 | The Germ, Issue #1: Thoughts Toward Nature in Poetry, Literature, and Art |  |
Dream Land
Christina Rossetti composed "Dream Land" in April of 1849. It was first printed in The Germ under the name "Ellen Alleyn," a pseudonym created by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. William Michael Rossetti wrote in his preface to the 1901 reprint of The Germ that his sister "did not care to figure under her own name." Editions in which the poem appears:
Goblin Market and Other Poems. London: Macmillan, 1862. Second edition, 1865.
Poems. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1866. Second edition 1876.
Goblin Market, The Prince's Progress, and Other Poems. London: Macmillan, 1875.
The Poetical Works of Christina Georgina Rossetti, with Memoir and Notes by William Michael Rossetti. London: Macmillan, 1904.
sleep
Christina Rossetti, a devout Tractarian, subscribed to
the doctrine
known as Soul Sleep. Soul Sleep refers to a "waiting
time" between
the death and the reunion of the soul and body on the Last
Day. During this
waiting period, it was believed that the soul enters a
suspended state outside
of time and awareness. Only on the Last Day does the soul
awake and
receive its eternal reward. This doctrine is in marked
contrast to traditional
Christian views which hold that the soul recieves its
eternal reward at death.
For a more detailed discussion of Soul Sleep, see Jerome J. McGann's "The Religious Poetry of Christina Rossetti." in Critical Inquiry. 10:1 (Sept. 1983), 127-144.
| The Germ, Issue #1: Thoughts Toward Nature in Poetry, Literature, and Art | |