Rossetti

Rossetti began writing down and dating her poems from 1842, mostly imitating her favoured poets. From 1847 she began experimenting with verse forms such as sonnets, hymns and ballads, drawing narratives from the bible, folk takes and the lives of the saints. Her early pieces often feature meditations on death and loss, in the Romantic tradition. She published her first poem, which appeared in the ‘’Athenaeum’’, when she was 18. Under the pen-name "Ellen Alleyne", she contributed to the literary magazine,” The Germ’’, published by the Pre-Raphaelites from January - April 1850 and edited by her brother William. This marked the beginning of her public career.

Her most famous collection, Goblin Market and Other Poems, appeared in 1862, when she was 31. It received widespread critical praise, establishing her as the main female poet of the time. The title poem is one of Rossetti's best known works. Although it is ostensibly about two sisters' misadventures with goblins, critics have interpreted the piece in a variety of ways: seeing it as an allegory about temptation and salvation; a commentary on Victorian gender roles and female agency; and a work about erotic desire and social redemption. Rossetti was a volunteer worker from 1859 to 1870 at the St. Mary Magdalene "house of charity" in Highgate, a refuge for former prostitutes and it is suggested Goblin Market may have been inspired by the "fallen women" she came to know.