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Christina Rossetti Research Paper

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Critics rank Christina Georgina Rossetti, a well-known poet alongside Elizabeth Barrett Browning, one of the best female poets of the nineteenth century (Poetry Foundation). “Her poetry has never disappeared from view, and her reputation, though it suffered a decline in the first half of the twentieth century, has always been preserved to some degree” (Poetry Foundation). On December 5, 1830, Rossetti was born to Gabriele Rossetti and Frances Polidori in London, England, where she flourished in knowledge and found her love for poetry (“Biography”). She was the youngest of four siblings, Maria Francesca, Dante Gabriel, and William Michael (Poetry Foundation). When taking a more serious view on poetry, Rossetti mainly wrote a variety of devotional, …show more content…

(Poetry Foundation). During the Crimean War, Rossetti volunteered to join the Florence Nightingale’s nurses, but the team turned her down (Poetry Foundation). “In early 1860, Rossetti began volunteering at the St. Mary Magdalene Penitentiary in Highgate, a charitable institution for the reclamation of “fallen“ women” (Poetry Foundation). No records state the exact nature of her work, but whatever she did, she did well because she worked there from 1860-1870 (Battiscombe 94). By the summer of 1860 the influence of Rossetti’s time working at Highgate became visible through a few of her poems such as, “Cousin Kate” and Rossetti’s best-known work, “The Goblin Market” (Battiscombe 94). “The Goblin Market”, published in 1862 along with a collection of other stories, tells of a tale about a girl named Laura who becomes fatally ill after eating a poisonous fruit from the Goblins and her sister, Lizzie who cares for her through those years (Poetry Foundation). The success of her first collection led to the publication of two other collections of fairytales (“Biography"). Overall, Rossetti’s volunteer work had the biggest affect on her poetry career with writings and publications of her fairytale

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