Customer Reviews

The Complete Poems (Penguin Classics)

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This is a comprehensive volume of the work from the greatest woman poet ever to write in the English Language. It contains all of her poems, properly organised into the correct categories (and a decent index!). It doesn't have any of the prose work like Speaking Likenesses or Face of the Deep, but for her skilled, deep, and beautiful poetry this publication is essential.

After the mysterious, luscious wonders of the acclaimed "Goblin Market," I was eager to sample more of Christina Rossetti's work. Selecting this immense volume of complete poems was a bit of a leap in the dark ... but it was definitely the right choice!

The root of her poetry's lasting power is twofold, I think.

Firstly, there's the undeniable craft & artistry of it. Rossetti possesses the gift of writing melodic, evocative poetry seemingly without effort -- whatever hard work went on behind the scenes, the result on the page is always natural, compelling, and transporting. Even the poems of grief & sorrow have a somber beauty to them, a melancholy loveliness that adorns death without masking it.

Secondly, there's the interplay between Rossetti's Victorian worldview -- a mixture of sentiment, complex piety, and a stark awareness of death -- and the personal psychological forces running below the surface, often sensual & erotic. All too easy for the clashing of these things to produce confusion; but in Rossetti's case, they blend to create a remarkable & very deep wellspring of poetry.

So we have such dreamlike poems as "The Dead City," as well as the many devotional poems -- and all draw upon that same vivid, intense power. Even for the agnostic or atheist, the religious poems often possess a rich & disturbing beauty. And there are many more poems in the same opulent vein as "Goblin Market."

This volume provides brief, informative textual notes that illuminate Rossetti's sources & references. But the poetry itself is not only quite accessible to the reader, it's also as irresistable as the sweet, addictive fruit offered by the sinister goblins. Most highly recommended!

My best friend told me about his passion for Christina Rossetti years ago and of course, I filed this tidbit away in my brain and only thought about it back in December when I really needed some inspirational poetry to speak to me. I'm not just discussing her religious poems, I'm discussing her entire works, period. It's very rare that a poet can speak to me like this, and have me copying down her poems for others to enjoy, but that's what I've been doing. Even a simple turn of phrase slays me.

She was so far ahead of her time. Well, her whole family were total geniuses. All I can say is that I am passionately in love with her work. I wish I could have known her.

I'm enjoying having all of Rossetti's poems in one volume, to read at my leisure. My children and I have enjoyed her poetry in collection volumes for years, and we wanted more.

Rossetti's vast output requires a hefty paperback book. This volume, however, is well put together, and seems physically to bear up under the strain of use. Its editors, Crump and Flowers, have done a masterful job of organizing Rossetti's grab bag into rational classifications. As a composer mining the collection for one or more song cycles, I find this edition a pleasure indeed.

This 1,221 page edition is not easy to carry around with you, but it contains all of Rossetti's extensive poetry, plus a helpful introduction and extensive endnotes. If you want to delve beyond her "greatest hits" like "Goblin Market" and "Up-Hill," you'll find it all there, including her less popular devotional poems.

The Complete Poems was exactly what I wanted - a complete collection of Christina Rossetti's poems, with some straightforward notes (of varying levels of detail) about each poem. It has a short, useful general introduction, and a simple/pleasing paperback layout. No fireworks in the night sky, but exactly what I wanted.

Thank God that we can still find poetry, and therefore beauty, in the world today!!!!!