Christina Georgina Rossetti

Born in London in 1830, Christina Rossetti grew up in a gifted, literary family and became one of the most important English poets of the Victorian era. She was the sister of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and was closely connected to the Pre-Raphaelite circle, though her voice as a writer was distinctly her own: musical, precise, and often quietly startling.

She published poems, devotional writing, and books for children, but she is especially remembered for works such as Goblin Market and Other Poems and The Prince's Progress. Her poetry moves easily between fairy-tale richness and plainspoken feeling, and it returns again and again to love, temptation, renunciation, mortality, and religious devotion.

Rossetti died in 1894, but her poems have remained widely read because they reward both casual reading and close attention. Some readers come to her for the memorable rhythms and images; others stay for the depth, restraint, and emotional honesty that make her work feel remarkably alive.