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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Christina Rossetti Biography ROSSETTI, rosĕt’e, Christina Georgina (1830–94). An English poet, younger daughter of Gabriele Rossetti and sister of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. She was born in London and was educated at home under the care of her mother. After a life of devotion and retirement she died Dec. 29, 1894. The poetic impulse manifested itself early. She addressed a poem to her mother on the latter's birthday, April 27, 1842, sent two poems to the Athenœum in 1848, and contributed, under the pseudonym Ellen Alleyne, several beautiful lyrics to the Germ (1850). Her published volumes of poems comprise mainly: Verses (privately printed, 1847); Goblin Market, and Other Poems (1862); The Prince's Progress, and Other Poems (1866); A Pageant, and Other Poems (1881); Poems, new and enlarged edition (1891); Verses (1893); New Poems (posthumous, 1896). She also wrote many devotional pieces in prose, which circulated widely. As a poet Christina Rossetti ranks high; her only equal among the English women of the nineteenth century was Mrs. Browning. She is seen at her very best in her short and intense lyrics like "After Death" and "Passing and Glassing." Consult: E. W. Gosse, Critical Kit-Kats (New York, 1896); Mackenzie Bell, Christina Rossetti: A Biographical and Critical Study (London, 1898); Poems (Boston, 1899); P. E. More, Shelburne Essays (3d series, New York, 1905). Her sister, Maria Francesca (1827–76), was also a remarkable woman. She is known for her admirable A Shadow of Dante (1871). The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XX (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 167-168. |