Reviews

The Poetry of Christina Rossetti by Christina Rossetti

ellareads4's review

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5.0

21st-century readers judge Christina Rossetti harshly for her religious fanaticism, melancholy, and "trite" verse. I think modern readers and scholars do not give her nearly enough credit. While I can't deny her (occasionally tedious) fanaticism and melancholy, she is a wonderful poet. Her deceptively simple poetry reveals universal truths about life, love, and, in particular, grief. Rossetti's precise language predates the sparse style considered cutting-edge in the 20th century. Rossetti's brother was a Pre-Raphaelite painter. She "paints" with her verse through her lush description of flowers, animals, and colors, so I consider Christina, not just Gabriel, foundational in the Pre-Raphaelite school.

A poem like "Remember" is a perfect poem. "In an Artist's Studio" and "No, Thank You, John" are fantastic, arch, and surprisingly fiery poems.

elspethw's review

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3.0

This collection has the poems:
Goblin Market
Winter: My Secret
An Apple Gathering
Let Me Go
When I Am Dead, My Dearest
The First Day
Spring
Remember
Noble Sisters
No, Thank You, John
A Triad
May
Love from the North
A Peal of Bells
Maude Clare
Fata Morgana
Christmas Eve
Song (Two Doves Upon The Selfsame Branch)
A Birthday
In the Bleak Midwinter
Echo
A Pause of Thought
Cousin Kate
Another Spring
Dream Land
At Home
Winter Rain
A Summer Wish

katharine_whitfield's review

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emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

4.75

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