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ROSSETTI, CHRISTINA GEORGINA (1830-1894)

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Originally appearing in Volume V23, Page 747 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ROSSETTI, See also:CHRISTINA GEORGINA (1830-1894) , See also:English poet, was the youngest of the four See also:children of Gabriele Rossetti (see the See also:article on her See also:brother See also:DANTE See also:GABRIEL ROSSETTI). She was See also:born at 38 See also:Charlotte See also:Street, See also:Portland See also:Place, See also:London, on the 5th of See also:December 183o. She enjoyed the advantages and disadvantages of the See also:strange society of See also:Italian exiles and English eccentrics which her See also:father gathered about him, and she shared the studies of her gifted See also:elder brother and See also:sister. As See also:early as 1847 her grandfather, Gaetano Polidori, printed privately a See also:volume of her Verses, in which the richness of her See also:vision was already faintly prefigured. In 185o she contributed to The Germ seven pieces, including some of the finest of her lyrics. In her girlhood she had a See also:grave, religious beauty of feature, and sat as a See also:model not only to her brother Gabriel, but to See also:Holman See also:Hunt, to Madox See also:Brown and to See also:Millais. In 1853–54 Christina Rossetti for nearly a See also:year helped her See also:mother to keep a See also:day-school at See also:Frome-Selwood, in See also:Somerset. Early in 1854 the Rossettis returned to London, and the father died. In poverty, in See also:ill-See also:health, in extreme quietness, she was now performing her See also:life-See also:work. She was twice sought in See also:marriage, but each See also:time, from religious scruples (she was a strong high-See also:church See also:Anglican), she refused her suitor; on the former of these occasions she sorrowed greatly, and her suffering is reflected in much of her early See also:song. In 1861 she saw See also:foreign countries for the first time, paying a six See also:weeks' visit to See also:Normandy and See also:Paris. In 1862 she published what was practically her earliest See also:book, Goblin See also:Market, and took her place at once among the poets of her See also:age.

In this volume, indeed, is still to be found a See also:

majority of her finest writings. The See also:Prince's Progress followed in 1866. In 1867 she, with her See also:family, moved to 56 Euston Square, which became their See also:home for many years. Christina's See also:prose work See also:Commonplace appeared in 1870. In See also:April 1871 her whole life was changed by a terrible affliction, known as " See also:Graves's disease "; for two years her life was in See also:constant danger. She had already composed her book of children's poems, entitled Sing-Song, which appeared in 1872. After a See also:long convalescence, she published in 1874 two See also:works of See also:minor importance, Annus Domini and Speaking Likenesses. The former is the earliest of a See also:series of theological works in prose, of which the second was Seek and Find in 1899. In 1881 she published a third collection of poems, A See also:Pageant, in which there was See also:evidence of slackening lyrical See also:power. She now gave herself almost entirely to religious disquisition. The most interesting and See also:personal of her prose publications (but it contained See also:verse also) was Time Flies (1885)—a sort of symbolic See also:diary or collection of brief homilies. In 1890 the S.P.C.K. published a volume of her religious verse.

She collected her poetical writings in 1891. In 1892 she was led to publish a very bulky commentary on the See also:

Apocalypse, entitled The See also:Face of the Deep. After this she wrote little. Her last years were spent in retirement at 30 See also:Torrington Square, Bloomsbury, which was her home from 1876 to her See also:death. In 1892 her health See also:broke down finally, and she had to endure terrible suffering. From this she was released on the 29th of December 1894. Her New Poems were published posthumously in 1896. In spite of her See also:manifest limitations of sympathy and experience, Christina Rossetti takes See also:rank among the foremost poets of her time. In the purity and solidity of her finest lyrics, the glow and See also:music in which she See also:robes her moods of See also:melancholy See also:reverie, her extraordinary mixture of austerity with sweetness and of sanctity of See also:tone with sensuousness of See also:colour, Christina Rossetti, in her best pieces, may See also:challenge comparison with the most admirable of our poets. The See also:union of fixed religious faith with a hold upon See also:physical beauty and the richer parts of nature has been pointed to as the most See also:original feature of her See also:poetry. Hers was a cloistered spirit, timid, See also:nun-like, bowed down by suffering and humility; her See also:character was so retiring as to be almost invisible. All that we really need to know about her, See also:save that she was a See also:great See also:saint, was that she was a great poet.

(E. G.) See the Poetical Works of C. G. R., with Memoir by W. M. Rossetti (1903). Also See also:

Edmund See also:Gosse's See also:Critical See also:Kit-Kats (1896) ; an article by See also:Ford Madox Hueffer in the Fortnightly See also:Review (See also:March 19o4); and another in The See also:Christian Society (Oct. 1904). The Family Letters of Christina Rossetti were edited by W. M. Rossetti in 1908.

End of Article: ROSSETTI, CHRISTINA GEORGINA (1830-1894)

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