Goblin Market, by Christina Rossetti

...
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.
“Lie close,” Laura said,
Pricking up her golden head:
“We must not look at goblin men,
We must not buy their fruits: Who knows upon what soil they fed
Their hungry thirsty roots?”
“Come buy,” call the goblins
Hobbling down the glen.
...

(To read the full poem - click here)

I was enchanted the first time I read the poem - it's narative is flowing and full of suspense. The title itself is full of romance and of a world unknown only to our imagination.

Reading about Christina Rossetti, it is not difficult to imagine that this poem is indeed about women - the way in which we love, and how that vulnerability can break our spirit or give us strength.

The ancient Greeks characterised two forms of love - Laura is a naive young lady who is tempted by Eros and finds redemption in Philia. The goblins represent a very physical and sexual love - a love without stability and care. It is a relationship in which part of Lizzie's body is bartered against pleasure.

She clipp’d a precious golden lock,
She dropp’d a tear more rare than pearl,
Then suck’d their fruit globes fair or red:
Sweeter than honey from the rock,
Stronger than man-rejoicing wine,
Clearer than water flow’d that juice;
She never tasted such before,
How should it cloy with length of use?
She suck’d and suck’d and suck’d the more
Fruits which that unknown orchard bore;
She suck’d until her lips were sore;

It is also a relationship in which once enjoyed, the "sly" and "queer" and "leering" brothers have no interest in her used and spoilt goods.

Day after day, night after night,
Laura kept watch in vain
In sullen silence of exceeding pain.
She never caught again the goblin cry:
“Come buy, come buy;”—

This poem is still relevant to us in a world filled with promiscuity, unwanted pregnancies, and short term relationships - a world in which innocence is short lived and easily taken. Laura's hasty behaviour and curiosity led to her discontentment with her humble and simple life in which she previously took pleasure.

While with sunk eyes and faded mouth
She dream’d of melons, as a traveller sees
False waves in desert drouth
With shade of leaf-crown’d trees,
And burns the thirstier in the sandful breeze.

The selfishness and short lived relationship shared between Laura and the goblins is juxtaposed against Lizzie's selfless love and care for her sister whereby she takes the risk to sacrifices her sanity and hapiness in order to bring back that of the one she loves. In reality, I dont believe that Lizzie is a role neccesarily played by a female, or by a familial relation - she is rather meant to depict a love that trancends momentary pleasure, and encompasses friendship, kindness, compassion and duty.

“For there is no friend like a sister
In calm or stormy weather;
To cheer one on the tedious way,
To fetch one if one goes astray,
To lift one if one totters down,
To strengthen whilst one stands.”

Comments and opinions are most welcome.