The Convent Threshold

“Goblin Market” by Christina Rossetti (1862)

One of Rossetti’s most well-known poems, “Goblin Market” is an allegorical story that draws from fairy tales and Christian theology. It focuses on two sisters who are tempted by a goblin’s fruit. It ends with one sister rescuing the other from the need for the fruit. While Rossetti supposedly geared the poem toward children, the sexual subtext has led to many more complex readings of the poem’s ambiguous meaning.

“An Apple Gathering” by Christina Rossetti (1862)

Another of Rossetti’s notable poems, “An Apple Gathering” focuses on the character of a “fallen” woman, which Rossetti commonly featured in her poetry. The speaker, after having premarital sex with her partner who then abandons her, reflects on the isolation she is feeling in her town.

“In the Bleak Midwinter” by Christina Rossetti (1872)

Originally published as “A Christmas Carol,” this poem is commonly set to music and played at Christmastime. The poem describes the birth of Jesus, ending with the speaker wondering what they would have given to the newborn baby.

“The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Point” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1848)

Browning, a contemporary of Rossetti, was the most influential woman poet of the Victorian age. Beginning in their lifetimes and continuing through modern scholarship, Browning and Rossetti were often considered both rivals and influences on the other. This poem, like “The Convent Threshold,” is a dramatic monologue. In this explicitly abolitionist poem, the speaker, a fugitive enslaved woman, stands at Pilgrim’s Point and directly speaks to her audience, the Pilgrims themselves.

“Sonnets from the Portuguese 43: How do I love thee? Let me count the ways” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1850)

In her most famous poem, Browning describes the depths of her love for her lover. Like, “The Convent Threshold,” this poem includes religious imagery and focuses on the indomitable power of love upon a human soul.

“Ulysses” by Alfred Lord Tennyson (1842)

Tennyson was the Poet Laureate from 1850 until his death in 1892. One of the most well-known Victorian poets, Tennyson was both popular and influential in his lifetime. His early poetry influenced the Pre-Raphaelites. “Ulysses” is another example of a dramatic monologue. In the poem, the hero Ulysses voices his restlessness and discontent after finally returning home from the Trojan War to reunite with his wife.