SISTER MAUDE â CHRISTINA ROSSETTI. Christina Rossetti begins her poem âSister Maudeâ with two similar questions, asking who told her parents about her 'shame'. We do not know at this point what the narrator's shame is, but it gradually becomes clear that she was having an affair with a handsome man.he notes in 'Christina Rossetti â The Complete Poems' (Penguin Classics) suggest that Rossetti was influenced in composing âSister Maudeâ by Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem âThe Sister's Shameâ.