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Rossetti 1 Two Poems by Christina Rossetti

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Rossetti 1 Two Poems by Christina Rossetti Rossetti 1 Two Poems by Christina Rossetti (1830-1894): Rare pears and greengages, Read through these poems and answer the questions Damsons and bilberries, below. Taste them and try: 25 Currants and gooseberries, "A Birthday" [1862] Bright-fire-like barberries, Figs to fill your mouth, My heart is like a singing bird Citrons from the South, Whose nest is in a watered shoot: Sweet to tongue and sound to eye, 30 My heart is like an apple tree Come buy, come buy." Whose boughs are bent with thickest fruit; My heart is like a rainbow shell 5 Evening by evening That paddles in a halcyon sea; Among the brookside rushes, My heart is gladder than all these Laura bowed her head to hear, Because my love is come to me. Lizzie veiled her blushes: 35 Crouching close together Raise me a dais of silk and down; In the cooling weather, Hang it with vair and purple dyes; 10 With clasping arms and cautioning lips, Carve it in doves and pomegranates, With tingling cheeks and finger-tips. And peacocks with a hundred eyes; "Lie close," Laura said, 40 Work it in gold and silver grapes, Pricking up her golden head: In leaves and silver fleur-de-lys; We must not look at goblin men, Because the birthday of my life 15 We must not buy their fruits: Is come, my love is come to me. Who knows upon what soil they fed Their hungry thirsty roots?" 45 1. How are the similes in the poem appropriate for the "Come buy," call the goblins romantic longings the speaker feels? How is the metaphor of the Hobbling down the glen. birthday appropriate? 2. If the Victorian period is typically characterized by "O!" cried Lizzie, "Laura, Laura, conventional sentiment, prudery, and didactic morality, does You should not peep at goblin men." Rossetti's poem "A Birthday" fit into this model? Why or why not? Lizzie covered up her eyes 50 3. What does the imagery in the final stanza imply about the Covered close lest they should look; proper wrappings for a love-gift? Why are these appropriate? Laura reared her glossy head, And whispered like the restless brook: "Goblin Market" [written 1859, published 1862] "Look, Lizzie, look, Lizzie, Down the glen tramp little men. 55 Morning and evening One hauls a basket, Maids heard the goblins cry: One bears a plate, "Come buy our orchard fruits, One lugs a golden dish Come buy, come buy: Of many pounds' weight. Apples and quinces, 5 How fair the vine must grow 60 Lemons and oranges, Whose grapes are so luscious; Plump unpecked cherries-- How warm the wind must blow Melons and raspberries, Through those fruit bushes." Bloom-down-cheeked peaches, "No," said Lizzie, "no, no, no; Swart-headed mulberries, 10 Their offers should not charm us, 65 Wild free-born cranberries, Their evil gifts would harm us." Crab-apples, dewberries, She thrust a dimpled finger Pine-apples, blackberries, In each ear, shut eyes and ran: Apricots, strawberries-- Curious Laura chose to linger All ripe together 15 Wondering at each merchant man 70 In summer weather-- One had a cat's face, Morns that pass by, One whisked a tail, Fair eves that fly; One tramped at a rat's pace, Come buy, come buy; One crawled like a snail, Our grapes fresh from the vine, 20 One like a wombat prowled obtuse and furry, 75 Pomegranates full and fine, One like a ratel tumbled hurry-scurry. Dates and sharp bullaces, Lizzie heard a voice like voice of doves Rossetti 2 Cooing all together: Clearer than water flowed that juice; They sounded kind and full of loves She never tasted such before, In the pleasant weather. 80 How should it cloy with length of use? She sucked and sucked and sucked the more Laura stretched her gleaming neck Fruits which that unknown orchard bore, 135 Like a rush-imbedded swan, She sucked until her lips were sore; Like a lily from the beck, Then flung the emptied rinds away, Like a moonlit poplar branch, But gathered up one kernel stone, Like a vessel at the launch 85 And knew not was it night or day When its last restraint is gone. As she turned home alone. 