Christina Rossetti Poetry: Love Poems

Rossetti was an English poet who came by her writing ability quite naturally. Her brothers were: Dante Gabriel Rossetti--an English poet, illustrator, painter, and translator; and William Michael Rossetti--a poet and a critic.

Her sister, Maria Francesca Rossetti, was an English author, while her father, Gabriele Rossetti, was an Italian poet and scholar.

Christina Rossetti began writing at the tender age of 7, but she was 31 before her first work--Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862)--was published.

Featured on this page are several of her love poems. A more complete biography of this poet is found at the bottom of the page.

Christina Rossetti Poetry: Love Poems of the Heart

A Birthday

A birthday isn't just a celebration of self. As this piece of romantic love poetry shows, your heart will sing because the love of your life comes to spend this special day with you.

My heart is like a singing bird
Whose nest is in a watered shoot;
My heart is like an apple tree
Whose boughs are bent with thickset fruit;
My heart is like a rainbow shell
That paddles in a halcyon sea;
My heart is gladder than all these
Because my love is come to me.

Raise me a dais of silk and down;
Hang it with vier and purple dyes;
Carve it into doves and pomegranates,
And peacocks with a hundred eyes;
Work it in gold and silver grapes,
In leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys;
Because the birthday of my life
Is come, my love is come to me.

A Bride Song

A Bride Song takes draws us into the joy of being in love and how a woman feels as she's ready to marry her true love.

Through the vales to my love!
To the happy small nest of home
Green from basement to roof;
Where the honey-bees come
To the window-sill flowers,
And dive from above,
Safe from the spider that weaves
Her warp and her woof
In some outermost leaves.

Through the vales to my love!
In sweet April hours
All rainbows and showers,
While dove answers dove,--
In beautiful May,
When the orchards are tender
And frothing with flowers,--
In opulent June,
When the wheat stands up slender
By sweet-smelling hay,
And half the sun's splendour
Descends to the moon.

Through the vales to my love!
Where the turf is so soft to the feet,
And the thyme makes it sweet,
And the stately foxglove
Hangs silent its exquisite bells;
And where water wells
The greenness grows greener,
And bulrushes stand
Round a lily to screen her.

Nevertheless, if this land,
Like a garden to smell and to sight,
Were turned to a desert of sand,
Stripped bare of delight,
All its best gone to worst,
For my feet no repose,
No water to comfort my thirst,
And heaven like a furnace above,--
The desert would be
As gushing of waters to me,
The wilderness be as a rose,
If it led me to thee,
O my love!

He and She

He and She is a short love poem exploring what a couple would do if one should forget the other.

Should one of us remember,
And one of us forget,
I wish I knew what each will do--
But who can tell as yet?"

Should one of us remember,
And one of us forget,
I promise you what I will do--
And I'm content to wait for you,
And not be sure as yet.

~Christina Rossetti (1830 - 1894)

Christina Rossetti (December 5, 1830 � December 29, 1894) was a popular English poet much admired for her beautifully written poetry.

Christina Rossetti Born in London and named Christina Georgina Rossetti. She was the youngest of four children from a very artistic family and was educated at home by her mother, Frances Polidori (the sister of Lord Byron's friend and physician, John William Polidori). Her father Gabriele Rossetti was an Italian poet and worked as a professor at the King's College teaching Italian from 1831 to 1845, when he resigned due to medical reasons.

Her three older siblings were also talented in the arts. Her brother, William Michael (1829-1919), was an English writer and critic; her famous brother Dante Gabriel (1828-1882) was an English poet, illustrator, painter, and translator; and her sister, Maria Francesca (1827-1876) � and the eldest of the four siblings - was an English author.

Christina began writing at the early age of 7 and in 1842, at the age of 12, her first verses were printed using the private presses of her grandfather.

Unfortunately, during the 1840's the family encountered severe financial difficulties, mainly due to the deterioration of her father's physical and mental health. In turn, Christina herself began to experience bouts of depression and had a nervous breakdown at the tender age of 14.

During this difficult period, Christina, her sister Maria, and their mother became interested in the Anglo-Catholic religious movement, and very soon they became devout followers. This religious influence is often expressed in her poems.

In 1850 she published seven poems under the pseudonym Ellen Alleyne in the Pre-Raphaelite journal The Germ, which was a short lived publication founded by her brother William Michael and his friends.

Her first book � Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862) � wasn�t published until she was 31 years old. This work, written for her sister Maria, achieved much critical praise and led Rossetti to being proclaimed 'female laureate' and the natural successor to Elizabeth Barrett Browning, who had died two months previously.

Christina mainly focused on devotional writing and children's poetry for the remainder of her life. Although she led an active, social life and had a wide circle of friends, by the 1880's a thyroid disorder called Grave's disease had left her an invalid.

In 1893 she was stricken with cancer and died the following year on December 29th, 1894 at the age of 64. She is buried in Highgate Cemetery in London.

More Poems by Rossetti

My Gift (Prayer)

Hurt No Living Thing (Poems for Young Children)

Immerse yourself in even more feelings of love:

Read some of the Best Love Sayings & Quotes

Check out our collection of the Most Famous Love Poems ever written.

Be sure to subscribe to our RSS feed (see top right of page) so you'll know when we update and add new pages to this site. It's an easy way to stay informed.

Return to top of Christina Rossetti Poetry of Love

Return to Inspirational Love Poems

Search This Site

This website generates a small commission from affiliate links and third party advertising. Read our full Disclosure Policy

Subscribe For Updates

[?] Subscribe To
This Site