What do you find to admire in the poetry of Christina Rossetti? :: English Literature

What do you find to admire in the poetry of Christina Rossetti? Christina Rossetti was born on the 5th December 1830 and died in 1894. She was an English poet and a devout High Anglican, from an Anglo - Italian background. She also was the sister of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who was a famous artist. Christina Rossetti could be described as one of the 19th Century's 'great odd women.' Even though she did have a variety of poems, no one has said she was a 'great' poet; however, the reason why we are so interested in her is because she was writing poetry in Victorian England and middle - class women were not seen to have any power. The fact that she had even been writing poetry was very unusual, as most females had little rights at this time. Most of her poetry expresses unfulfilled spiritual yearning, frustrated love and the sadness that is spread through her poems may be due to unhappy love affairs in her youth, or to the ill health she constantly suffered. Some examples of this are, 'When I am deadà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦' and 'After death.' These poems are obviously about death and her poems are sometimes optimistic and depressing. But simply by writing poetry at this time, she was making a statement about how a lot of women felt during this period. One of the things I admire in the poetry of Christina Rossetti is that she was very honest in what she wrote. She was not afraid to express personal thoughts; for example in 'A Birthday' she says, 'My heart is like a singing bird.' This is very dramatic as she normally writes about darker feelings. Christina Rossetti is also not afraid of dying as she has strong religious beliefs that echo through each poem. For example in 'Song', she expresses that in some way she is looking forward to death and she feels that when she dies she will be a peace. When she wrote her poems, most of them were very depressing but she did, from time, to time write about happiness; for example the poem, which I mentioned previously, 'A Birthday.' This poem is about happiness and feelings of love that inspire her. In it, she is very happy and she cannot describe how she feels enough. Another thing that I admire is that she had the ability to write in different poetic styles; ballads, sonnets and songs, among others. Ballads are a simple song and are very sentimental often with several verses, with the same beat and rhythm. 'Maude Clare' is an example of a Ballad.