140 Backwards up the mossy glen Lizzie met her at the gate Turned and trooped the goblin men, Full of wise upbraidings: With their shrill repeated cry, "Dear, you should not stay so late, "Come buy, come buy." 90 Twilight is not good for maidens; When they reached where Laura was Should not loiter in the glen 145 They stood stock still upon the moss, In the haunts of goblin men. Leering at each other, Do you not remember Jeanie, Brother with queer brother; How she met them in the moonlight, Signalling each other, 95 Took their gifts both choice and many, Brother with sly brother. Ate their fruits and wore their flowers 150 One set his basket down, Plucked from bowers One reared his plate; Where summer ripens at all hours? One began to weave a crown But ever in the moonlight Of tendrils, leaves, and rough nuts brown 100 She pined and pined away; (Men sell not such in any town); Sought them by night and day, 155 One heaved the golden weight Found them no more, but dwindled and grew gray; Of dish and fruit to offer her: Then fell with the first snow, "Come buy, come buy," was still their cry. While to this day no grass will grow Laura stared but did not stir, 105 Where she lies low: Longed but had no money: I planted daisies there a year ago 160 The whisk-tailed merchant bade her taste That never blow. In tones as smooth as honey, You should not loiter so." The cat-faced purr'd, "Nay hush," said Laura. The rat-paced spoke a word 110 "Nay hush, my sister: Of welcome, and the snail-paced even was heard; I ate and ate my fill, 165 One parrot-voiced and jolly Yet my mouth waters still; Cried "Pretty Goblin" still for "Pretty Polly"; To-morrow night I will One whistled like a bird. Buy more," and kissed her. "Have done with sorrow; But sweet-tooth Laura spoke in haste: 115 I'll bring you plums tomorrow 170 "Good folk, I have no coin; Fresh on their mother twigs, To take were to purloin: Cherries worth getting; I have no copper in my purse, You cannot think what figs I have no silver either, My teeth have met in, And all my gold is on the furze 120 What melons, icy-cold 175 That shakes in windy weather Piled on a dish of gold Above the rusty heather." Too huge for me to hold, "You have much gold upon your head," What peaches with a velvet nap, They answered altogether: Pellucid grapes without one seed: "Buy from us with a golden curl." 125 Odorous indeed must be the mead 180 She clipped a precious golden lock, Whereon they grow, and pure the wave they drink, She dropped a tear more rare than pearl, With lilies at the brink, Then sucked their fruit globes fair or red: And sugar-sweet their sap." Sweeter than honey from the rock, Stronger than man-rejoicing wine, 130 Rossetti 3 Golden head by golden head, Racing, whisking, tumbling, hobbling; Like two pigeons in one nest 185 Let alone the herds Folded in each other's wings, That used to tramp along the glen, They lay down, in their curtained bed: In groups or single, 240 Like two blossoms on one stem, Of brisk fruit-merchant men. Like two flakes of new-fallen snow, Like two wands of ivory 190 Till Lizzie urged, "O Laura, come, Tipped with gold for awful kings. I hear the fruit-call, but I dare not look: Moon and stars beamed in at them, You should not loiter longer at this brook: Wind sang to them lullaby, Come with me home. 245 Lumbering owls forbore to fly, The stars rise, the moon bends her arc, Not a bat flapped to and fro 195 Each glow-worm winks her spark, Round their rest: Let us get home before the night grows dark; Cheek to cheek and breast to breast For clouds may gather even Locked together in one nest. Though this is summer weather, 250 Put out the lights and drench us through; Early in the morning Then if we lost our way what should we do?" When the first cock crowed his warning, 200 Neat like bees, as sweet and busy, Laura turned cold as stone Laura rose with Lizzie: To find her sister heard that cry alone, Fetched in honey, milked the cows, That goblin cry, 255 Aired and set to rights the house, "Come buy our fruits, come buy." Kneaded cakes of whitest wheat, 205 Must she then buy no more such dainty fruit? Cakes for dainty mouths to eat, Must she no more such succous pasture find, Next churned butter, whipped up cream, Gone deaf and blind? Fed their poultry, sat and sewed; Her tree of life drooped from the root: Talked as modest maidens should She said not one word in her heart's sore ache; Lizzie with an open heart, 210 But peering thro' the dimness, naught discerning, Laura in an absent dream, Trudged home, her pitcher dripping all the way; One content, one sick in part; So crept to bed, and lay One warbling for the mere bright day's delight, Silent 'til Lizzie slept; 265 One longing for the night.
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