Love is the key of life and death

Love is the key of life and death. Christina Georgina Rossetti* (1830-1894). The date of composition of this poem is not known. It was first published in Rossetti’s The Face of the Deep: a devotional commentary on the Apocalypse (New York: SPCK, 1892). In this edition it was entitled ‘The Feast of All Saints’. In the Second Edition (London and New York, 1893), it was entitled ‘The Least of All Saints’, and this is the title retained in The Poetical Works of Christina Georgina Rossetti, edited by her brother, William Michael Rossetti in 1904. It is possible that the printers of the 1892 edition naturally assumed that ‘Least’ was a mistake for ‘Feast’, and altered the title accordingly...