Rosetti

CHRISTINA ROSSETTI (1830 - 1894)

All the Rossettis were fond of the handsome and impressive William Bell Scott (q.v.) and, eventually, his good-hearted chatterbox wife, Laetitia. The Scotts actually lived separately under the same roof, but the arrangement was amicable. William Rossetti, the financial mainstay of the family and editor of the Pre-Raphaelite journal The Germ, was the first to visit Scott in Newcastle in 1850. Dante Gabriel (q.v.) came in 1853, Christina in 1858 and Maria in 1860. It was through Bell Scott that Christina became acquainted with the Durham poet Dora Greenwell (q.v.) . Christina's work of the 1850s is pervaded by a sense of melancholy often associated with unhappy love, leading one modern biographer to suggest a frustrated passion for Bell Scott, whom she had first met in London in 1847.

The year 1858 probably marked the high point of Christina's poetry. It was also the year of 'the great stink' in London, prompting a trip to see the Scotts. The party went on a picnic to Sunderland on 29 June 1858. The doggerel manuscript poem Christina wrote on the occasion is brightly cheerful:

... from Newcastle to Sunderland
Upon a misty morn in June
We took the train: on either hand
Grimed streets were changed for meadows soon.
Umbrellas, tarts and sandwiches
Sustained our spirits' temperate flow
With potted jam, and cold as snow
Rough-coated, sunburnt oranges.

but on the same day Christina wrote the beautiful 'Up-Hill' and 'Today and Tomorrow', of all her poems the bleakest. Again it stresses her sad isolation while the world around her blossoms and rejoices. Her frustration is unendurable and she wishes for death. Alice Meynell thought the poem contained more passion 'than in any other poem written by a woman'. Christina's poem 'By the Sea' was also written in 1858 and may reflect her North East trip (the Scotts took her to Marsden Bay also). Christina spent a day at Wallington Hall with Laetitia Scott, visiting Lady Pauline and Sir Walter Trevelyan. She got on well with her hostess and admired Lady Pauline's social graces

The unpublished version of the poem 'Parting after Parting' was titled 'Written in the train from Newcastle':

Parting after parting
All one's life long:
It's a bitter pang, parting
While life and love are strong

In October 1859, Christina travelled to Newcastle again in the company of Lady Pauline to stay with Laetitia Scott for a few weeks. The Scotts and Alice Boyd were now known as the Sun, Moon and Star, Alice having rather displaced Maria Rossetti in Bell Scott's affections, though all remained friends. After this visit, Christina wrote a number of poems concerning romantic triangles, female rivalry and unkind sisterhood - at odds with her famous Goblin Market, published in 1862.

Myers Literary Guide:	The North-East
CHRISTINA ROSSETTI (1830 - 1894) All the Rossettis were fond of the handsome and impressive William Bell Scott (q.v.) and, eventually, his good-hearted chatterbox wife, Laetitia. The Scotts actually lived separately under the same roof, but the arrangement was amicable. William Rossetti, the financial mainstay of the family and editor of the Pre-Raphaelite journal The Germ, was the first to visit Scott in Newcastle in 1850. Dante Gabriel (q.v.) came in 1853, Christina in 1858 and Maria in 1860. It was through Bell Scott that Christina became acquainted with the Durham poet Dora Greenwell (q.v.) . Christina's work of the 1850s is pervaded by a sense of melancholy often associated with unhappy love, leading one modern biographer to suggest a frustrated passion for Bell Scott, whom she had first met in London in 1847. The year 1858 probably marked the high point of Christina's poetry. It was also the year of 'the great stink' in London, prompting a trip to see the Scotts. The party went on a picnic to Sunderland on 29 June 1858. The doggerel manuscript poem Christina wrote on the occasion is brightly cheerful: ... from Newcastle to Sunderland Upon a misty morn in June We took the train: on either hand Grimed streets were changed for meadows soon. Umbrellas, tarts and sandwiches Sustained our spirits' temperate flow With potted jam, and cold as snow Rough-coated, sunburnt oranges. but on the same day Christina wrote the beautiful 'Up-Hill' and 'Today and Tomorrow', of all her poems the bleakest. Again it stresses her sad isolation while the world around her blossoms and rejoices. Her frustration is unendurable and she wishes for death. Alice Meynell thought the poem contained more passion 'than in any other poem written by a woman'. Christina's poem 'By the Sea' was also written in 1858 and may reflect her North East trip (the Scotts took her to Marsden Bay also). Christina spent a day at Wallington Hall with Laetitia Scott, visiting Lady Pauline and Sir Walter Trevelyan. She got on well with her hostess and admired Lady Pauline's social graces The unpublished version of the poem 'Parting after Parting' was titled 'Written in the train from Newcastle': Parting after parting All one's life long: It's a bitter pang, parting While life and love are strong In October 1859, Christina travelled to Newcastle again in the company of Lady Pauline to stay with Laetitia Scott for a few weeks. The Scotts and Alice Boyd were now known as the Sun, Moon and Star, Alice having rather displaced Maria Rossetti in Bell Scott's affections, though all remained friends. After this visit, Christina wrote a number of poems concerning romantic triangles, female rivalry and unkind sisterhood - at odds with her famous Goblin Market, published in 1862.
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