Sonnets are full of Love by Christina Rossetti

Sonnets are full of love, and this my tome
Has many sonnets: so here now shall be
One sonnet more, a love sonnet, from me
To her whose heart is my heart’s quiet home,
To my first Love, my Mother, on whose knee
I learnt love-lore that is not troublesome;
Whose service is my special dignity,
And she my loadstar while I go and come
And so because you love me, and because
I love you, Mother, I have woven a wreath
Of rhymes wherewith to crown your honored name:
In you not fourscore years can dim the flame
Of love, whose blessed glow transcends the laws
Of time and change and mortal life and death.

Some thoughts...

on the Poet: Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830-1894) was one of the major poets of the Pre-Raphaelite movement in Literature and Art. Born in London, she was also fluent in Italian, and read French, German and Latin.

on her Poetry: The Pre-Raphaelite movement was led by a group of English poets, painters and critics. Their chief aim was to promote originality; attention to nature; to discard the conventional in favor of individuality; and, to dedicate themselves to the finest expression of their art.

on this Poem: Many of Christina Rossetti's early poems were written to her mother. As she calls this, it's a sonnet of love.

The poet speaks for many of us when speaks of her mother as her 'first Love', the most selfless embodiment as well as the most enduring example of that emotion. Hallmark says much the same thing, but Christina Rossetti beat them to it.

This poem is for my mother, the first and foremost of my angels.