Resumen
Resumen de Poemas
Para quién es
For readers who love short, musical poems about love, loss, faith and nature, and anyone who wants a way into Victorian poetry.
De qué trata este libro
Christina Rossetti wrote the poems gathered here over nearly fifty years in Victorian London. She was born in 1830 into a gifted Anglo-Italian family, and a first small book of her verses was printed in 1847, when she was still in her teens. Her best-known volume, Goblin Market and Other Poems, appeared in 1862 and made her name. Later books added devotional verse, a sequence of love sonnets, and rhymes for children.
What you get is a body of short lyrics that sound simple and are not. They speak of love that cannot be had, of death met with calm, of faith held against doubt, and of small things in nature seen sharply. You also get one long fable in verse about two sisters and a market of goblins. In the next few minutes you will meet the poet, her best-known poems, and the habits of voice that run through them. Start with the world she came from.
En este resumen
- 1A quiet life that fed intense poemsFree
- 2Goblin Market warns and enchants together
- 3Love, loss and waiting in the lyrics
- 4Faith pulls against the pleasures of earth
- 5Sing-Song shows her gift for simplicity
- 6Sound, form and the habits of her voice
Idea clave 1 de 6
A quiet life that fed intense poems
Christina Rossetti grew up in London in a household full of books, languages and art. Her father, Gabriele Rossetti, was an Italian exile and a poet and scholar. Her brother Dante Gabriel became a painter and poet and a leader of the Pre-Raphaelite circle. Her sister Maria and brother William also wrote. In such a home, making verse felt natural, and she began very young.
Her faith shaped her more than anything else. She belonged to the Anglo-Catholic wing of the Church of England, which was stirred by the Oxford Movement. Prayer, church feasts, sin and judgment were daily matters for her, and they run through her poems. Tradition says she turned down two offers of marriage because of differences in belief. Whatever the full truth, her poems often return to love that is held back by duty or by faith.
Her health was often poor, and she lived much of her adult life with her mother and aunts. Some readers picture her as a recluse, but she wrote steadily, published widely, and took part in the literary life around her brother. Early poems appeared in a Pre-Raphaelite magazine called The Germ, under a pen name. She also did charity work with women in need, and that concern with temptation and rescue echoes in her longer poems.
Knowing this background helps, but you do not need it. The poems work as small, clear scenes of feeling. A voice speaks quietly, often from a place of waiting. Behind that calm surface lies a strong sense of what is given up and what is hoped for, and that tension drives most of what follows.
It also explains her range. The same hand wrote riddling love poems, hymns, carols and nursery rhymes. They all share a plain way of speaking that never shouts.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
- Nothing to pay today · Renews every year
- We email you before you pay
- Cancel online in two clicks
Questions about Poemas
What is Goblin Market about?
It is a poem about two sisters, Laura and Lizzie, and the goblin men who sell tempting fruit. It deals with temptation, longing and the love between sisters, and readers have read it in religious, social and personal ways.
What is Christina Rossetti best known for?
She is best known for Goblin Market and Other Poems of 1862, and for short lyrics such as Remember, Up-Hill, A Birthday and a Christmas poem later sung as a carol. She also wrote Sing-Song, a book of children's rhymes.
Are Christina Rossetti's poems hard to read?
No. Her language is plain and her forms are simple, so most poems are easy to follow. They are short and musical, and the depth lies in the feeling underneath.
What is Monna Innominata?
It is a sequence of fourteen sonnets published in 1881. The title means unnamed lady. Rossetti gives a voice to the silent beloved of the great love poets, and she writes of love, doubt, faith and parting.
What are the main themes in Rossetti's poetry?
The main themes are love that cannot be fulfilled, death and waiting, faith set against earthly pleasure, and the inner lives of women. Nature, with its birds, fruit, flowers and seasons, gives her the images for them.