Christina+Rossetti+and+Childhood

====Christina Georgina Rossetti was one of the primary female poets of the Victorian era whose poems were typically associated with religion and spirituality. Although Rossetti was never married and remained childless, many of her poems pertained to the theme of childhood and its role in Victorian culture (Leavy 216). This theme appears in a select range of her poetic volumes such as //Goblin Market and Other Poems// (1862), //The Prince's Progress, and Other Poems// (1866), and //Sing-Song// (1893), many of which were geared to both adult and children audiences (Casey 64). Rossetti’s construction of childhood aims to uproot the traditional Victorian stereotypes of the "naughty child” and the idealized "gentle child" (Sickbert 388). In Victorian Literature, children who were portrayed as lacking moral judgment were severely punished, while a virtuous child was typically awarded for their moral purity (Sickbert 388). These two stereotypes were founded upon the expectation children must strictly follow the morals that were incorporated into their education and placed upon them by their parents (Sickbert 385). Contrastingly, Rossetti aimed to depict children according to more realistic and humanistic expectations. In her poems, children were not portrayed as perfect virtuous beings. Unlike many children’s poems where “horribly brutal deaths” were the punishment for a child’s disobedience, children who lacked moral judgment did not suffer any consequences for their impure actions or thoughts (Sickbert 388). Rossetti's children's poems managed to convey great affection for children without idealizing a particular image of what a child should be or what morals they must uphold (Sickbert 396; 398). ==== ====Rossetti’s children poems depict children as autonomous from the control and authority of their parents. In contrast to her contemporaries, Rossetti's depiction of childhood was founded upon the idea that the “adult and child share a world in which each has an equal place” (Sickbert 390). Victorian children's literature typically emphasized the supreme authority within parents over a child’s “unquestioning obedience” (Sickbert 392). Rossetti allowed the child to transcend this hierarchy in order to allow him or her to freely develop without the hindering moral restraints of the Victorian era. Rossetti maintains a neutral stance in portraying both the positive and negative characteristics of a child’s own exploration of moral values. This is exemplified in her collection of poetry entitled Sing- Song, where the mother is presented as an “active subject” who does not objectify her child as a result of her authoritarian agency (Sickbert 387). Instead, the mother teaches her daughter to withhold from “becoming the traditional Victorian girl” (Sickbert 387). Rossetti’s poems on childhood allowed her to critique and restructure the stereotypes of motherhood and children in the Victorian Era. ==== ====Along with being presented as autonomous, Rossetti depicts children with a strong sense of sexual agency. Amidst many of her poetic works, Rossetti often characterized children as their own sexual agent (Kooistra 254). This contrasted the traditional social morals of the Victorian Era, which advocated sexual repression in women and children. On many occasions, Rossetti’s children are often portrayed with a developing sense of sexual consciousness (Kooistra 255). The erotic undertones that can be found within Rossetti’s children poems confront the unrealistic romantic notion that a child is pure, innocent, and completely asexual (Kooistra 183). As exemplified in her poem "Goblin Market", the image of fruits, which are allegorical figures for sex, are represented as both "honey to the throat" and "poison in the blood" (Sickbert 344). Sexuality is associated with honey (which is a more positive association) along with a more negative comparison such as poison. Rossetti does not fully condemn nor praise sexual consciousness within children. Although she acknowledges the negative consequences that can arise in indulging in sexual activity, she allows the child to freely explore these negative and positive aspects of morality and sexuality for themselves. According to Rossetti, children have manifestations of sexuality. As sexual ignorance was often associated with women and children in the Victorian era, Rossetti’s poems sought to address the politics of sexual maturation. ====

====Rossetti’s psychological and social portrayals of children were akin to some of her contemporary Victorian authors such as Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear. These authors liberated children's poetry from its influential designs of upholding the repressive social morals amongst the children of the Victorian era. Rossetti’s representation of childhood transforms the traditional Victorian designs on children’s poetry into a genre that liberalizes children from the obligation to be examples of virtue and innocence (Sickbert 397; 406). ====

__Works Cited __  Casey, Janet G. "The Potential of Sisterhood: Christina Rossetti's "Goblin Market" Victorian Poetry 29.1 (1991): 63-78.

Kooistra, Lorraine J. "Modern Markets for ‘Goblin Market’" Victorian Poetry 32.3/4 (1994).

Leavy, Barbara Fass. "Christina Rossetti, Anglo-Italian Woman." Italian Americana 3.2 (1977): 204-55.

Sickbert, Virgina. "Christina Rossetti and Victorian Children's Poetry: A Maternal Challenge to the Patriarchal Family." Victorian Poetry 31.4 (1993): 385-410.

Velvoda, Kathleen. "The Fruit of Charity: ‘Comus’ and Christina Rossetti's "Goblin Market"" Victorian Poetry 38.4 (2000): 555-78.