CHRISTINA

Question 1

Rossetti’s poems encourage . . .

Answer 1

Rossetti’s poems encourage women to claim independence and agency.

• Simon Avery (Rossetti’s Aims)

Question 2

Resignation to a life of . . .

Answer 2

Resignation to a life of anonymity and obscurity was not in her nature.

• Barbara Morden (Rossetti’s Nature)

Question 3

Rossetti cannot be characterised as . . .

Answer 3

Rossetti cannot be characterised as languid and depressed.

• Barbara Morden (Rossetti’s Character)

Question 4

Rossetti had a passionate sense of the . . .

Answer 4

Rossetti had a passionate sense of the responsibility of life.

• Fredegond Shove

Question 5

A source of inspiration and . . .

Answer 5

A source of inspiration and of joy.

• Fredegond Shove

Question 6

It is wiser to remain . . .

Answer 6

It is wiser to remain ignorant than to learn evil… it is better to avoid doubts than to reject them.

• Rossetti

Question 7

Rossetti creates a . . .

Answer 7

Rossetti creates a rudimentary framework of behaviour in which a heroine might operate.

• Phillips

Question 8

Rossetti’s poems display . . .

Answer 8

Rossetti’s poems display Augustinian patterns of conversion and confession.

• Unknown (Link to Religion)

Question 9

Her motifs derive from . . .

Answer 9

Her motifs derive from rural and biblical symbols.

• Sarah Phillips (Religion, Rossetti’s belief of marriage etc.)

Question 10

Rossetti’s poems repeatedly struggle with . . .

Answer 10

Rossetti’s poems repeatedly struggle with religious doubt, frustration and fear.

• Avery (Link to Religion, Marriage etc.)

Question 11

Mature poetic style, in which pain, loss and resignation are expressed in . . .

Answer 11

Mature poetic style, in which pain, loss and resignation are expressed in diction and images that strike the reader as simple, perfect and effortless.

• Poetry Foundation 3 (poetic style)

Question 12

Biographers have painted an . . .

Answer 12

Biographers have painted an overly simplistic portrait of the middle-aged Rossetti as narrowly conservative, recluse and overly pious.

• Poetry Foundation 5 (middle-aged)

Question 13

Typically, Rossetti’s poems evince a . . .

Answer 13

Typically, Rossetti’s poems evince a concern with individual salvation rather than social reform.

• Poetry Foundation 6 (salvation)

Question 14

A girl that has been plagued by sickness and . . .

Answer 14

A girl that has been plagued by sickness and the threat of death all her adolescent life would have found the thought of martyrdom comforting.

• Lars Wallner

Question 15

Rossetti’s personas often identify with, and feel ensnared by . . .

Answer 15

Rossetti’s personas often identify with, and feel ensnared by, the fruitless cycles and frustrating self-contradictions of the natural world.

• Brad Sullivan

Question 16

A powerful tension between control and . . .

Answer 16

A powerful tension between control and chaos, between self-assertion and self-destruction, creates much of the intensity of her poetry.

• Brad Sullivan

Question 17

There is nothing meek or self-effacing in her . . .

Answer 17

There is nothing meek or self-effacing in her demand for emotional fulfilment.

• Pamela Bickley

Question 18

The vivid strangeness of her . . .

Answer 18

The vivid strangeness of her imagery is compelling.

• Pamela Bickley