Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) and Christina Rossetti (1830–1894) were both regarded as the female poet laureates of their time, and between them their writings spanned almost the entire Victorian age, from the end of Romanticism to the beginnings of Modernism. This selection of their shorter works contains all the major themes that animated them—social justice, faith, love, and mortality—and some of the best-loved poetry in the English language, including “In the Deep Midwinter” and “How Do I Love Thee?” These poems reflect the changing world in which they were composed, but they also reflect the complex passions of two extraordinary women.
