Volume 10 33
and attention to detail, sensuousness, and a concern
for symbolism.
Author Biography.
Rossetti was born in London, England, in 1830 to
Gabriele Rossetti and Frances Polidori Rossetti.
Her father was an Italian exile who had moved to
London some four years earlier. As a child Ros-
setti lived in Buckinghamshire in England’s coun-
tryside and often visited her maternal grandfather,
Gaetano Polidori, who lived nearby. These experi-
ences gave her a lifelong love for nature and ani-
mals. In 1839 the Rossetti family moved to Lon-
don where Christina was to spend her adolescent
years. Her father taught Italian at King’s College
and tutored students privately as well. As his health
declined, the family developed other sources of in-
come. For a time Rossetti’s mother became a gov-
erness and opened a small school in London. In
1853 the family moved to Somerset to run a school,
but that effort ended a year later in failure. Ros-
setti’s brother William, who worked for the Inland
Revenue Office and wrote for newspapers, was to
provide the bulk of the family’s income. Rossetti
demonstrated her poetic gifts early, writing sonnets
in competition with her brothers William and Dante
Gabriel. Her first published poem appeared in the
Athenaeum magazine when she was eighteen.
Dante Gabriel founded the journal The Germin
1852, and Rossetti became a frequent contributor.
Her book Goblin Market and Other Poemsap-
peared in 1862 in an edition for which Dante
Gabriel provided two illustrations. He also de-
signed and provided woodcut illustrations for Ros-
setti’s next book, The Prince’s Progress and Other
Poems(1866).
In 1848 Rossetti became engaged to a painter
named James Collinson. Collinson was, with
Dante Gabriel, a member of the group of young
artists known as the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood,
and he had exhibited his work at the Royal Acad-
emy. Religious differences finally pulled the cou-
ple apart; Rossetti, a strict Anglican, could not
accept Collinson’s conversion to Catholicism in
- During the 1860s Rossetti again came close
to marriage, this time with Charles Cayley, a lin-
guist and translator. Although religious differences
again played a part in their eventual break-up
(Cayley was not a Christian) the two remained
friends.
Subsequently, Rossetti lived a quiet and shel-
tered life. She lived with her mother until her
mother’s death in 1886 and then took care of two
elderly aunts until they passed away in the 1890s.
Only twice did she travel outside England. In 1862
she went with her mother and her brother William
to France; in 1865, the three visited northern Italy.
During much of her life Rossetti suffered from var-
ious illnesses, including Grave’s disease and bouts
of what doctors at the time attributed to “religious
mania,” probably psychosomatic in origin. In the
1860s Rossetti served for a time at the House of
Charity, an organization in Highgate working with
prostitutes and unwed mothers. During the 1880s
she began working with the Society for Promoting
Christian Knowledge, publishing devotional books
with them. In 1892 Rossetti was diagnosed with
cancer, went through surgery, and died in January
of 1894.Poem Text.
My heart is like a singing bird
Whose nest is in a watered shoot;
My heart is like an apple tree
Whose boughs are bent with thickset fruit;
My heart is like a rainbow shell 5
That paddles in a halcyon sea;
My heart is gladder than all these
Because my love is come to me.A BirthdayChristina Rossetti