Bloomsbury Poetry Classics are selections from the work of some of our greatest poets. The series is aimed at the general reader rather than the specialist and carries no critical or explanatory apparatus. This can be found elsewhere. In the series the poems introduce themselves, on an uncluttered page and in a format that is both attractive and convenient. The selections have been made by the distinguished poet, critic and biographer Ian Hamilton. Christina Rossetti was born in 1830, the daughter of an Italian political refugee who came to England in 1824. Her work is heavily influenced by her Anglo-Catholic beliefs and is recognizable through its languid but rather sad imagery inspired by the Pre-Raphaelites. A member of the influential Oxford movement she has also recently been credited as one of the most important women writers in English. She died in 1894.