Christina Corrispondenza Analysis

It was precisely during her adolescence that she found herself obliged to undergo several difficulties, namely her father’s and her own illnesses. Her father becoming virtually invalid, the Rossetti family suffered from an economic downturn. Frances resumed her governor post, and both Maria and William began employment too. Christina remained at home looking after her convalescent progenitor, while Dante continued consecrated to his artistic creations. Such events played a decisive role since she decided afterwards to adopt the Anglo Catholic movement, together with her mother and sister. From that conversion moment onwards, Christina’s life was ruled and guided by strict religious principles, accountable for her giving up the theater, opera,
Devotional works by her were Called to Be Saints: The Minor Festivals Devotionally Studied (1881), Time Flies, and The Face of the Deep: A Devotional Commentary on the Apocalypse (1892). The economical problems of the family continued and both Christina and her mother resorted to run a small school, although during almost all her adulthood William supported her financially. Her epistolary novel “Corrispondenza [sic] Famigliare”, which was written in her twenties, remained unfinished. Its importance lays on the traces it contains of her Italian legacy, also present in the Italian poems “Versi” and “L’Incognita”. She composed poems during her voluntary work at Highgate, which were clearly under the influence of the penitentiary experience such as “Cousin Kate,” “‘The Iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children,’“ and “From Sunset to Star Rise”. However, “An Apple-Gathering,” “The Convent Threshold,” and “Maude Clare”, were previously composed and equally demonstrate her earlier interest in fallen women. Throughout the 1850’s some of Rossetti’s poems were collected in anthologies such as Once a Week (5 November 1859), which included “Maude Clare”, the shortstory “The Lost Titian” (published by The Crayon in 1856), and Nick (published by National Magazine in October 1857). In 1861 Christina submitted poems to Macmillan’s Magazine,
In the case of “Goblin Market”, Christina’s moral foundations, together with her own insecurities, bestow the poem that spellbinding allure. In addition, Christina was truly religious in so far as that in the poem there are hidden several references to the Psalters of the Bible. Kraebel points out that “these quotations reveal a pattern in Rossetti’s poetry: when composing poems, Rossetti thinks in terms of the prayer book’s translation of the Psalter” (Kraebel, A.B. 2011, p.93-94). Those references will further come into view throughout my commentaries on the translations. Yet, for the sake of clarification an instance would be found in verse 129 “honey from the rock”, which alludes to Psalm 81:16 “He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.” Thus, Christina is comparing the taste of goblin’s fruits with the food provided by God, she relates that the fruit is sweeter