a Singing Bird and have sung In the Deep Midwinter, so why does the author arouse so little of our curiosity? A study of many previously untapped sources enables us to piece together a more complete picture of this enigmatic woman. Wherever possible, Frances Thomas has drawn on Christina Rossetti’s own writings and the impressions of her contemporaries to describe a personality that might have been crippled and destroyed by her own passionate and contradictory nature, yet who utilised the contradictions to write subtle and profound poems, many of them still known to the general reader. We see the effect of an extraordinarily happy and creative childhood, later to be blighted by illness and poverty. We see the overwhelming influence of an uncompromising High Church devotion; as well as hints of unhappy love affairs. Parallel to her quiet days is the flamboyant li
