This event took place on 20 February 2024

Great poetry read aloud

Christina Rossetti’s Goblin Market forms the centrepiece of a programme of great poetry.

Rossetti was born in 1830 into a family that included her brothers the artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Michael, co-founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and her sister Maria Franchesca, an acclaimed biographer of Dante. Christina’s extraordinary long poem Goblin Market (1862) is the tale of two sisters and their treacherous encounter with the goblin men. One of the triumphs of Victorian literature, it is a surreal, fantastical tale of temptation, that lends itself to a myriad of interpretations, although never never further explained by the poet. Presented by The Josephine Hart Poetry Foundation in partnership with the British Library, the event also accompanies our exhibition Fantasy: Realms of Imagination (to 25 February), in which 'Goblin Market' is on display.

The Poetry Hour was founded by novelist and poetry anthologist Josephine Hart. Launched as The Gallery Poets in Mayfair in the mid-1980s, it later became The Poetry Hour and won fame for bringing classic ‘great poetry read aloud by great actors’ to a wide audience. The British Library has supported Josephine Hart’s mission from 2004 and continues to do so in her memory on a regular basis.