Welcome, dear readers, to a journey into one of the most enchanting and thought-provoking poems in English literature, Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market.” Prepare to be captivated by its vivid imagery, its musical language, and its profound messages. Let us begin by immersing ourselves in the poem itself.
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Goblin Market
Morning and evening
Maids heard the goblins cry:
“Come buy our orchard fruits,
Come buy, come buy:
Apples and quinces,
Lemons and oranges,
Plump unpeck’d cherries,
Melons and raspberries,
Bloom-down-cheek’d peaches,
Swart-headed mulberries,
Wild free-born cranberries,
Crab-apples, dewberries,
Pine-apples, blackberries,
Apricots, strawberries;
All ripe together
In summer weather,
Morns that pass by,
Fair eves that fly;
Come buy, come buy:
Our grapes fresh from the vine,
Pomegranates full and fine,
Dates and sharp bullaces,
Rare pears and greengages,
Damsons and bilberries,
Taste them and try:
Currants and gooseberries,
Bright-red currants,
Deep-blue gooseberries,
Branch-mouth’d barberries,
Figs to fill your mouth,
Citrons from the South,
Sweet to tongue and sound to eye;
Come buy, come buy.”Evening by evening
Among the brook-side rushes,
Laura and Lizzie met their kind,
Lizzie with an open mind,
Laura in an absent dream,
One content, one anxiou-eyed,
One longing for the pleasant stream
And one for the fresh fruit she spied.
Lizzie veil’d her blushes:
Laura stretch’d her neck to see
What fruit a goblin merchant man
Had to sell with such a cry:
Laura stretch’d her neck to see
More clearly, one by one, those goblins,
Squatting by the brook-side,
Chattering like magpies,
Fluttering like doves,
Gliding like fishes,
But each one with a basket and a dish,
A hamper and a plate,
Their offers should not be despised.
She remember’d her sister, Laura, who
Had gone to the goblin market
And had not come back.
Lizzie cover’d up her eyes,
Stoop’d and hid her face,
While Laura cried, “Nay, you must look,
You must hear, you must taste the fruit.”
Lizzie cover’d up her eyes,
Laura most like a leaping flame
With her gold hair and rosy cheek,
And Lizzie like a white swan calm
In a still water, she did not speak.
“Come buy, come buy,” was still the cry.
Laura turn’d her head to hear,
If Laura was still there, and near.
“Good folk, for your own sake,
“It is not good, it is not kind,
But Laura laugh’d and would not heed,
And Laura ate it, and she said,
Lizzie watch’d her sister eat,
And Lizzie watch’d her sister’s face,
And Lizzie watch’d her sister’s eyes,
And Lizzie watch’d her sister’s hair,
And Lizzie watch’d her sister’s hands,
And Lizzie watch’d her sister’s feet,
And Lizzie watch’d her sister’s dress,
And Lizzie watch’d her sister’s smile,
And Lizzie watch’d her sister’s breath,
And Lizzie watch’d her sister’s life,
And Lizzie watch’d her sister’s soul,
And Lizzie watch’d her sister’s heart,
power,
night,