Christina Georgina Rossetti
(Ellen Alleyn) Contributions to The Germ I.
Dream Land
An End II.
A Pause of Thought
Song
A Testimony III.
Repining
Sweet Death Christina Rossetti, who wrote for The Germ under the pseudonym Ellen Alleyn, (a pseudonym invented by her brother Dante Gabriel) was the first Pre-Raphaelite to enjoy widespread literary success. Her Goblin Market and Other Poems , published in 1862, brought her popular attention and critical acclaim, as did her devotional poems and essays. Christina Georgina Rossetti was born in London December 5, 1830, the youngest of Gabriele and Frances Polidori Rossettis four children. Like her older siblings, Christina began writing and drawing at an early age. Her grandfather Polidori, who doted on Christina, had a collection of her verses privately published in 1847. Her first public poems appeared in the Athenaeum when she was only eighteen. She wrote prolifically throughout her life. Christina Rossettis writings reflect her deep religious devotion. She was a High Church Anglican and a disciple of Tractarianism (also know as the Oxford Movement), a radically conservative position. When she was about 13, Christina began attending Christ Church (a Tractarian hotbed) with her mother and sister Maria. About this time (roughly 1842-1847), Christina went through a transformation that her friends and family were at a loss to explain. As a girl, Christina Rossetti was spirited, passionate, and hot-tempered to the point of self-destruction: she reports once ripping her arm with scissors after her mother chastised her for some small offense. Her brother William Michael Rossett wrote that In innate character she was vivacious and open to pleasurable impressions, and during girlhood, one might readily have supposed that she would develop into a woman of expansive heart, fond of society and diversions, and taking part in them of more than average brilliancy. | |
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