Christina Rossetti's Birthday

Christina Rossetti, a Victorian poet, was born on this day in 1870. She was considered the natural successor of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, becoming the “female laureate” of England. While she was ambivalent about women’s suffrage, scholars have identified many feminist themes in her poetry. She was adamantly anti-slavery, antiwar, against animal cruelty and the exploitation of young girls into prostitution. While she fell out of the spotlight for years after her death, there was a renewed of interest in her work during the feminist movement of the 1970s, reviving many of her long unread works.