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ROSSETTI, CHRISTINA GEORGINA. 



CHRISTINA GEOKCrlNA ROSSETTI. 



Hunt, John Everett Millais, Woolner, the sculp- 

 tor, and William Michael Rossetti, as the chief 

 members Christina was in full sympathy with 

 the movement, and wrote poems for " The 

 Germ," which the brotherhood for a short time 

 published. Among these contributions was 

 " Dreamland." given below, which was written 

 before she was twenty years old. Her signature 

 was Ellen Alleyne. 



Where sunless rivers weep 



Their waves into the deep 



She sleeps a charmed sleep : 

 Awake her not. 



Led by a single star, 



She came from very far, 



To seek where shadows are 

 Her pleasant lot. 



She left the rosy morn, 

 She left the fields of corn, 

 For twilight cold and lorn 



And water spriims. 

 Through sleep, as through a veil, 

 She sees the sky look pale, 

 And hears the nightingale 



That sadly sinus. 



Rest, rest, a perfect rest 

 Shed over brow and breast ; 

 Her face is toward the west, 

 The purple land. 



She can not see the grain 

 Ripening on hill and plain ; 

 She can not feel the rain 

 Upon her hand. 



Rest, rest, for evermore 

 Upon a mossy shore ; 

 Rest, rest at the heart's core 



Till time shall cease : 

 Sleep that no pain shall wake, 

 Night that no morn shall break, 

 Till joy shall overtake 



Her perfect peace. 



It was not until 1862 that her 

 first volume, "Goblin Market, and 

 Other Poems," was published, with 

 2 illustrations by her brother Dante. 

 "The Prince's Progress, and Other 

 Poems" appeared in 1866, to re- 

 enforce an already gained reputa- 

 tion. A book of prose tales, en- 

 titled " Commonplace and Other 

 Short Stories," appeared in 1870 ; 

 " Singsong," a nursery rhyme book, 

 came out in 1872 ; in 1874 " Speak- 

 ing Likenesses," also for the nurs- 

 ery; and "A Pageant, and Other 

 Poems " in 1881. Besides these, she 

 issued in 1874 a yearbook of devo- 

 tion, " Annus Domini," consisting of 

 prayers based upon portions of holy 

 writ. Her last publication was an 

 enlarged edition of her nursery 

 rhymes, issued in 1893, with many 

 illustrations. Her public was greater 

 in the United States than in Eng- 

 land, Roberts Brothers, of Boston, 

 having issued every volume from 

 the first under an honorable busi- 

 ness agreement with the author. A 

 collected edition of her poems ap- 

 peared in 1890. 



Miss Rossetti's personal life was 

 consecrated to those who needed 

 her care. She was the center of the home. In 

 1876, some time after the entrance of her elder 

 sister into a convent, she made a home in Tor- 

 rington Square for her mother, and her moth- 

 er's sisters became members of the family. Mrs. 

 Rossetti died in 1886, four years after Dante 

 Gabriel's death, in 1890 one of the Misses 

 Polidori died, and in 1894 her remaining aunt, 

 leaving her alone. Since this last bereavement 

 Miss Rossetti had rapidly failed, the cause of 

 death being cancer. Her character was sweet, 

 high, and gracious, and her personal life one 

 of sacrifice to others. Some of her sonnets are 

 among the best that we have in the language. 

 Here is one : 



Remember me when 1 am gone away, 

 Gone far away into the silent land ; 

 W lien you can no more hold me by the hand, 



Nor I half turn to go, yet, turning, stay. 



Remember me when no more, day by day, 

 You tell me of our future that you planned : 

 Only remember me ; you understand 



It will be late to counsel then, or pray. 



Yet, if you should forget me for a while 

 And afterward remember, do not grieve : 

 For if the darkness and corruption leave 

 A vestige of the thoughts that once 1 had, 



Better by far you should forget and smile, 

 Than that you should remember and be sad. 



