tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714437334790446678.post5855725046927734734..comments2023-10-04T09:50:08.070-05:00Comments on Logismoi: 'Three Enemies'—A Pre-Raphaelite Poem for LentAaron Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17775589009145031773noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714437334790446678.post-44406689562745244942009-03-19T17:25:00.000-05:002009-03-19T17:25:00.000-05:00You're very welcome, Aaron! She was still very po...You're very welcome, Aaron! She was still very popular and respected at the turn of the era. William Rossetti was the efficient and extremely well-informed executor of the estates of both Dante and Christina, and was known as a great editor and literary critic from the late nineteenth century onward. Actually, his London edition of Walt Whitman's <I>Leaves of Grass</I> (with all questionable elements removed: prostitutes, etc) was what got Whitman noticed and respected by critics, catapulted him to fame, and kept the <I>Leaves of Grass</I> edition train rolling for years to come. Without William Rossetti's edition, it's likely that Whitman would've died unappreciated and unknown. That reminds me to look for a copy of it....Kevin P. Edgecombhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16590490181739464401noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714437334790446678.post-5300215719570225902009-03-19T14:26:00.000-05:002009-03-19T14:26:00.000-05:00Wow! Thanks for the appendix, Kevin! I'd like to g...Wow! Thanks for the appendix, Kevin! I'd like to get that 1904 edition you mentioned.<BR/><BR/>The brotherly memoir you mentioned reminded me of Henry Austen's biographical notice of Jane, which seems not to have been taken into account by those who discuss and interpret her and her work today.Aaron Taylorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17775589009145031773noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714437334790446678.post-74900650106185364802009-03-19T14:14:00.000-05:002009-03-19T14:14:00.000-05:00Ah, Christina Georgina Rossetti! One of the great...Ah, Christina Georgina Rossetti! One of the greatest of English poets (not merely of "Victorian poets" or of "Women poets"), who is wrongly ignored in most literary circles due to the unfashionable subject matter of the majority of her work. In the nineteen-nineties she started to gain attention as a "female poet", but mostly related to her superficially non-religious work, typically "Goblin Market." There were even laughably ignorant though thoroughly scurrilous suggestions regarding her lack of marriage (she broke off her engagement when her betrothed converted to Catholicism, while she was staunchly Anglican, not for any other reason). It's only among the truly literate (as opposed to adherents of the latest literary trends) that she's appreciated for her absolute mastery of verse throughout her work, which only increased as time went on. The lack of appreciation of her religious poetry is a shiny hook to fish out impostors! Her writing is striking, original, and even at times playful, and her facility with metric verse puts all free verse to shame. Having suffered from serious illnesses, including the cancer which ended her life, her later work is the more striking, the more deeply faithful, and the more deeply moving.<BR/><BR/>I've posted <A HREF="http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/index.php?s=rossetti" REL="nofollow">a number of things</A>, poesy and prose, from her.<BR/><BR/>For all readers, I recommend <I>The Poetical Works of Christina Georgina Rossetti</I>, which is the edition put together by her brother William in 1904. His Memoir is especially important. Google Books has it <A HREF="http://books.google.com/books?id=C_k_VgeqssMC&dq=%22poetical+works+of+christina+georgina+rossetti%22&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=6XpFak_ghD&sig=Y-C3wvvZKjuIvtaiuYpXb6RDpJM&hl=en&ei=s5HCSbfUEInOtQPGjOjbBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result" REL="nofollow">here</A>, and there's a reprint <A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/Poetical-Works-Christina-Georgina-Rossetti/dp/1432625209" REL="nofollow">here</A>. I have a beautiful leather-bound and gilt edition from the early twentieth century that was once the property of George A. Zabriskie, a famed New York book collector. A <A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Poems-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140423664/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1237488262&sr=1-1" REL="nofollow">Penguin paperback</A> of the Complete Poems is also available (I'm not certain how many are lacking in the Wm. Rossetti edition), as is a three-volume <A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Poems-Christina-Rossetti-Georgina/dp/0807112461/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1237488262&sr=1-3" REL="nofollow">variorum edition</A>, both edited by R. W. Crump. The paperback includes the memoir of William Rossetti, mentioned above.Kevin P. Edgecombhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16590490181739464401noreply@blogger.com