Christina Rossetti was a woman of Christian faith and was strong in her convictions. Much of her poetry was influenced by religion and the idea of sin. She volunteered at the St. Mary Magdalene Penitentiary in Highgate from 1859-1870, which tried to rehabilitate and provide refuge to ‘fallen women’. A fallen woman was a woman who had sex out of wedlock or a prostitute. It was seen as the most shameful thing a woman could be in the Victorian Era. These penitentiaries set out to be a refuge for fallen women, teaching them skills, giving them shelter, and most importantly, teaching them to repent from their sexual deviance. It is something to note though that these women were “referred to as ‘patients’; ’penitentiary’ was a term also associated with prisons” (British Library). The poetry she wrote before her time there was clearly inspired by sin and women's status. This is clear in her poem “From the Antique” which was written in 1854. Below is only the first stanza from the poem which was never published in her lifetime which was likely because of the content she was writing about. 

“It’s a weary life, it is, she said:

Doubly blank in a woman’s lot:

I wish and I wish I were a man:

Or, better than any being, were not:”

Rossetti was inspired by her time at the penitentiary and it showed through her later poetry.  “Her later poetry, including ‘Cousin Kate’ and ‘Goblin Market’, which engage with themes of sisterhood and prohibited love, reveals the enduring influence of her firsthand experiences at Highgate”(British Library). 

Further readings I suggest: 

The Rise of the Fallen Woman by Nina Auerbach

https://www.jstor.org/stable/2933478?seq=9

Christina Rossetti: Gender and Power by Simon Avery

https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/christina-rossetti-g...

Woman and the Demon: The Life of a Victorian Myth by Nina Auerbach

Sources Cited:

“Christina Rossetti.” Poetry Foundation,   https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/christina-rossetti. Accessed 14 September 2023. 

Christina. “From the Antique.” Poetry Foundation,   https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/146806/from-the-antique. Accessed 14 September 2023.

The Morning Post. “Advertisement for a house for ‘fallen women’ from The Morning

Post.” British Library,  https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/advertisement-for-a-house-for-fallen-... from-the- morning-post. Accessed 14 September 2023.