Vox Populi

A Public Sphere for Poetry, Politics, and Nature. Over 15,000 daily subscribers. Over 7,000 archived posts.

Maura Ives: How an American magazine helped launch one of Britain’s favorite Christmas carols

Christina Rossetti’s ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ didn’t begin life as a song, but being set to music helped it find fame.

December 25, 2022 · Leave a comment

Christina Rossetti: A Dirge

Why were you born when the snow was falling?

November 25, 2022 · 2 Comments

Dante Alighieri: Sestina of the Lady Pietra degli Scrovigni

Yet shall the streams turn back and climb the hills
Before Love’s flame in this damp wood and green
Burn, as it burns within a youthful lady,
For my sake, who would sleep away in stone
My life, or feed like beasts upon the grass,
Only to see her garments cast a shade.

August 14, 2022 · 1 Comment

Christina Rossetti: Up-Hill

Does the road wind up-hill all the way?
Yes, to the very end.
Will the day’s journey take the whole long day?
From morn to night, my friend.

March 25, 2022 · 2 Comments

Most Popular Vox Populi Posts of 2020

Happy browsing!

December 26, 2020 · 6 Comments

Christina Rossetti: One Sea-Side Grave

Unmindful of the roses,
Unmindful of the thorn

December 4, 2020 · Leave a comment

Christina Rossetti: The Plague

‘Listen, the last stroke of death’s noon has struck—
The plague is come,’ a gnashing Madman said…

April 10, 2020 · Leave a comment

Michael Simms: Re-reading Christina Rossetti’s ‘In an Artist’s Studio’

The value of Rossetti’s poem lies in both the expert use of the Petrarchan sonnet, a particularly challenging form to master in English, and in the poet’s complex stance on the role of art in creating and re-enforcing images of women.

January 24, 2020 · Leave a comment

Christina Rossetti: In the bleak midwinter

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter, long ago.

December 25, 2019 · 3 Comments

Christina Rossetti: From Sunset to Star Rise

Go from me, summer friends, and tarry not: I am no summer friend, but wintry cold, A silly sheep benighted from the fold, A sluggard with a thorn-choked garden plot. … Continue reading

October 5, 2018 · Leave a comment

Christina Rossetti: February 14. 1883

A world of change & loss, a world of death, Of heart & eyes that fail, of labouring breath, Of pains to bear & painful deeds to do:— Nevertheless a … Continue reading

February 14, 2017 · Leave a comment

Christina Rossetti: From Sunset to Star Rise

Go from me, summer friends, and tarry not: I am no summer friend, but wintry cold, A silly sheep benighted from the fold, A sluggard with a thorn-choked garden plot. … Continue reading

September 22, 2016 · 1 Comment

Christina Rossetti: “I wish I could remember that first day”

I wish I could remember that first day First hour, first moment of your meeting me, If bright or dim the season, it might be Summer or Winter for aught … Continue reading

August 12, 2016 · 2 Comments

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