Maude Clare

The poems shows an arranged marriage where the groom and his true love are split apart. HE and Nell are to be married, yet Maude Clare is still in love with him and will not stop. They could not marry one another because he is of a higher status than Maude Clare - at this time period married couples must have been of the same status.
Rossetti characterises the character of Maude Clare as 'fair' in the line "I wash my hands thereof," as she is accepting that she must get over her love for the Lord as he is marrying someone else. Washing her hands of him implies that she getting rid of any trace of him from herself, and handing him over to his bride, Nell.
Rossetti uses a range of techniques to emphasis details about the time period and society, but also about the characters. The characters are shown throughout the poem through the use of dialogue and how it's ordered, but also description from narration. During this time period, arranged marriage was mainly joining of the upper classes, which Rossetti shows as tragic, as then Maude Clare and the Lord cannot be together.
The alternating rhyming style (abab) shows emphasis, particularly with the two rhyming words "Nell," and "tell." These words come from speech of the Lady Mother, and is perhaps underlying that the Lord should tell Nell of the love he has for Maude Clare. Rossetti shows that love has no barriers, and the two will continue to be in love despite the unfortunate arranged marriage which was only put in place to keep the order of social status. An oxymoron is actually used when similes are used to describe the differences between Maude Clare and Nell. Maude Clare, a woman of lower class is "like a Queen," whereas Nell who has a higher status is "like a village maid." The oxymoron shows that despite the social status, it just matters how the Lord sees them - what counts is on the inside. However, the Lord is used to simply symbolise the high class, rather than be used as a character. This shows that Rossetti believes the Lord (and others who take advantage of being in the upper class) has/have an arrogance so deep that it takes over his/their personality. This can be extended by the fact that he has only 3 lines throughout the poem, which could be because Rossetti feels the need to belittle men at this time in her life.

A Summary of 'Goblin Market'

Potentially Rossetti’s most famous poem, ‘Goblin Market’ is a narrative which is can be comparable to her life in the Victoria era; where the sisters Lizzie and Laura represent social constructs. These young girls are innocent and pure yet are threatened by the horrors of “goblin men” who torment the sisters into buying their “orchard fruits,” which scar the girls for the rest of their lives.


At first hearing the goblin cries from their house, Laura is intrigued and eventually enticed by the goblins to give over her “golden curls” in exchange for the delicious, magical fruit.“Curious Laura [‘s]” temptation of the “Bloom-down-cheek’d peaches” and “crab-apples” opposes Lizzie’s wariness, shown where she “shut eyes and ran” from the goblin merchants. Lizzie warned Laura by reminding her of the fate of their friend, Jeanie, who ate the goblin fruit, wasted away and died. However Lizzie’s warning was ignored, so gives Laura terrible consequences by the near end of the poem.

The enchanted fruit is addictive, leaving Laura pining for it ever since she has her first bite, just like Jeanie. Laura’s “passionate yearning” leads her to become entranced into a “sullen silence of exceeding pain” as she attempts to ignore the goblins’ cries for her to buy more fruit. Herself and Lizzie were together by twilight, "like two pigeons in one nest," where they are protection to each other from the addiction of goblin fruit. The next morning the goblins cry yet again, and the temptation for Laura is unbearable, however Lizzie tries her best to guard her from the evil, by saying “you should not loiter” and “come with me home.” Laura became lonely and no longer cared for herself or the house, as now it was Lizzie’s job to go along the glen, as Laura could not go as she couldn’t resist the temptation of the goblin cries. However Laura is concerned that her sister had to listen to the bewitching goblin cries alone, so she turns as “cold as stone” thinking of this.  Eventually the desperation for the magical fruit leaves Laura to turn grey, and wither away in a state of desperation and sorrow. Lizzie wanted to bring home some of the fruit to comfort her sister, but feared the price to pay would be "too dear."


In desperation Lizzie searches for the goblins to give her fruit for her dying sister; yet she rejects their offer to “rest with them.” This leads to violence upon poor Lizzie who is beaten by the goblins, by being “Claw’d with their nails,” and have them “squeez[e] their fruits against her mouth.” This violence can be seen as an extended metaphor for rape and sexual assault upon Lizzie.

Trudging home from the attack, she calls for Laura and wishes for her to “hug [her], kiss [her]” and just generally give her sisterly affection in order to replace the forced sexual affection from the goblins. Laura worries that Lizzie's life is now "goblin-ridden," so kisses her with a "hungry mouth" in order to show her love for her. Strangely, Laura's lips begin to scorch as "fire spreads" through her veins and heart, causing a frenzy within her body. She falls, leaving the reader to wonder "is it life or death?" Miraculously, Lizzie becomes 'human' again, as her locks have not "one thread of grey," and her eyes "dance[d]" once more.

Criticism of Rossetti

Christina Rossetti's poems are all together ambiguous, so are open to many different interpretations. Although on the whole her poems are widely and positively received, inevitably there are still critical viewpoints.

The critic Jan Marsh believes Rossetti is ambivalent towards the position of women during the Victorian era – this is demonstrated in ‘Goblin Market’ where Rossetti implies a feminist viewpoint, yet in real life she was against the movement of the Suffragettes.Rossetti was greatly opposed the sexual exploitation of young girls, which can be depicted in ‘Goblin Market’ where the men are portrayed as yearning, nasty goblins attempting to seduce the young girls into sex. The girls give over a lock of their hair, which can be metaphorically transcribed as virginity, showing Rossetti’s clear dislike for women being forced by some cruel men into handing over their precious virginity so young.

