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A Quatrain poem 10, 10, 10, 6

Christina Rossetti (1830 - 1894)

Considered to be one of the most important 19th century English women poets, Christina Rossetti was believed by many critics to be the greatest female poet of the Pre-Raphaelite movement following the death of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Born in London on December 5, 1830 Christina was the youngest of four children born to Italian parents. Her father, Gabriele Rossetti, was also a poet who had been exiled from Abruzzo after supporting the revoked Constitution, while her brother, Dante, was an influential poet and artist and her other siblings, William and Marie, were writers. Today, she is still regarded as one of the top 19th century poets. (The remainder of her bio is available at poetrysoup.com)

The basic themes of Christina's poems were spirituality and faith, the seasons and nature, and death. This is not uncommon for the poets of her time period. She has been compared to Emily Dickinson and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. "Spring Revealed" is a bit of fancy on my part. Christina actually turned down all of her suitors and never married.

An Apple-Gathering

I plucked pink blossoms from mine apple tree
And wore them all that evening in my hair:
Then in due season when I went to see
I found no apples there.

With dangling basket all along the grass
As I had come I went the selfsame track:
My neighbours mocked me while they saw me pass
So empty-handed back.


Lilian and Lilias smiled in trudging by,
Their heaped-up basket teazed me like a jeer;
Sweet-voiced they sang beneath the sunset sky,
Their mother's home was near.


Plump Gertrude passed me with her basket full,
A stronger hand than hers helped it along;
A voice talked with her thro' the shadows cool
More sweet to me than song.


Ah Willie, Willie, was my love less worth
Than apples with their green leaves piled above?
I counted rosiest apples on the earth
Of far less worth than love.


So once it was with me you stooped to talk
Laughing and listening in this very lane:
To think that by this way we used to walk
We shall not walk again!

I let my neighbours pass me, ones and twos
And groups; the latest said the night grew chill,
And hastened: but I loitered, while the dews
Fell fast I loitered still.

Christina Rossetti

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