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bloodygranuaileBeing ill during spooky season with only my red velvet couch for company, I decided to go the whole hog and, in between catching up on my correspondence and staring in the general direction of the water asking “When will my love be home from the war(hammer tournament)” I read through Selected Poems of Christina Rossetti, which I got in college but had only read bits and pieces from. I am very out of practice reading volumes of poetry from cover to cover; I found myself forgetting to pause between poems and then being confused when they were all running together in my head. I also really don’t know how to review poetry; it’s been decades since I had to try to write anything coherent about poetry of any kind.
Anyway. The most famous poem in this selection is probably The Goblin Market, and it was the line “We must not look at goblin men” getting stuck in my head (who knows why) that prompted me to read this volume. The Goblin Market is an eerie little fairy story that is clearly about any number of things but resists obvious allegory; the imagery in it has become classic for a reason, though. While a lot of the poems are full of the kind of subjects beloved of the pre-Raphaelites–pseudo-Medieval romantic stuff, and natural beauty, and sentiments of love and loss–there’s also quite a lot of range: there’s at least one poem about a story Rossetti read in a newspaper; there’s quite a lot of religious poetry; some tell little stories about people being petty and mean to each other. The funniest poem in the whole lot is probably No, Thank You, John, a mildly brutal rejection of a suitor that contains such gems as “I have no heart?--Perhaps I’ve not/But then you’re mad to take offence/That I don’t give you what I have not got/Use your common sense.” Oh, that Christina Rossetti, what a little shit she can be.
Most of the poems are not funny; most of them are sad and beautiful and generally very good for sitting around in a long robe feeling moody with. Because I never read poetry I also feel like I have gotten additionally Cultured and ought to be rewarded with a copy of the fancypants clothbound edition of The Goblin Market and Other Poems (https://www.abebooks.com/9780241303061/Goblin-Market-Poems-Penguin-Pocket-0241303060/plp).
Anyway. The most famous poem in this selection is probably The Goblin Market, and it was the line “We must not look at goblin men” getting stuck in my head (who knows why) that prompted me to read this volume. The Goblin Market is an eerie little fairy story that is clearly about any number of things but resists obvious allegory; the imagery in it has become classic for a reason, though. While a lot of the poems are full of the kind of subjects beloved of the pre-Raphaelites–pseudo-Medieval romantic stuff, and natural beauty, and sentiments of love and loss–there’s also quite a lot of range: there’s at least one poem about a story Rossetti read in a newspaper; there’s quite a lot of religious poetry; some tell little stories about people being petty and mean to each other. The funniest poem in the whole lot is probably No, Thank You, John, a mildly brutal rejection of a suitor that contains such gems as “I have no heart?--Perhaps I’ve not/But then you’re mad to take offence/That I don’t give you what I have not got/Use your common sense.” Oh, that Christina Rossetti, what a little shit she can be.
Most of the poems are not funny; most of them are sad and beautiful and generally very good for sitting around in a long robe feeling moody with. Because I never read poetry I also feel like I have gotten additionally Cultured and ought to be rewarded with a copy of the fancypants clothbound edition of The Goblin Market and Other Poems (https://www.abebooks.com/9780241303061/Goblin-Market-Poems-Penguin-Pocket-0241303060/plp).