Sonnets

This is an excellent selection of introspective, inspirational and remarkably compelling sonnets from one of the greatest poets of the nineteenth century. Christina Rossetti, in writing of the frailties of mankind and the mysteries of existence, sheds a new light on the nature of love, life and the inevitable "silent land".

The lattice of sentient awareness which like a web unites and unifies this collection is one of an indulgent perception of life and its diversity, of human emotion and its capriciousness and of a deep conception of death and its intangible illusion of finality. This illusion, indefinable as it is, becomes an enigma in the hands of Rossetti, often becoming an ambiguity, at times a fantasy and on occasion almost a dismal reality.

These poems, these snapshots of life, these glimpses of the pathos of the here and the mystery of the hereafter are assured to fascinate, allure and indeed perplex, motivate and inspire. Hope and faith, to which the human condition is wont to aspire are ever present in Rossetti's poems, along with the assurance that, "death be strong, yet love is strong as death." Foremost components of Rossetti's concept of hope and faith are that love can prevail, love can promise and love can unite, "happy equals in the flowering land / Of love, that knows not a dividing sea." And if fate decrees a parting should take place between those who love, Rossetti has issued the memorable, inspiring, albeit arduous entreaty, "Better by far you should forget and smile / Than that you should remember and be sad."

- Summary by Bruce Kachuk