Christina+G.+Rossetti's+Poems

Rossetti, Christina G. Poems. London: Macmillan, 1899. Print.

 University of Victoria Call Number: PR5237 A1 1899

=About the Book: = This book entitled Poems by Christina G. Rossetti was published in 1899, five years after her death in 1894. It contains such poems as “Goblin Market” and “A Daughter of Eve”. This collection of her work includes over 200 poems. The poems are divided into five categories subsequently entitled "'Goblin Market, Etc., Devotional Pieces., The Prince's Progress, Etc. , Devotional Pieces. , A Pageant and Other Poems. The book is covered in a brown casing and the title Christina G. Rossetti’s Poems is written on both the cover and the spine in gold. Inside the book, there are illustrations accompanying the two poems “Goblin Market” and “The Prince's Progress”. The two images come with inscriptions. Next to the poem "Goblin Market” the inscription says, “Buy from us with golden curl". The second image's inscription says, "The long hours go and come and go" next to the poem entitled "The Princes Progress”. On the first page of the book is the dedication which says "To my mother in all reverence and love, I inscribe this book". The following page is a more specific dedication from Christina Rossetti to her American readers: "My little book seems scarcely to admit of prefatory words: either it will speak for itself, or all my additions must fail to speak for it. Its reappearance, however, in an American edition, gives me a welcome opportunity of acknowledging the courtesy and liberality of Messrs. Roberts Brothers, who have arranged with me and with my kind friend and publisher, Mr. Macmillan, to bring it before the American public.”. This is an authorized American edition of Rossetti's collected works. =Inside the Book: = In the book, many of the poems have annotations on them by previous readers. The poem “Up-Hill” is annotated by a reader who highlights the beauty of the poem's imagery and the underlying Christian message.

 Does the road wind up-hill all the way? Yes, to the very end. Will the day’s journey take the whole long day? From morn to night, my friend.

 But is there for the night a resting-place? A roof for when the slow dark hours begin. May not the darkness hide it from my face? You cannot miss that inn.

 Shall I meet other wayfarers at night? Those who have gone before. Then must I knock, or call when just in sight? They will not keep you standing at that door.

 Shall I find comfort, travel-sore and weak? Of labour you shall find the sum. Will there be beds for me and all who seek? Yea, beds for all who come.

 At one point the reader notes at the line “Yea, beds for all who come” that in writing this Christina Rossetti expressed her need for reassurance that all those who seek the will of God will find Him and everlasting life they say "Reassurance that all those who seek will find God and everlasting life". Many of her poems center on a religious theme because Christina Rossetti was an extremely religious woman. This poem gives the reader a glimpse into the questions of religion that haunt Christina Rossetti, it also brings into question matters of her personal life that could be causing her to question her place in heaven (Poetry Foundation). This and other themes such as “The inconstancy of human love, the vanity of earthly pleasures, renunciation, individual unworthiness, and the perfection of divine love are recurring themes in her poetry” (Poetry Foundation).

=Life of Christina Rossetti: = Christina Rossetti’s work was popular in her lifetime. She saw her work popularized and was able to make money from the things she published. There was a renewed interest in her work in the twentieth century, “a great interest has been taken in Freudian interpretations of poems such as ‘Goblin Market’, and her work, which was previously admired for its innocence and artlessness, has become a hunting-ground for critics and biographers; enlisted as a symbol of repressed female genius, she has had her work scanned for tropes of starvation and sexual guilt” (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography). Christina Rossetti's work focuses on religious themes and these and other themes generated widespread interest at the time of their publication and into the present day. This volume of her collected works was published five years after her death stands as a tribute to her success during her lifetime.

 S.B.Engl386.Uvic.Spring2016

Works Cited:
 Lindsay DuguidOxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. Online ed. Ed. Lawrence Goldman. Jan. 2009. 31 Jan. 2016 ws:start:WikiTextUrlRule:66:http://www.oxforddnb.com.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/view/article/24139 [] ws:end:WikiTextUrlRule:66 >.)

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> "Biography of Christina Rossetti." Poetry Foundation. Web. <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/christina-rossetti#poet>.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Rossetti, Christina G. Poems. London: Macmillan, 1899. Print. <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: justify;">