I believe Marsh’s opinion is partially skewed, because I don’t believe Rossetti was ambivalent in the way of her feminist views. She does demonstrate in many of her poems that she is a strong supportive of women even if they have succumbed to the desire of premarital sex. Specifically in ‘Goblin Market’ she tells us “there is no friend like a sister” even if they have fallen in the eyes of a judgmental society. So, I do not believe that Rossetti was a fickle feminist, because it was also demonstrated in the reality of her life where she volunteered at High Penitentiary for Fallen Women for numerous years.

Ray Cluley explains how Christina Rossetti’s narrative poem for children conceals a morality tale for female sexuality. On the whole, I agree that ‘Goblin Market’ is a metaphor for pressurisation into sex, yet on some part I disagree with Cluley. I agree with Cluley in the way that the poem can have the interpretation of sex, virginity and the pressures on young girls, because there are many obvious metaphors for sexuality, “she sucked until her lips were sore,” “her pitcher dripping all the way,” and “hug me, kiss me, suck my juices,” for example. These can clearly be taken as crude metaphors for arousal and sexual intimacies.
However I disagree with the outlook of Cluley where all men have been “excused” by Rossetti. Rossetti differentiates the goblins from men with, “men sell not such in any town” and “troop’d the goblin,” but I still believe Rossetti’s intention was to label some men as goblins who coerce women into sex. The use of separate descriptions of men and goblins leads me to be certain that she is simply separating the ‘good’ and ‘evil’ men. She even describes the goblins as “little men,” and the “merchant man” which I think shows she is implying the goblins are the men who are sexually pressurising to girls and women. 

Rossetti's Presentation of Nature

Christina Rossetti uses imagery, description and comparisons of nature as a way to express her romantic desires along with her religious opinions and ideologies. Rossetti desires a life full of intense love which is a prevalent theme across her poems, although this is translated through nature. Nature is presented across a plethora of Rossetti’s poems such as ‘Song,’ ‘A Birthday,’ ‘Shut Out,’ ‘A Summer Wish’ and ‘Paradise: In a Dream.’

Rossetti also uses the strategy of coupling to imply a positive meaning, which is inferred in ‘Song.’ However when a singular object is referred to, it is often has underlying negative connotations.   “Two doves,” “Two lilies,” and “Two butterflies” are all resting upon a singular “branch,” “stem,” or “flower,” which means the positive of the two creatures cancels out the negative of the one. So in this sense, Rossetti presents nature in a way which seems to have a blatant meaning, yet has underlying messages to alter the poem.  Opposing this idea is the “Tree of Life” in ‘Paradise: In a dream,’ which is singular yet is representative of God. 

Rossetti commonly uses metaphors in her poems to present nature in a religious way, and sometimes to symbolise Christ. She refers to Christ in ‘Paradise: In a Dream,’ where she speaks of “The Tree of Life,” which is historically known as the medieval image for Christ’s crucifixion. Her referral to this makes us see her strong belief in Christ, as “The Tree of Life” is a metaphor for Him: where all life begins, surviving through millenniums, but is also forever growing and providing for all living organisms. This metaphor is her way of stating Jesus Christ‘s presence is continuous, and always fertile for those in need. Religion within this poem is constant, as “twelvefold fruits” is a reference to Jesus’s twelve disciples which spiritually feed the world with religion. The structure of this stanza shows the importance of Him to Rossetti, as the beginning of the stanza differs from the others which use senses to describe the beauty of nature, with “I saw,” “I heard,” and “I hope.” However by beginning the stanza straight away with “The Tree of Life,” shows how Christ always comes first and foremost in her life.

In many ways within her poems Rossetti fuels her desire for a romantic life through her love for God. This is specific in ‘A Birthday,’ where she compares her love for God to the beauty of nature which even then is not perfect enough to explain her adoration for Him. The uniqueness, magical qualities and abundant fertility of “a halcyon sea,” “a rainbow shell,” and “pomegranates” are not enough to describe how her heart feels – she cannot use words to illuminate how she feels.  In this sense, nature is not comparable to God. However her heart is ready, found within the line “My heart is like an apple-tree… boughs are bent with thickset fruit,” where the thickset, ripe fruit shows that her heart is reading for plucking by “[her] love.” Her love can either refer to God or to an erotic lover, and either is acceptable to her because she is voicing these opinions to Christ who is accepting of her love in any form.

Nature is used differently in ‘Shut Out’ where the speaker’s garden can be symbolic of many things: femininity, peace of mind, imagination, the class system, changes through growing up, the Garden of Eden and patriarchy. With the speaker being trapped from something which was once theirs, but is now unreachable and will never be theirs again; it is relatable to many aspects of Rossetti’s life. An example of this is her injustice as a woman in Victorian times – she was not allowed the same rights and luxuries as a man. In this sense the garden would be a representation of what men could have but she could not have. There can be many interpretations because Rossetti’s poetry uses detail in description of her metaphors as opposed to detail in the meaning of her poems. She proves the beauty of her garden by using harsh contrasts to the “iron bars” of the prison-like room where she is trapped. The strong, man-made metal is considered an opposite to the garden which is “pied with all flowers.” The nature descriptions and harmony of rhythm emphasises the fixed beauty of the garden; this is obvious with the alliteration of “bough to bough” and “flower to flower.”