ABSTRACT
Rossetti’s final volume of original poems, A Pageant and Other Poems, provides the clearest example of therapeutic aspects of her poetry. In this very personal book, Rossetti often expresses anxiety or depression about aging, waning creativity, and life in general. Poems throughout the volume answer these concerns by locating adaptive symbols in nature and enacting positive information processing strategies. Rossetti presents then actively challenges maladaptive thinking by finding order in the natural world that reassures her of God’s love. Poems treated here include the therapeutic narrative “An Old-World Thicket,” and the sonnet sequences Monna Innominata and Later Life.
