Christina Rossetti: A Poet of Longing and Holy Hope

Ken Kalis
Dec 9, 2025
4 min read

The Rossetti family in 1863 — **The Rossetti Family** by Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) (died 1898)

Poetry Tuesday

Christina was deeply in love with a man who loved her deeply, too.
She worshipped Jesus as an Anglican and he as a Roman Catholic.
Neither would put Him second in their lives' place of honor, and so endured broken hearts.
But Jesus heals the broken-hearted and honors them for their integrity.

Her poems reflect both her broken heart and devotion to Jesus. Be b; blessed as you read.

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Christina Rossetti (1830–1894) stands among the greatest devotional poets in the English language. Gentle in tone yet fierce in conviction, she wrote her poetry not merely to express emotion but to train the affections toward Jesus Christ.

Her hymns and poems continue to shape the Church’s worship—“In the Bleak Midwinter” and “Love Came Down at Christmas” being just two familiar examples.

What makes Rossetti so powerful is her ability to speak of longing, humility, repentance, and hope in a manner both deeply personal and profoundly Scriptural. Her work is full of echoes from the Psalms, the Gospels, and the prophets.

She is, in many ways, a Victorian Mary—pondering these things in her heart.

Rossetti's Life was Steeped in Scripture and Suffering

Born into a literary family, Rossetti grew up reciting the Bible, the Prayer Book, and the great English poets. Yet her life was marked by repeated illness, broken engagements, and chronic frailty. Out of this crucible came her clarity: she knew that earthly life is a preparation for the life to come.

She once wrote:

“A cold coming we had of it,Just the worst time of the year/For a journey, and such a long journey.”—“A Christmas Carol”

She understood the pilgrimage of faith.

Featured Poem for Today: “A Better Resurrection” (excerpt)

Perhaps no poem of hers captures the spiritual struggle and hope of the believer more poignantly than “A Better Resurrection.”Here are the opening stanzas:

I have no wit, no words, no tears;/My heart within me like a stones numb’d too much for hopes or fears;/Look right, look left, I dwell alone;/I lift mine eyes, but dimm’d with grief/No everlasting hills I see;/My life is in the falling leaf:/O Jesus, quicken me.

My life is like a faded leaf,/My harvest dwindled to a husk;/Truly my life is void and brief/And tedious in the barren dusk/;My life is like a frozen thing/,No bud nor greenness can I see:/Yet rise it shall—the sap of Spring;/O Jesus, rise in me.

This is Christian realism: we are dust, fading grass—yet capable of resurrection because Jesus lives in us.

Spiritual Themes for our Readers

1. Human frailtyRossetti does not hide her weakness. Like David in Psalm 51, she confesses it plainly.

2. The cry for grace/Her repeated prayer, “O Jesus, quicken me,” echoes John 6:63:

“It is the Spirit that quickeneth.”

3. Resurrection now, not only later. She speaks of Christ rising in us, not merely at the end of days. This aligns with Paul’s prayer:

“That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection.” (Phil. 3:10)

4. Hope that blooms out of barrenness--Rossetti’s vision is not sentimental but rock-solid: Jesus meets us at our weakest, and the frozen heart becomes fertile again.

Short Reflection for Application

Are you walking through a season that feels like a “frozen thing”?Christina Rossetti reminds us that Jesus specializes in raising the dead—dead hopes, dead courage, dead spirits. When our life is “in the falling leaf,” His grace makes all things new.

The poet’s prayer can become ours today:

“O Jesus, rise in me.”

Closing Scripture

“For with Thee is the fountain of life: in Thy light shall we see light.”—Psalm 36:9

IIn thy light shall we see light. The light of nature is like a spark, the light of the gospel a lamp, the light of grace a star, but the light of glory the sun itself. The higher our ascent the greater our light; God dwelleth "in the light which no man can approach unto." 1Ti 6:16---Thomas Adams.

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THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD IS JESUS

The whole world was lost

In the darkness of sin,