Rossetti, Christina

Rossetti, Christina (Georgina)

Christina Rossetti, chalk drawing by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1866; in a private collection

(credit: Reproduced with permission from Harold Rossetti; photograph, J.M. Cotterell)

(born Dec. 5, 1830, London, Eng.—died Dec. 29, 1894, London) English poet. The youngest child of Gabriele Rossetti and the sister of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, she found her highest inspiration in her deep religious faith. The collections Goblin Market (1862) and The Prince's Progress (1866) contain most of her finest work. Her best poetry is strong, personal, and unforced; her success arises from her ability to unite the devotional and the passionate sides of her nature. Her Sing-Song (1872; enlarged 1893), a collection of nursery rhymes, is among the most outstanding children's books of the 19th century. After the onset of a thyroid disorder in 1871, she wrote mainly devotional verse.