First Draft, Poetry Analysis

Temptation: A Beating Drum

The “Goblin Market” by Christina Rossetti is such a tempting read. She uses short and quick to read lines, to create the affect of a beating drum, the chant of the feared goblin men. This brings to light the poem’s main theme. The theme, that all are tempted and many fall short into the hands of temptation and somehow, some way, a hero, a savior, a sister, is needed to help the lost, and good can conquer evil. Along with the main theme of temptation comes the religious tone of the poem: the evils’ of the goblin men, their deceit, the innocence of Laura and Lizzie and the other girls that were tempted before them, and finally a savior, to overcome the goblin men, leaving them angry, malicious, and un-wanting.
Christina Rossetti immediately begins the poem with the song of the goblin men. The first 31 lines, catches their chant. This technique is the first glimpse of the temptation she puts onto the reader. Reading further into the poem and it becomes a slow and lulling chant that rhythmically beats along. “Wild free-born cranberries, Crab-apples, dewberries, Pine-apples, blackberries, Apricots, strawberries;--” (Rossetti, lines 11-14). Each line only contains a few words, eight at the most, to keep the beat and maintain the idea of an “easy read”. An easy read leads to an easy listen, as the goblin men chant “Come buy, come buy.” (Rossetti, 31). Rossetti uses this technique to show first-hand how the other girls are easily tempted, because it is easy for the girls to hear, to listen, and become tempted and entranced.
Rossetti uses one simple line to explain why it is so tempting to want to eat the fruit of the goblin men. “Sweet to tongue, and sound to eye;” (Rossetti, 30). A vivid description alike to the one given in the Bible by Eve, when she finally had looked upon the forbidden fruit, “...the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye,” (Genesis, 3:6). Although Rossetti only uses seven words to describe the fruit, they are powerful. This line is before Laura has even tasted of the fruit, but she already knows that is will be sweet, because it is “music to her eyes”. I think the meaning of this is, that it was as pleasing and soothing to Laura as a lullaby is to a baby. How can something so pure and beautiful be any harm? Especially something that sounds so luscious and goblin men with voices like doves (Rossetti, 77).
Laura, like Eve in the Bible, is tempted by an evil. The goblins represent the evil of Satan, which has a powerful, yet seemingly helpful cause. This is shown when the goblin men finally meet her at the glen and coax her again to “Come buy, come buy.” (Rossetti, 90). Laura tells them that she does not have any money, but the goblin men disagree, “You have much gold upon your head,” (Rossetti, 123), “Buy from us with a golden curl. She clipp’d a precious golden lock,” (Rossetti, 125-126). This seems as though the goblins are doing Laura a favor, being kind, but their true intentions are that of deceit and maliciousness. Laura also gave them a lock of hair as payment for their fruit, and the cost of it was painful, causing Laura to shed “…a tear more rare than pearl,” (Rossetti, 127). This was because, I believe, the lock of hair meant more to her than money, because it was a part of her, a piece of her beauty. The goblins did not have to take money from her. They took more from her than just worldly possessions; they cut into her life and have taken her soul.
Once Laura becomes entranced and tempted, she becomes consumed. “Laura stretch’d her gleaming neck” (Rossetti, 81) “Like a vessel at the launch, When its last restraint is gone.” (Rossetti, 85-86). Now Laura will stretch as far as she needs to so that she can see and hear the goblins marching towards her. She is so consumed that she will do anything for the taste of the fruit, because no matter how much she ate, her “mouth waters still;” (Rossetti, 166), and in her fallen temptation and consumption she has the false idea in her mind that she will buy more (Rossetti, 167-168), but there is no more to be found. The goblins’ malicious and key ingredient for their fruit is the painstaking conclusion that once the juice of the fruit has been tasted, the want and need for more has been established, the temptation is taken away, and the goblin song cannot be heard again. “But Laura loiter’d still among the rushes, Listening ever, but not catching, The customary cry, Come buy, come buy,” (Rossetti, 226, 230-232). This parallels with the punishment given to Eve after she tasted of the forbidden fruit and God throws her out of the Garden of Eden, never can she live in a paradise or look upon the fruit. Laura also is condemned by the goblin men to be searching forever for their cry and never hear it, because she was tempted.
The evil of the goblin men began to turn Laura into an evil herself. “Then sat up in a passionate yearning, And gnash’d her teeth for baulk’d desire, and wept, As if her heart would break.” (Rossetti, 266-268), Laura paid the price by giving a piece of herself to the goblin men and therefore began to lose herself completely. Her life on earth became a living hell; a hell full of pain, gnashing of teeth, and utter despair. When she gave the lock of hair, she opened up a gateway to her soul. When that gate opened the evil goblin men took hold of Laura and her life. Slowly as the days dragged on, her light in her life, the fire she used to have, began to decay (Rossetti, 279-280).
Laura needed a savior from the evil that had her bonded. That savior became her sister Lizzie, who watched Laura as she slowly fell deeper into the grasp of the goblin men. Lizzie approached the glen and finally listened for the cry. Spying Lizzie the goblin men came rushing to her, laughing because they had finally tempted the strong sister. More than anything the goblin men were searching for weak souls to devour. They searched for the souls of young and beautiful women, because women have the largest hearts, and to them, the easiest to break. They treated her with kindness, kissed her, caressed her, (Rossetti, 348-349), but her mission was unlike any they had encountered. Lizzie asked for fruit to take back with her to her sister. The goblin men began to physically beat her because they could not torture her if she would not taste of their fruit, “Held her hands and squeez’d their fruits, Against her mouth to make her eat.” (Rossetti, 406-407). When Lizzie would not eat, the goblin men considered her trash and left her beaten. The evil wanted nothing to do with the savior and strong-will that Lizzie possessed. The savior Lizzie was above the rest, golden and strong, angelically represented, but humble in her return home. She did not gloat about braving the goblin men, but instead humbled herself before her sister asking her to be proud and look at her with love, “Eat me, drink me, love me, Laura, make much of me;” (Rossetti, 471-472), but since Laura was so intoxicated by the evil that the goblins had cast upon her, Laura only wanted to know if Lizzie had joined her in her consumed life. “Lizzie, Lizzie, have you tasted, For my sake the fruit forbidden?” (Rossetti, 478-479). Ultimately Laura does not care that Lizzie was beaten by the goblin men, she only wants to know whether her sister will be joining her in a soul-less, lifeless world, same as the one she is living in, because she was tempted.
Temptation was the key ingredient to the goblin mens’ evil plans against the innocent, once the temptation was felt, the evil was capable of consuming the soul and ultimately leading to the death of the young women. Even in death, light can be seen, and a savior to seek out the lost, which is what Christina Rossetti explains in “Goblin Market”, good will conquer evil.


My only question is whether I did a summary of the poem? I think I started to summarize towards the end?