Christina Rossetti, Sing-Song

Joshua Fagan (University of St Andrews)

Ed. by Dainy Bernstein, University of Pennsylvania
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.07: English Writing and Culture of the Victorian Period, 1837-1901.
Vol. editors: Gillian Fenwick (University of Toronto), Jessica E. Gossling (Goldsmiths College, University of London), Grace Moore (University of Otago)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1872

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Children's Literature
Poem collection

Resources

Immediately popular upon its original release in 1872, the nursery-rhyme collection Sing-Song demonstrates Christina Rossetti to be one of the quintessential children’s poets of the Victorian age, along with Edward Lear and Robert Louis Stevenson. In a June 1878 letter, she writes happily of the impression the book made on her niece Olive: “I quite admire our clever little Olive, and am really glad she should be imbued with Sing-Songs” (Family Letters 74). Rossetti deeply cared for the rhymes, and in a July 1881 letter to her brother Dante Gabriel, she opines that Sing-Song is a volume “containing some of my best songs” (94).

Compared to Rossetti’s other work, such as the unsettling “Goblin Market,” the elegantly pleasing rhymes of Sing-Song appear rather straightforward in their aims: to delight and comfort children with amusing phrases...

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1523 words

Citation: Fagan, Joshua. "Sing-Song". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 23 February 2024 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=16038, accessed 09 June 2026.]

Christina Rossetti, Sing-Song

Dates

Places

Genres and Modes

Resources

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