Today we know Christina Rossetti for two well-loved carols, In the Bleak Midwinter and Love Came Down at Christmas. In her lifetime (1830-1894) she was regarded as one of the greatest British poets of her day, rivalling Elizabeth Barrett Browning. She wrote on both secular and religious themes, and for children.
She was born into an astonishing family. Best known is her artist and poet brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Her sister Maria was a writer on Dante. Her other brother, William, was a biographer and editor, and a major contributor to the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Her father Gabriele was an Italian nobleman, poet and professor – and a founder of the Carbonari secret society. Her mother Frances was the sister of John Polidori, Lord Byron’s physician and creator of the first vampire story.
