Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) and Christina Rossetti (1830–1894) were both regarded as the female poet laureates of their time, and between them their writings spanned almost the entire Victorian age, from the end of Romanticism to the beginnings of Modernism.

This selection of their shorter works contains all the major themes that animated the two poets – social justice, faith, love, and mortality – and some of the bestloved poetry in English, including In the Bleak Midwinter and How Do I Love Thee?.

These poems reflect the changing world in which they were composed, but they also reflect the complex passions of two extraordinary women.