Goblin Market (1862)
Narrative poem in which Lizzie saves her sister Laura, who has eaten the goblins' enchanted fruit
Literature · Poets
Christina Rossetti
1830–1894 · English
Victorian poetry; Pre-Raphaelite circle
Christina Rossetti was one of the finest Victorian poets, a member of the gifted Rossetti family at the heart of the Pre-Raphaelite movement. Her fame was made by Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862), and her devout Anglo-Catholic faith runs through lyrics on love, renunciation and death. She also wrote the words of the carol "In the Bleak Midwinter" and the children's verses of Sing-Song.
How to spot them
- ▸Goblin Market: sisters Laura and Lizzie and the goblin men's fruit
- ▸Words of the carol "In the Bleak Midwinter" (set by Holst and by Darke)
- ▸"Remember me when I am gone away"; "My heart is like a singing bird"
- ▸Sister of Dante Gabriel Rossetti; published in The Germ as 'Ellen Alleyne'
Key works
Remember (1862)
Sonnet asking a lover to remember her after death, but rather to forget and smile than remember and be sad
A Birthday (1862)
Joyful love lyric beginning 'My heart is like a singing bird'
Up-Hill (1862)
Question-and-answer poem about life's journey as a road that winds uphill to an inn
The Prince's Progress (1866)
Title poem of her second collection, about a prince who dawdles on the way to his bride
Sing-Song: A Nursery Rhyme Book (1872)
Children's verses including 'Who has seen the wind?'
In the Bleak Midwinter (1872)
Christmas poem, originally titled 'A Christmas Carol', now a much-loved carol
Key ideas
- Themes of temptation, sisterhood and redemption (Goblin Market)
- Renunciation of earthly love in favour of spiritual devotion
- Simple, musical forms carrying deep religious and emotional seriousness
Quick-fire facts
- •Born in London to Gabriele Rossetti, an Italian political exile; siblings Dante Gabriel, William Michael and Maria Francesca
- •First published in the Pre-Raphaelite magazine The Germ (1850) under the pseudonym Ellen Alleyne
- •Modelled for her brother's paintings The Girlhood of Mary Virgin and Ecce Ancilla Domini
- •Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862) was illustrated by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
- •Broke off an engagement to the painter James Collinson and later declined to marry Charles Cayley, partly on religious grounds
- •Volunteered at the St Mary Magdalene Penitentiary in Highgate, a refuge for 'fallen women'
- •"In the Bleak Midwinter" is set to music by Gustav Holst (1906) and Harold Darke
- •Buried in Highgate Cemetery
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Sources
- Poetry Foundation — Christina Rossetti