Christina Rossetti has a very unique style of writing. Not only does she add a lot of descriptive elements to her writing, but with clever use of religious or biblical references, she separates herself from many different poets. You must take into consideration the era of which she lived in, where women were seen as nothing but objects and rights were almost non-existent, and more importantly where they weren’t allowed to have a voice. She took advantage of such matters by distancing herself from the stereotype, and by being as literary as she possibly could became one of the best poets of all time.
Now what was the significance of her writing? Well, there was much importance in terms of the descriptive writing she used in many of her poems. The first poem we studied in class to its full extent was Goblin Market. In this poem in particular, many uses of description allowed her to provide the reader with the imagery required to build a picture in their heads, although it is arguable that this was done with metaphorical meaning. The first use of this in Goblin Market is the descriptive writing used to give life to the fruit at the market. ‘Plump unpecked cherries, Melons and raspberries, Bloom-down-cheeked peaches’ etc… This is stretched out from the fifth line and realistically doesn’t finish until the thirtieth. This adds repetition to the poem, and lets off bright and colourful imagery into the reader’s head. Also, with the repetition of ‘Come buy, come buy’ it ‘drums’ it continuously to enforce the significance of the saying.
‘Laura bowed her head to hear, Lizzie veiled her blushes’ – this suggests the feminist side of Rossetti, almost insisting that this is the stereotype of which women were supposed to live by, bowing and veiling to men as they are considered inferior, or at least this is my view. Her views are also brought upon again ten lines further down, where the goblins are referenced with ‘Their hungry thirsty roots’. This leads me to believe that it is nothing more than a representation of a typical man, described within the poem as a Goblin. ‘Their offers should not charm us, Their evil gifts would harm us’ is yet again questionable concerning Rossetti’s idea of men. Maybe the girls aren’t allowed to look at the creatures, and this becomes sexual in the sense of seduction that they may provide, or in the modern day referred to as prostitution with their offers not being enough to bring them to bed. These are just a few examples of such descriptive writing, with her other poems suggesting the same, if not more.
Cousin Kate starts off with her confessing that she is ‘Contented with my cottage mates’ whom already gives the reader a suggestion about how full of regret she may be. There are many examples in this poem which suggest such feminism again. ‘He lured me to his palace home’, ‘He wore me like a silken knot’ and ‘He changed me like a glove’ being three lines that come to mind. This shows how much she believes that men are possessive of women and use them for nothing other than what a typical man would do. This doesn’t differ throughout her poems and this one in particular is a prime example of such. She is referenced to as an ‘outcast thing’ and is angry by this, with the motive being to ‘spit into his face’.
Jessie Cameron is the third poem we have analysed over the last week or so, and close reading of this gives me an insight into the use of descriptive and religious language that she has used. The first thing that comes to mind, is that she refers to her boyfriend as the ‘neighbour’s son’ which primarily gives the reader an idea of how cold hearted she is. Her boyfriend on the other hand, ‘begs’ for Jessie not to leave him and therefore shows how weak he is, yet so full of love for her. ‘Some say that he had gypsy blood’ and ‘Some say his grandam was a witch’ is a biblical reference, with her suggesting that the ‘neighbour’s son’ has blood of a witch and a traveller.
Once again, the timing of the poem must come into the point, with how frowned upon a witch would be. On correction, frowned upon wouldn’t be the words to use, as if you were considered to have this blood during this time period, you were likely to be killed as it defied God. ‘The sea-foam swept higher’ is very descriptive of the setting of which they are placed, and can help the reader to determine the ending of the poem as it is rather unclear. ‘Shrilly screaming cleft the air, That was all they heard’ also aids this point, as there is no definitive ending to the poem, and by use of clever descriptive writing, it leaves the reader to come to his own conclusion, and draw his own interpretation of events.