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. Then sat up in a passionate yearning, And gnashed her teeth for balked desire, and wept At length slow evening came-- 215 As if her heart would break. They went with pitchers to the reedy brook; Lizzie most placid in her look, Day after day, night after night, Laura most like a leaping flame. Laura kept watch in vain, 270 They drew the gurgling water from its deep In sullen silence of exceeding pain. Lizzie plucked purple and rich golden flags, 220 She never caught again the goblin cry: Then turning homeward said: "The sunset flushes "Come buy, come buy," Those furthest loftiest crags; She never spied the goblin men Come, Laura, not another maiden lags, Hawking their fruits along the glen: 275 No wilful squirrel wags, But when the noon waxed bright The beasts and birds are fast asleep." 225 Her hair grew thin and gray; But Laura loitered still among the rushes She dwindled, as the fair full moon doth turn And said the bank was steep. To swift decay, and burn Her fire away. 280 And said the hour was early still, The dew not fallen, the wind not chill: One day remembering her kernel-stone Listening ever, but not catching 230 She set it by a wall that faced the south; The customary cry, Dewed it with tears, hoped for a root, "Come buy, come buy," Watched for a waxing shoot, With its iterated jingle But there came none; 285 Of sugar-baited words: It never saw the sun, Not for all her watching 235 It never felt the trickling moisture run: Once discerning even one goblin While with sunk eyes and faded mouth Rossetti 4

She dreamed of melons, as a traveller sees Cat-like and rat-like, 340 False waves in desert drouth 290 Ratel- and wombat-like, With shade of leaf-crowned trees, Snail-paced in a hurry, And burns the thirstier in the sandful breeze. Parrot-voiced and whistler, Helter-skelter, hurry-skurry, She no more swept the house, Chattering like magpies, 345 Tended the fowls or cows, Fluttering like pigeons, Fetched honey, kneaded cakes of wheat, 295 Gliding like fishes, -- Brought water from the brook: Hugged her and kissed her; But sat down listless in the chimney-nook Squeezed and caressed her; And would not eat. Stretched up their dishes, 350 Panniers and plates: Tender Lizzie could not bear "Look at our apples To watch her sister's cankerous care, 300 Russet and dun, Yet not to share. Bob at our cherries She night and morning Bite at our peaches, 355 Caught the goblins' cry: Citrons and dates, "Come buy our orchard fruits, Grapes for the asking, Come buy, come buy." 305 Pears red with basking Beside the brook, along the glen Out in the sun, She heard the tramp of goblin men, Plums on their twigs; 360 The voice and stir Pluck them and suck them, Poor Laura could not hear; Pomegranates, figs." Longed to buy fruit to comfort her, 310 But feared to pay too dear, "Good folk," said Lizzie, Mindful of Jeanie, She thought of Jeanie in her grave, "Give me much and many"; -- 365 Who should have been a bride; Held out her apron, But who for joys brides hope to have Tossed them her penny. Fell sick and died 315 "Nay, take a seat with us, In her gay prime, Honor and eat with us," In earliest winter-time, They answered grinning; 370 With the first glazing rime, "Our feast is but beginning. With the first snow-fall of crisp winter-time. Night yet is early, Warm and dew-pearly, Till Laura, dwindling, 320 Wakeful and starry: Seemed knocking at Death's door: Such fruits as these 375 Then Lizzie weighed no more No man can carry; Better and worse, Half their bloom would fly, But put a silver penny in her purse, Half their dew would dry, Kissed Laura, crossed the heath with clumps of furze Half their flavor would pass by. At twilight, halted by the brook, Sit down and feast with us, 380 And for the first time in her life Be welcome guest with us, Began to listen and look. Cheer you and rest with us." "Thank you," said Lizzie; "but one waits Laughed every goblin At home alone for me: When they spied her peeping: 330 So, without further parleying, 385 Came towards her hobbling, If you will not sell me any Flying, running, leaping, Of your fruits though much and many, Puffing and blowing, Give me back my silver penny Chuckling, clapping, crowing, I tossed you for a fee." Clucking and gobbling, 335 They began to scratch their pates, 390 Mopping and mowing, No longer wagging, purring, Full of airs and graces, But visibly demurring, Pulling wry faces, Grunting and snarling. Demure grimaces, One called her proud, Rossetti 5

