Goblin Market By Christina Rossetti

In a harsh world, desire is something that can bring vulnerability to any person. Cristiana Rossetti’s “Goblin Market” is a riveting tale about two sisters who handle desire differently. One knows desire exists, but has the maturity and courage to not give in to her own yearnings, whereas the other cannot control her desires and pays dearly for them. Love is a strong theme in “Goblin Market” and is shown through the love that Lizzie has for her sister, Laura. Lizzie does not let her desire get the best of her when hearing the goblin men, she “thrust a dimpled finger / In each ear, shut her eyes and ran” (Rossetti 67-68). However, it is Laura that falls into a desire for the goblin men through curiosity: “Curious Laura chose to linger / Wondering at each merchant man” (Rossetti 69-70). The difference in the sisters understanding of desire cannot be better shown than in these lines.

However, as time progress, Laura and Lucy’s exploration of sexual desires and/or aggressiveness puts them in a spot of being down upon as they may face dishonor and ostracism from a Victorian perspective. In Goblin Market, Laura is enticed by the goblin men during a visit to the market with her sister Lizzie. Laura’s sister warns her, stating how “[Laura] should not peep at goblin men” (Rossetti 49). However Laura’s curiosity overpowers her sister’s warnings, as she is made unable to resist the luring of the temptations of the goblin men’s fruits. The tasting of the fruit makes Laura a fallen women. Rossetti describes Laura’s diminishing pureness by writing how “[Laura] sucked and sucked and sucked … / … until her lips were sore” (134-36). The fruits of the goblin men have sexual and sensual connotation to them, and Laura who was pressured into tasting the fruit was also unable to resist due to her curiosity and human desires, which changes her into a fallen women. In the Victorian period that Laura is featured in, women are expected to follow a standard of conduct, such as remaining a virgin before marriage. However, Laura is not married

The first two stanzas in the poem offer an insight into the narrator’s past, showing the loss of her innocence the impact of the actions of the ‘great lord’ and an inner anger at her past actions, in the third and fourth stanzas the anger is directed at Kate for stealing the lord and sending her to her ruin, however in the fifth paragraph the direction of her anger is changed again and this time is directed at the lord himself. However the last stanza shows the narrator’s anger to be resolved for although she may have suffered an immense loss of reputation she can be happy now as she’s expressed her anger and knows within her heart that she has something neither the lord and lady Kate have: real love. This suggests that Rossetti doesn’t agree with confinement of the labels given by society, Kate is seen as ‘lovely and pure’ and she as ‘outcast’ but by presenting her as the one who is ultimately happy and proud it’s expressing that society values the wrong virtues, and has

The tone of the poem changes as the poem progresses. The poem begins with energetic language like “full of heroic tales” and “by a mere swing to his shoulder”. The composer also uses hyperboles like “My father began as a god” and “lifted me to heaven”. The use of this positive language indicates to the responder that the composer is longing for those days – he is nostalgic. It also highlights the perspective of a typical child. The language used in the middle of the poem is highly critical of his father: “A foolish small old man”. This highlights the perspective of a typical teenager and signifies that they have generally conflicting views. The language used in the last section of the poem is more loving and emotional than the rest: “...revealing virtues such as honesty, generosity, integrity”. This draws attention to a mature adult’s perspective.

This poem brought me back to my home town and the wonders and beauty that it brings around winter time, and made me nostalgic with memories of past winters with my family and slightly saddened for those who have never seen the magical ability snow has. This poem reminded me that there are people who live in states where their change in seasons is not as noticeable, as the ones that I grew up with and have come to miss. Similar to many of the romantics, natures true beauty can transform the mundane into a work of art that would never have existed

Love and Time in Rossetti's Poems It is evident that themes of love and time are frequently referred to in several of Rossetti’s poems and I believe that she treats these themes in a variety of ways. Regarding love, Rossetti explores the disappointment and betrayal caused by love, her love of God as though part of an intimate relationship and the temptation that love causes young women to abandon the traditional rules. Using seasonal imagery, Rossetti relates to time contradicting herself as she often implies that we should take time to enjoy and observe life whilst she also states that she is unable to be satisfied with earthly life and it is death that will provide the ultimate fulfilment.

Another thing the two sonnets share is metaphorical language; it used to imply a comparison between two things that are unrelated but share some common ground. Christina Rossetti establishes an idea of metaphorically remaining “alive” through remembrance. The juxtaposition in line 1, “Remember me” and “gone away” implies that the poet suggests that the memory is the last thing a person has that still ties them to life. Henry Longfellow utilizes metaphorical language when he compares a tangible object to emotions. He includes, “There is a mountain…/that…/displays a cross of snow upon its side. / Such is the cross I wear upon my breast” (lines 9-12). The image of a mountain that bears a cross shape filled with snow manifests an image of the angelic figure going towards heaven. Longfellow purposely used a mountain to further implicate religious ideas; the height of the mountain shows that is closer to heaven because it is going upward. The snow symbolizes the wife and that she is on the peak of the mountain, reaching towards heaven. He wears the pain of the loss of his wife on his chest because she is within his soul.

Rossetti depicts the life of a loveless old maid to illustrate the negative effects of a life in sole pursuit of love. Rossetti says, “And one was blue with famine after love, / Who like a harpstring snapped rang harsh and low / The burden of what those were

By the time Laura makes the decision to purchase the fruits from the goblins, her hunger has grown so rapidly and strongly for the fruits that she is willing to give up a nearly priceless part of herself to experience their taste. The goblins tell her that because she has no money, she must give up a lock of her golden hair. While this upsets her and she sheds a tear, she does not

Our dreams are commonly known as the subconscious manifestations of our inner desires. Creative writing, like dreams, can represent an outlet, a method of pseudo-fulfillment for those unrealized wishes or fears. In the case of much fiction, especially poetry, these hidden triumphs are often so subtle that the reader may not recognize the achievement or the repressed emotion to which it relates.

Although the structure of the poem contributes to its emotiveness the language is also essential to exhibit Rossetti's "passion". The natural imagery in the last three lines of each stanza contrast Rossetti to the natural world, they demonstrate how she feels left out of natural cycles by having no mate. There appears to be a longing to bear children in the last stanza, possibly Rossetti wishes not for the love of a partner but for the love of a child. Nature is usually associated with the idea of mating for

Goblin men fascinate the sisters Laura and Lizzie, innocent virgins who were taught not to “peep at goblin men” (Rossetti, l. 49). Predominantly iambic tetrametric, “Goblin Market” follows a convoluted rhyming scheme and includes many enjambments, repetitions, and

In the second stanza it is the semantic field of cold: ‘winter’, ‘ice’, ‘naked’, ‘snow’. All these lexical items give us a feeling of cold which evokes loneliness, unknown, fear.

Love makes people become selfish, but it is also makes the world greater. In this poem, the world that the speaker lives and loves is not limited in “my North, my South, my East and West / my working week and my Sunday rest” (9-10), it spreads to “My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song (11). The poem’s imagery dominates most of the third stanza giving readers an image of a peaceful world in which everything is in order. However, the last sentence of the stanza is the decisive element. This element not only destroys the inner world of the speaker, but it also sends out the message that love or life is mortal.

A poem is an experience, not a thought. It is an experience both the author and the reader share with one another. Authors of poems use tones, keywords, hidden messages, irony, and diction to create their work. They use these tactics so the reader thinks about what they are reading and try evaluating what the message is that the reader wants to get across. In the poem “Snow” by Louis MacNeice, he uses these same characteristics to get the readers mind active in the words. Let’s examine the poem “Snow” and see what the meaning behind this poem is.