She gave up beauty in her tender youth, gave all her hope and joy and pleasant ways; she covered up her eyes lest they should gaze on vanity, and chose the bitter truth.

The Face of the Deep. Learning Not to be First: A Biography of Christina Rossetti. London: Anthem 2004.

Christina Georgina Rossetti (5 December 1830 – 29 December 1894) was an English poet who wrote a variety of romantic devotional and children's poems. She is perhaps best known for her long poem Goblin Market her love poem Remember and for the words of the Christmas carol In the Bleak Midwinter.