Cross-grained, uncivil; 395 In a smart, ache, tingle, Their tones waxed loud, Lizzie went her way; Their looks were evil. Knew not was it night or day; Lashing their tails Sprang up the bank, tore through the furze, 450 They trod and hustled her, Threaded copse and dingle, Elbowed and jostled her, 400 And heard her penny jingle Clawed with their nails, Bouncing in her purse, -- Barking, mewing, hissing, mocking, Its bounce was music to her ear. Tore her gown and soiled her stocking, She ran and ran 455 Twitched her hair out by the roots, As if she feared some goblin man Stamped upon her tender feet, 405 Dogged her with gibe or curse Held her hands and squeezed their fruits Or something worse: Against her mouth to make her eat. But not one goblin skurried after, Nor was she pricked by fear; 460 White and golden Lizzie stood, The kind heart made her windy-paced Like a lily in a flood, That urged her home quite out of breath with haste Like a rock of blue-veined stone 410 And inward laughter. Lashed by tides obstreperously, -- Like a beacon left alone She cried "Laura," up the garden, In a hoary roaring sea, "Did you miss me? 465 Sending up a golden fire, -- Come and kiss me. Like a fruit-crowned orange-tree 415 Never mind my bruises, White with blossoms honey-sweet Hug me, kiss me, suck my juices Sore beset by wasp and bee, -- Squeezed from goblin fruits for you, Like a royal virgin town Goblin pulp and goblin dew. 470 Topped with gilded dome and spire Eat me, drink me, love me; Close beleaguered by a fleet 420 Laura, make much of me: Mad to tear her standard down. For your sake I have braved the glen And had to do with goblin merchant men." One may lead a horse to water, Twenty cannot make him drink. Laura started from her chair, 475 Though the goblins cuffed and caught her, Flung her arms up in the air, Coaxed and fought her, 425 Clutched her hair: Bullied and besought her, "Lizzie, Lizzie, have you tasted Scratched her, pinched her black as ink, For my sake the fruit forbidden? Kicked and knocked her, Must your light like mine be hidden, 480 Mauled and mocked her, Your young life like mine be wasted, Lizzie uttered not a word; 430 Undone in mine undoing, Would not open lip from lip And ruined in my ruin; Lest they should cram a mouthful in; Thirsty, cankered, goblin-ridden?" But laughed in heart to feel the drip She clung about her sister, 485 Of juice that syruped all her face, Kissed and kissed and kissed her: And lodged in dimples of her chin, 435 Tears once again And streaked her neck which quaked like curd. Refreshed her shrunken eyes, At last the evil people, Dropping like rain Worn out by her resistance, After long sultry drouth; 490 Flung back her penny, kicked their fruit Shaking with aguish fear, and pain, Along whichever road they took, 440 She kissed and kissed her with a hungry mouth. Not leaving root or stone or shoot. Some writhed into the ground, Her lips began to scorch, Some dived into the brook That juice was wormwood to her tongue, With ring and ripple. She loathed the feast: 495 Some scudded on the gale without a sound, 445 Writhing as one possessed she leaped and sung, Some vanished in the distance. Rent all her robe, and wrung Her hands in lamentable haste, And beat her breast. Rossetti 6

Her locks streamed like the torch 500 Would talk about the haunted glen, Borne by a racer at full speed, The wicked, quaint fruit-merchant men, Or like the mane of horses in their flight, Their fruits like honey to the throat, Or like an eagle when she stems the light But poison in the blood; 555 Straight toward the sun, (Men sell not such in any town;) Or like a caged thing freed, 505 Would tell them how her sister stood Or like a flying flag when armies run. In deadly peril to do her good, And win the fiery antidote: Swift fire spread through her veins, knocked at her Then joining hands to little hands 560 heart, Would bid them cling together, Met the fire smouldering there "For there is no friend like a sister, And overbore its lesser flame, In calm or stormy weather, She gorged on bitterness without a name: 510 To cheer one on the tedious way, Ah! fool, to choose such part To fetch one if one goes astray, 565 Of soul-consuming care! To lift one if one totters down, Sense failed in the mortal strife: To strengthen whilst one stands." Like the watch-tower of a town Which an earthquake shatters down, 515 Like a lightning-stricken mast, 1. Why are all the goblin-creatures figured as "men," and all the "good guys" young girls? Like a wind-uprooted tree Spun about, 2. Why does a second taste of the forbidden fruit from a sister's Like a foam-topped water-spout lips cure the addiction? Cast down headlong in the sea, 520 3. Does the fruit offered to the young girls seem to be only literal She fell at last; fruit, or does it figuratively represent something else? Pleasure past and anguish past, Is it death or is it life ? 3. What moral does Rossetti's poem offer a Victorian audience?

For additional information about Christina Rossetti, see, among Life out of death. other publications, the following works: That night long Lizzie watched by her, 525 Counted her pulse's flagging stir, Battiscombe, Georgina. Christina Rossetti: A Divided Life. New Felt for her breath, York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1981. Held water to her lips, and cooled her face Bell, Mackenzie. Christina Rossetti: A Biographical and Critical With tears and fanning leaves: Study. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1898. But when the first birds chirped about their eaves, And early reapers plodded to the place Charles, Edna Kotin. Christina Rossetti: Critical Perspectives, 1862-1982. Selinsgrove, PA: Susquehanna University Press; Of golden sheaves, London: Associated University Presses, 1985. And dew-wet grass Bowed in the morning winds so brisk to pass, Harrison, Antony H. Christina Rossetti in Context. Chapel Hill: And new buds with new day 535 University of North Carolina Press, 1988. Opened of cup-like lilies on the stream, Jones, Kathleen. Learning Not To Be First: The Life of Christina Laura awoke as from a dream, Rossetti. Moreton-in-Marsh: Windrush Press, 1991. Laughed in the innocent old way, Hugged Lizzie but not twice or thrice; Kent, David A., ed. The Achievement of Christina Rossetti. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987. Her gleaming locks showed not one thread of gray, Her breath was sweet as May, Mayberry, Katherine J. Christina Rossetti and the Poetry of And light danced in her eyes. Discovery. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1989.

Days, weeks, months, years Packer, Lona Mosk. Christina Rossetti. Berkeley: University of Afterwards, when both were wives California Press, 1963. With children of their own; 545 Their mother-hearts beset with fears, Rosenblum, Dolores. Christina Rossetti: The Poetry of Endurance. Carbondale: Southern University Press, 1986. Their lives bound up in tender lives; Laura would call the little ones Rossetti, Christina Georgina. The Letters of Christina Rossetti. Ed. And tell them of her early prime, Antony H. Harrison. Charlottesville: University Press of Those pleasant days long gone 550 Virginia, 1997. Of not-returning time: