COVE

This pocketbook-sized anthology (10cm) of Christina Georgina Rossetti's poems was published by Collins’ Clear-Type Press in London and Glasgow (also known as William Collins & Sons). Its date of publication is unspecified but estimated to be 1890. The book itself is bound in suede for durability. It is kept within the Children's Literature Archive at the Ryerson University Centre for Digital Humanities.

This book contains Rossetti's "Goblin Market" as its first poem, accompanied by coloured illustrations of an unknown artist. Other poems in the book are "Dream land", "Winter rain", "Cousin Kate", "A birthday", "The hour and the ghost", "An apple gathering", "Maude Clare", "Echo", "May", and "The convent threshold". Rossetti's poems are unaltered in this edition. The use of "Goblin Market" as the subject of the frontispiece illustration cements its position as Rossetti's most well-known poem.

The audience of this book can be assumed to be children due to the style of the frontispiece illustration, titled “Good folk, I have no coin.” This illustration depicts a young girl in a nightgown gazing shyly at the small and unmenacing goblins in the foreground. The absence of sexual imagery in this illustration supports the notion of the text being marketed towards children. The title page is also accompanied by illustrations of roses and lilies, which symbolize love, purity, and remembrance.

For more information on the publisher, see https://seriesofseries.owu.edu/collins-classics/.