The Convent Threshold

Following the Romantic era, the Victorian era lasted from about 1837 to 1901 during the reign of Queen Victoria in England. This poetry focused on sensory elements, the conflict between religion and science, and criticism of contemporary society. One of the most praised innovations of the movement was the dramatic monologue form. The time also experienced a boom in women writers in both poetry and novels.

Rossetti’s relationship with her brothers Dante Gabriel and William informed both her work and decided her legacy. From a young age, Rossetti and Dante Gabriel often played games where they invented poems. In her teenage years, Rossetti often sat for his paintings. Based on their extensive correspondences, Dante Gabriel helped prepare her first collection, Goblin Market and other Poems, though Rossetti spiritedly rejected some of his suggestions and revisions. Her brother William edited the posthumous publication of her complete body of work, titled The Poetical Works of Christina Georgina Rossetti. Modern critics have focused on what some consider revisionist editing of the poems. While certainly flawed in arrangement and divisions, this collection became the standard edition until 1979’s publication of the first edition of Rebecca W. Crump’s collection. In addition to defining the publication of her poetry, William also created his sister’s image. He dismissed the effort Rossetti put into her poetry by calling it casual and easy for her to compose without revising. William also worked to construct a version of her life and censor her letters.

Rossetti’s poetry has remained in view since its publication, though her reputation has swelled and diminished over time. In her lifetime, she was often considered one of the best women poets, second only to Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Browning was widely considered more political, intellectual, and varied while Rossetti was considered more lyrically gifted with an easy perfection and simplicity. Once Browning died in 1861, Rossetti was widely considered her successor.

In the early-20th century, Rossetti’s poetry fell in popularity as a result of Modernism, though she still influenced writers like Virginia Woolf and Ford Madox Ford. Rossetti’s standing surged in the 1970s as Freudian and biographical readings became prominent. During the later years of the 20th century, interest in her poetry continued to swell as feminist criticism focused on gender and contextualized her work in her life as a 19th-century woman. Contemporary scholarship considers a wider range of influences and contexts and also looks more broadly at her life’s work.