Hill is the author of a poetry collection, has published widely in poetry journals, and is an associate editor for a university communications department. In the following essay, she discusses the lack of sincerity in the poem's speaker and why it results from an inner conflict between worldly desires and religious fervor.

When it comes to poetry, many readers assume that the "I" in a poem must be the voice of the poet him or herself. While it is often true that at least a glimmer of the author's own beliefs, experiences, and perspectives show up in any creative work, one should not take for granted that a first-person narrative is always an autobiographical account. All that being the case, however, Christina Rossetti and her sonnets are hard to separate. That is, because her pious, reserved lifestyle is so heavily reflected in her work, a reader can...