Reading Poetry: Goblin Market

Sweet to tongue and sound to eye;
Come buy, come buy.

Source.

Some details to start:

•  Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti, 1862
• The poem is free style and loosely follows an ABAB rhyme scheme with some deviations that place rhymed lines more than two lines apart

The poem begins with two sisters. We're not given much information about them over the course of the poem, but it appears they live alone and tend to the household duties requisite to maintain a small but comfortable home.  Perhaps the poetess omitted any information about their parents in an effort to focus solely on the bond these two girls have. Indeed the sisters share an intense bond; they spend all of their time together doing chores and at night sleep together in one bed.

Evening by evening
Among the brookside rushes,
Laura bow’d her head to hear,
Lizzie veil’d her blushes:
Crouching close together
In the cooling weather,
With clasping arms and cautioning lips,
With tingling cheeks and finger tips. 

The poem establishes early on that the sisters have experienced the song of the goblin market before, but have withstood its influence. It is clear the experience is titillating to them and stands in the threshold between excitement and fear.

While out in the woods one late afternoon, Laura and Lizzie encounter the goblin market. Lizzie, being wise and/or frightened of the goblins and their magicks, keeps her eyes shut and quits the stream by which they hear the song. Laura, on the other hand, decides to stay, mildly bewitched by the song.

Laura stared but did not stir,
Long’d but had no money:
The whisk-tail’d merchant bade her taste
In tones as smooth as honey,

Over the course of the initial encounter with the goblins, Laura stays in their twilight realm and barters with them, ultimately offering up a lock of her golden hair and a "tear more rare than pearl" as payment for the fae fruit. She sups upon the fruit in a fervor, enjoying every drop. She stays awhile, eating her fills of otherworldly produce. Rossetti's descriptions throughout the poem are semi-erotic: the tale is lush with details that cry out for allegorical comparison to a girl entering womanhood. It is understandable how readers would see a primal undertone of desire, sensuality, and the forbidden.

In a daze, Laura stumbles home and is set upon by Lizzie who reminds her of another such maiden who tasted of the goblin men's fruits: Jeanie. Poor Jeanie wasted away before experiencing the delights a bride dreams of, her grave grew no grass. This is indeed an ominous portent for the girls.

From that point on, Laura is bewitched and lives in a half-waking state. Her mind is thoroughly taken with the memory of the sweet fruit and she cannot rest until she sups upon more. She is heartbroken to discover that she can no longer hear the goblin market's songs, she will never again taste their fruit.

As time passes, Laura indeed begins to waste away. Lizzie, concerned for her sister, takes off to confront the goblin men and retrieve a piece of fruit for Laura. She takes a single coin with her.

Upon finding the market and meeting the goblin men, Lizzie makes clear her intent to take away a piece of fruit to sate her sister's desire and hopefully cure her. This infuriates the goblin men. Lizzie is soundly beaten by the goblins-they stomp on her, claw at her, tear her dress and pull out her hair-while they held down her hands and tried to force feed her fruit. She resists, taking silent delight in the fruit juice covering her face and running down her neck. In the end, the goblin men give up and Lizzie is allowed to part with fruit in hand as well as her coin, which the goblins throw back to her, too disgusted to keep it.

Lizzie runs back to Laura, who then proceeds to lick the fruit juices from her. Surprisingly, Laura finds the fruit juice bitter.

She cried, “Laura,” up the garden,
“Did you miss me?
Come and kiss me.
Never mind my bruises,
Hug me, kiss me, suck my juices
Squeez’d from goblin fruits for you,
Goblin pulp and goblin dew.
Eat me, drink me, love me;
Laura, make much of me;
For your sake I have braved the glen
And had to do with goblin merchant men.” 

Maybe it is that all things pale relative to her sister's love. Maybe it is that she has seen what indulgence can do to a maiden. Upon tasting the juices from her sister's skin, Laura sets about in a fit. She tears her gown from her body and flies about the house as if mad. Eventually she collapses in a heap, at a point beyond pleasure and pain, and wonders if she is alive.

Life out of death. 

Lizzie keeps watch over Laura through the night, tending to her, managing her fever, bringing her water. It is a long and wearisome passage, and one can only imagine poor Lizzie, having been physically beaten by many goblins, is weary herself. Her love for her sister is such that she stands watch through the night.

Upon waking, Laura is restored to her youthful self: her hair is golden yet again, her eyes bright, her complexion glowing. 

Sweet to tongue and sound to eye;
Come buy, come buy.

Goblin Market is a delightful poem and I encourage everyone to read it. It isn't terribly long or complex, and makes for a pleasant way to pass some time.

I'm of the belief that, like Persephone trapped in the underworld, so too was part of Laura trapped when she ate of the fae fruit. Perhaps that part of her that was trapped was her vim and vigor for the real world. I can definitely see how this poem might function as an allegory for embracing what you have and not living with your head in the clouds.

Having made no clear statements one way or the other, it is up to speculation as to whether Rossetti intended this poem for children or not. While it touts the moral of sisterhood through thick and thin, it also employs symbolism to flirt with adult ideas such as sexuality, lesbianism, feminism, and, depending on the reader's perspective, issues of capitalism and racial tension. I only read it at the surface level and have yet to dig in to any historic ties that might indicate the latter two themes' presence in this poem.