Compare ‘Cousin Kate’ by Christina Rossetti with ‘the Seduction’ by Eileen Mcauley Essay Example
‘Cousin Kate’ is a double ballade, meaning that it is heavily rhymed and consists of six stanzas of 8 lines. It was written by Christina Rossetti in the 1870s. The outline of the poem is that the narrator ‘cottage maiden’ is introduced and describes herself as ‘Hardened by sun and air’ which shows that she is fairly low-class and that she works outside. In the 1800’s, if you had a tan because you would be working outside, this would show that you were of the working class. She then falls in love with the ‘great lord’ after he found her out and complimented her, ’Why did the great lord find me out and praise my flaxen hair?’ This quote tells you that he flirted and seduced her, and flaxen hair meaning fair-haired.
The next stanza goes on to say that the lord then took her to his ‘palace home’ suggesting that he was rich and they had playful sex, (‘His plaything and his love’). The quote ‘So now I moan, an unclean thing, who might of been a dove’ tells you that a dove is a sign of virginity and that now she moans, an unclean thing suggests that the lord took that away from her and she is now ‘unclean’. At this time in the poem, Cousin Kate comes is introduced is said to be prettier than the cottage maiden, ‘O Lady Kate, my cousin Kate, You grew more fair than I’. The lord then saw Cousin Kate, and discarded the cottage maiden for her, ‘Chose you, and cast me by.’ The lord takes Cousin Kate to a higher status by his side. The stanza after that, the narrator (cottage maiden) is moaning about how the only reason that the lord proposed to Cousin Kate is because she was ‘good and pure’ meaning that she didn’t let him seduce her and she kept her virginity under ‘lock and key’. The neighbours then call Cousin Kate good and pure but the cottage maiden ‘an outcast thing’. This is because you were frowned upon in the 19th century if had sex before marriage. The narrator also mentions how she ‘sits and howls in dust, you sit in gold and sing’ meaning how Cousin Kate had it
The next stanza goes on to say that the lord then took her to his ‘palace home’ suggesting that he was rich and they had playful sex, (‘His plaything and his love’). The quote ‘So now I moan, an unclean thing, who might of been a dove’ tells you that a dove is a sign of virginity and that now she moans, an unclean thing suggests that the lord took that away from her and she is now ‘unclean’. At this time in the poem, Cousin Kate comes is introduced is said to be prettier than the cottage maiden, ‘O Lady Kate, my cousin Kate, You grew more fair than I’. The lord then saw Cousin Kate, and discarded the cottage maiden for her, ‘Chose you, and cast me by.’ The lord takes Cousin Kate to a higher status by his side. The stanza after that, the narrator (cottage maiden) is moaning about how the only reason that the lord proposed to Cousin Kate is because she was ‘good and pure’ meaning that she didn’t let him seduce her and she kept her virginity under ‘lock and key’. The neighbours then call Cousin Kate good and pure but the cottage maiden ‘an outcast thing’. This is because you were frowned upon in the 19th century if had sex before marriage. The narrator also mentions how she ‘sits and howls in dust, you sit in gold and sing’ meaning how Cousin Kate had it