Let me introduce you Christina Rossetti. (In Microsoft Bing's interpretation:)
Christina was a poet and an absolute icon - although she's been fairly unknown (except for those being really into her). In retrospect, I think she represents a good tie between being quite traditional but also her own little thing - and both pretty humbly but unapologetically. Born in 1830 in England as the sister of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (a passionate painter), she was around (and maybe also somewhat part of) a newly emerging and very lively art movement: the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
But who the heck are the Pre-Raphaelite painters? - you'd want to know. Fair enough.
👉🏼 Guys painting things like this:
or this:
Now, these paintings were created by Microsoft Bing, our darling AI friend - as (just as always) I have no idea whether I could actually share any of the Pre-Raphaelites' works. Find them, though, on Tate Britain's site.:
The Pre-Raphaelites aspired to be inventive by doing something very different (though not completely new, as they tried to reach back to the art of Raphael and painters before him, hence the name Pre-Raphaelites). They, unfortunately, did not become as enigmatic as they aspired to, partly, because, from a European point of view the impressionists started doing things like this, and for the Pre-Raphaelites' doom, also in the 19th century:
...and they, of course, ended up being the most inventive...
(Here, I must add that I think Bing got both styles quite wrong, but then, who am I to disagree with an AI program. I think one thing AI cannot do is find the right balance, hone its taste. It tends to rather overdo things - and end up being tacky. As is the case with most of these paintings.)
So, unless you are British, and Pre-Raphaelites are part of your country's art history, you're very likely to have been directed to concentrate on what was going on in France in the 19th century. At least, concerning the visual arts scene. (Sorrynotsorry).
This, of course, does not mean that the Pre-Raphaelites were without value, they did do and say interesting things and created controversial paintings (a bunch of young people fighting the style preferred by the Royal Academy - some things about young rebels never change). The Pre-Raphaelites, for example, loved women, and not just the harmless little humble darlings, but also demons, dangerous queens or witches you'd never want to cross.
Please, don't come for me, if you're a scolar of the Pre-Raphaelites. This is my personal take on all that I've read, but I might be very wrong.:)
But we are not here to talk about the group, not in a strict sense - our scope is on Christina Rossetti. She was in close connection with the group - as the sister of one of the founders - but she also did her own thing - poetry. She was born in 1830 (died in 1894) and left behind a few interesting pieces that seem to have been having a comeback recently.
Though proposed to multiple times, she rejected her suitors, as I know, due to religious reasons - a topic she often (if not always) composed her poems around. Many of her poems also inspired composers and thus became well-known in England. Christina's poems are pristine and rhyme quite 'traditionally' but are not shallow or amateur. She's regarded very highly as a master of the verse forms.
Check out one of her most famous poems, Goblin Market here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44996/goblin-market
Or a whole collection of hers here: https://booksupstairs.ie/product/new-selected-poems-rossetti/
(In my favourite Dublin bookstore, Books Upstairs.)
I chose two Christmas-related poems of hers that would go well on postcards - possibly unknown to the recipient of the card but not too abstract (or modern) to murder interest straight away. I quite think she magically fits most readers' taste. (Possibly of no-readers' too...)
So, here are the poems - enjoy them. It's Christina's time to shine. Quote her poetry - share her name.:)
Goodbye, goodbye for now, see you soon, Darlings!
Hugs from the Fearless Frock!:)
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