Christina Rossetti’s poem, “Goblin Market” is a perplexing, fairytale narrative that the didactic literature and irregular form creates a heightened effect of alluring imagery to draw the reader in. There is incestuous abuse, illicit love and temptation. In my imitation I choose to pick the first 15 lines of the poem to expound upon the goblin’s ploy to tempt people with their fruit. In the beginning of Rossetti’s poem, it says “Morning and evening, Maids heard the goblins cry:” (Line 1 – 2) it states that maids hear the goblin’s cry, but no other gender is mentioned. This is a recurring theme of the goblins enticing or going after one audience. In my imitation “Girls […] merchants cry” In relation to what I said, I am intentional with it being known the merchants are after a targeted audience (i.e. women). The Goblin’s cry out “Come buy our orchard fruits, Come buy, come buy:” (Line 3 – 4) is a gateway to the incantation to attract people especially in this sense a specific audience. It reminded me of Spring Break when me and a group of friends went to South Beach Miami and merchants everywhere on Ocean Drive were using every sales trick in the book to get our attention and to purchase their products ranging from food and drinks, excursions, parties, etc.
I attempted to recreate Christina Rossetti’s iambic tetramer because it has a loose sounding flow meaning it flows closer to a telling a story compared to a rigid poem, which allows me and to have longer phrases within the lines; while, maintaining the rhyme scheme. In the original poem, Rossetti list of fruits are long and contains interesting adjectives. The poem states, “Lemons and oranges, plump unpeck’d cherries […] Pine-apples, blackberries, apricots, strawberries; --” (Lines 6 – 14) In this moment in the poem the goblins are trying their sales pitch. How the peaches are compared to cheeks, the mulberries are personified and how the pineapple is separated by a hyphen to give the impression of separate fruits. The listing of fruits of all kinds makes it entice to the senses regardless of it being fresh or in season. The description of the goods makes people want to indulge even more. A recreation of the words I used in my imitation to mimic the style and grammar of this portion. The hyphen’s in this section acts as a pause in speech. The irregularity in the iambs in each line makes it closely related to a childhood narrative than an actual poem aside from the rhyme scheme.
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Likewise, I mimicked Rossetti’s rhyme scheme by playing off the irregularity of the rhyme scheme and dactylic dimeter rhythm which adds to the effect of incantation to attract people (i.e. Miami Spring Break). Again, the last line of the original poem, “All ripe together” (Line 15) gives the impression of an expert salesman. The interesting factor is that the fruits listed in the original are seasonal and would not be ripe at the same time. This is hinting at the temptation factor that comes later in the poem by Rossetti. The way the goblins describe their fruit is stated in a suggestive, sexual commentary directed towards words like ripeness and voluptuousness. In my imitation when I said, “Margaritas and shots, boat rides and yachts […] Ocean drive, Mercedes” (Lines 5 – 8) The evocative language is intended to seduce women by encouraging them to imagine the pleasure of indulging in their product and services.
The use of increasing the speed of the poem carries it forward and creates a breathless speech by framing the “cry from the goblin/merchants” using couplets and triplets it draws attention to nature of listening. The theme of attracting people to this “market of goods” showcase the same satire and imagery like Rossetti throughout the poem. Rossetti’s choice of words and repetition highlights the force of temptation that I try to recreate in my imitation poem of Miami merchants on Ocean Drive persuading people to indulge in different things young, college students find “attractive” similar to a goblin persuading people to buy this enchanted fruit.
Using the irregularity of the rhyme scheme and loose iambic tetrameter allowed me to be creative with word choice, sentence structure and grammar to mirror Rossetti’s style. The grammar in the poem is intentional showing the connection of these two different worlds. The phrase in the third and fourth lines, “Come buy, come buy” are considered imperative statements that have compliance conditions; by imposing their will on women this sets the tone of the poem. The context of the phrase, “Come buy, come buy” plays on the meaning to come purchase or by homophonic relation, to come by – as in to come over. This adds the tantalizing quality of the goblins call like the call of the merchants by rendering the same style in my imitation. The infamous call can be interpreted as a request or a command. A typical poem uses a change in meter levels that is comforting to the reader’s eye; one that is routine, domestic and not problematic in structure, it is comfortable and consistent. The poem’s metrical form encourages analysis through its irregular and songlike theme. The unpredictability of the lines, rhymes echoes the unpredictability of the goblins in the narrative. Word themselves are unstable and ripe like the fruit which entails the entrapment we feel when reading and the feel my friends and I felt in Miami.
Rossetti’s meter is tense, action-filled that is fragmented into grouped phrases that resembles the power-struggle and conflicting interests of the antagonists and protagonist. Likewise, the rhyme scheme acts as a catalyst for the changes in pace and tone which creates the two dichotomies in the poem of balancing steady, calmness and frantic, fast- winded qualities. This approach adjusts the narrative which deals with the struggle between the reckless nature of indulgence and the value of maintaining control over one’s urges and sense. I picked this section of the poem because it is the recurring theme of capitalism and the exchange of goods and services and the temptation of consumerism. I wanted to highlight the same instances I used in my imitation of her poem to emphasize the temptation of consumerism and the exaggerated examples that play on human emotions and senses to pander individuals or an audience (i.e. women).
The poems major themes are temptations, desires and resistance. It explores how evil and goodness exist in two parallel worlds. The temptation is presented in the form of catalogues; the list constructs a vision of abundant nature that is seductive in a variety of outlets. It raises the question of interpretation: Rossetti’s listing of fruits goes beyond the surface idea of being compared to the forbidden fruit in the Christian biblical story Adam and Eve, but reveals the overwhelming sensuality of the natural world and that it is dangerous because it may confuse moral judgment, therefore imperiling salvation from the evil world (i.e. Goblin Market; Ocean Drive).
Women in the Victorian era in England were expected to follow a standard of conduct and failure to meet these standards led to the depreciation of a women’s worth. Fast forwarding into present day not much has changed with the narrative surrounding women’s worth and what is deemed acceptable. In my imitation I wanted to emulate Rossetti’s style of how she played upon sensory desires of the material world. She placed the setting in the physical world and expounded on the spiritual and moral issues of the major theme in the poem and set the mood.
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