Next perhaps to Rossetti's reputation as a writer of sonnets stands his reputation as a balladist; and it may be questioned whether the order ought not to be reversed. Rossetti's art was far too elaborate for a ballad of the genuine old type. Even in _The White Ship_ there is a note which distinguishes it not only from the true popular ballad, but from such approximations as the ballads of Scott. But poetry ought to be valued for what it is, not for conformity with what may possibly be a misleading standard; and Rossetti's ballads are noble poetry. He imbibed enough of the ballad spirit to check his habitual faults, and of all his compositions the ballads are the simplest and most natural. The universal favourite, _The King's Tragedy_ is a grand story told with great fire and energy. So, too, _Rose Mary_ is a powerful and beautiful poem, less uniform however than _The King's Tragedy_, for the lyrics between the parts are at best second-rate. It is in pieces like these, and in some of the more clearly-thought sonnets, like _Lost Days_, that Rossetti proves himself the true poet. The more deeply sensuous sonnets, and such characteristic pieces as _The Blessed Damozel_, are representative rather of the dangers and defects of his poetry. [Sidenote: Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830-1894).] Less great but hardly less interesting than her brother was Christina Georgina Rossetti, who, like him, wrote for _The Germ_, though she published no volume of poems for many years afterwards. Though her course extends far beyond the limits of the period, the poetical work for which she is most memorable was chiefly done within it, and her closest connexions belong to it too. Her first published volume was _Goblin Market, and other Poems_ (1862); her second, _The Prince's Progress, and other Poems_ (1866). Then, after some prose tales, came the book of nursery rhymes, _Sing-Song_ (1872). From this time onwards, except for _A Pageant, and other Poems_ (1881), Miss Rossetti's books were chiefly of a devotional character; but one of them, _Time Flies_ (1885), contains some of the finest of her verse. The religious poems form a most important section of Christina Rossetti's works. She is one of the most profoundly devotional of modern writers. Unlike Arnold and Clough, she is not a poet of doubt but of faith; unlike Browning's, her creed is rather a creed of feeling than of intellect. But while she is not touched with the doubt of the age she is touched with its sadness. Her devotional pieces have sometimes, as in _Advent_, the ring of conquering faith, but more often they have in them something of a wail. What Dr. John Brown called the 'inevitable melancholy' of women seems to find a voice in Christina Rossetti; and though she is bound by her faith to an ultimately optimistic view, her habitual tone of mind is gloomy. 'Vanity of vanities' is the title of her finest sonnet, and it is also the conclusion she draws from the life of this world.