Born into a family of poets - father was the poet Gabriele Rossetti and brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti was a poet and painter - Christina took to verse very easily. Her first published poem was at the age of twenty. She soon became popular as a renowned poet in Victorian poetry. Rossetti is known for her ballads and her writing was of a mystic and religious nature. There was symbolism and a high degree of sentimentality in her poems.
Goblin Market and Other Poems 1862, The Prince’s Progress and Other Poems 1866 and Sing-Song - a collection of verse for children -in 1872 were some of her best known works.
The Prince's Progress is a poem in the collection called The Prince's Progress and Other Poems. This was Rossetti's second volume of poetry, published by Macmillan in 1866.
The Prince's Progress
Till all sweet gums and juices flow,
Till the blossom of blossoms blow,
The long hours go and come and go,
The bride she sleepeth, waketh, sleepeth,
Waiting for one whose coming is slow:—
Hark! the bride weepeth.
'How long shall I wait, come heat come rime?'—
'Till the strong Prince comes, who must come in time'
(Her women say), 'there's a mountain to climb,
A river to ford. Sleep, dream and sleep;
Sleep' (they say): 'we've muffled the chime,
Better dream than weep.'
The poem is tragic in nature. It tells the story of a princess waiting for her prince. The prince could have come at the appointed time but on the way he gave in to many indulgences and temptations. As an indirect punishment for those misdeeds, he comes late to find his princess dead.
Images - The frontispiece shows the prince arriving. The additional image is the gathering of the people.
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