Temptation

What a tempting read. The author showed one of the major themes of the poem, temptation, by creating each line, short and quick to read. This technique of using easy to read words, tempts the reader to go on. It seems easy to fall into the trap of the merchant mens' chant, "Come buy, come buy". The rhythm of the poem fits well into the chants that you can imagine in your mind, "Come buy, come buy". In the end, Laura was tempted by the merchant mens' fruits.
The speaker is an observer. An observer of both Laura and Lizzie. The language that they use, is in favor of Laura and Lizzie, in line (408) they describe Lizzie as "white and golden", normally words used to describe an angel, and they use very derogatory language when talking about the goblin men.
The tone of the poem is a religious tone. I think the goblin men are used to describe an evil sort of Satan character. The merchant/goblin men are always tempting for others to join them in their trickery, and they tempted only women. Exactly like in the book of Genesis in the Bible. Satan tempts Eve, the woman, with tasting of the forbidden fruit. He is successful. Many times successful in the poem, and when they are successful, the men rejoice in their trickery, they quirk a smile when they finally see Lizzie peering at them through the brush. Going along with the religious tone, you can see that Lizzie is the "savior" in the poem. She is able to conquer the temptation of tasting the fruits, withstand the brutal beating and humiliation that the merchant men put her through trying to force her to eat of the fruits, and when she runs home to her sister telling her she has braved the men and is covered in the mouth watering fruit that will save Laura's life.





My picture is of a glen. Which is where the merchant men met Laura and Lizzie. I got the picture from http://www.geneseelandtrust.org/o-corbetts_glen.html

My link is to the poem that I chose www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174262