Chapter Rochester to Rossetti of R by Biographical Dictionary of English Literature

Roscommon, Wentworth Dillon, 4th Earl of (1633?-1685).—Poet, nephew of the famous Earl of Strafford, was born in Ireland. He studied and travelled on the Continent, and enjoyed a considerable literary reputation in his own day on the strength of a poetical Essay on Translated Verse, and translations from Horace’s Art of poetry.

Rose, William Stewart (1775-1843).—Poet and translator, son of George Rose, who held various Government offices, including that of Treasurer of the Navy. After being educated at Eton and Cambridge, he was appointed Reading Clerk to the House of Lords. He translated the romance of Amadis de Gaul (1803), Partenopex de Blois (1807), etc., and from 1823-31 was occupied with the principal work of his life, his translations from the Italian, including the Orlando Furioso of Ariosto, in which he was encouraged by Sir W. Scott, whose friend he was. He also produced a vol. of poems, The Crusade of St. Louis (1810).

Rossetti, Christina Georgina (1830-1894).—Poetess, sister of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (q.v.), was born in London, where she lived all her life. She began to write poetry in early girlhood, some of her earliest verse appearing in 1850 in the Germ, the magazine of the pre-Raphaelites, of which her brother was one of the founders. Her subsequent publications were Goblin Market and other Poems (1862), The Prince’s Progress (1866), A Pageant and other Poems (1881), and Verses (1893). New Poems (1896) appeared after her death. Sing-Song was a book of verses for children. Her life was a very retired one, passed largely in attending on her mother, who lived until 1886, and in religious duties. She twice rejected proposals of marriage. Her poetry is characterised by imaginative power, exquisite expression, and simplicity and depth of thought. She rarely imitated any forerunner, and drew her inspiration from her own experiences of thought and feeling. Many of her poems are definitely religious in form; more are deeply imbued with religious feeling and motive. In addition to her poems she wrote Commonplace and other Stories, and The Face of the Deep, a striking and suggestive commentary on the Apocalypse.