The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-05-09

x I OF a bit. of trouble. katharine
M And truly, you couldn't have
L chosen better time to ask for a
piece about Chrisna Rosetti. for your
friend was one of the people who dearly
loved the out of doors; the soft green
grass and the blue sky above, and the
small birds, now singing, now talking
their little household secrets each to each
as they go about the building of their
homes each spring among the branches.
Do you remember the bit of verse:
MY heart is like a singing bird
Whose nest is in a watered shoot
Ny heart is like an apple tree
Whose boughs are bent with thick set
fruit
My heart is like a rainbow shell
That paddles in a halcyon sea.
My heart is gladder than all these,
Because my love Is come to me.
And yet Katharine, poor Christina Ros-
setti had to spend most of her life in
London She wasn't well very much of
the time and she couldn't get out among
the flowers and the birds nearly as ymuch
as she wanted to. 1t was mighty fine of
her, don't you think, instead or shriveling
UP like a flower that has no sun to warm
ii. to go ahead and find a little sunlight
of her own in the dark London room?
You know she was the sister of Dante
Gabriel Rossetti, the famous poet and
painter, and Dante and her other broth
ers always thought she was quite the
most wonderful girl they ever knew. They
used to paint her in their pictures, and
they'd come to Christina for advice about
the things they wrote, and they said she
helped them very much, indeed
She wrote a good deal herself, poems
for gTown-ups as well as for children,
and both grown-ups and children liked the
things she wrote. And you can see by
reading her verses how much she loved
the big out of doors, and all the thou
sand and one beautiful and fascinating
things with which 1t is crowded.
There is the little verse:
Who has ever seen the wind'
Neither | nor you:
But when the leaves hang tfeinpifhS,
The wind\is passing through.
And haven't you just seen for yourself
clouds sailing the way Miss Rossetu de-
scribed them in the poem beginning:
Boats sail on the rivers,
And ships said on the seas;
But clouds that sail across the SKY
Are pretter far than these.
She didn't have a very exciting life.
This gentle poetess who was so fond OF
children and the out of doors. She was
never married, and there was great deal
oflillness and suffering in her life, and
vet after all, she succeeded in finding
much quiet happiness You see she had
lot of very dear friends-a Scotchman
named Mackenzie Bell who wrote a book
about her, used to say that one couldn't
know her at all without loving her. And
So what with seeing her friends and
writing to them and taking good care OF
her mother, of whom she was very fond
indeed Christina Rossetti found good
many bright places in life.
And through it all she had feeling
thdL 6Ou 10 Soou' even '''Oeo'' - 10 sum-
times very hard to understand his ways
and plans AS she grew older, Miss Ros-
setti wrote a number of devotional poems
and a few hymns.
IN spite of her i'll health. Miss Rossetti
lived to be 81. She continued to stay in
the old house in Torrington street that
had been her fathers. There were times
when she thought about moving to the
country that she loved SO we'll but one
thing and another always seemed to pred
vent her doing it.
AS young girl, Christina Rossetti was
almost beautiful, though in dim and
gentle way. Her slender face was lighted
by big blue-gray eyes that were almost
hazel at times, and they say she had a