Goblin Market Summary

Goblin Market summary;
- The poem ‘Goblin Market’ starts with the goblin men. They are trying to sell their fruits by advertising them to anyone within ear shot.

- Rossetti then introduces the two sisters, Laura and Lizzie, and Lizzie was trying to stay out of ear shot whereas Laura wants to listen to them. Lizzie then starts trying to convince Laura not to buy any of their fruit and tells her she ‘should not peep at the goblin men’.

- Now the goblin men are nearing Lizzie and Laura, and Lizzie decides to run but Laura stays still and ‘stretched her gleaming neck’.

- The goblin men have reached Laura, and she tells them that she ‘has no coin’ and so instead of money they offer her the fruit for some of ‘gold upon her head’.

- When Laura had finished her fruit, Lizzie met her at the gate and reminded her of ‘Jeanie’, another woman who ate the goblin’s fruit but then she ‘pined and pined away’.

- Lizzie and Laura both started doing chores the next morning, although Laura was ‘longing for the night’ so she could find the goblin men.

- Lizzie then hears the goblin men and tells Laura to come with her so they can get some fruit. However, Laura turns ‘cold as stone’ because she cannot hear the cry of the goblins.

- Laura no longer awaits the goblin men’s cry, and instead she ‘dwindles as the fair full moon doth turn’. Although, when the moon comes out her hair grows grey and thin. Laura is also not able to do any more work as she ‘no more swept the house’ and she ‘would not eat’.

- Lizzie has now set out to find the goblin men so she can buy some of their fruits to try and save her sister. This can be interpreted as a god-like action as she is risking her life by getting closer to the temptations in order to keep her sister happy.

- The goblin men are trying to make Lizzie eat the fruit, and they have ‘Clawed her with their nails’ and ‘Tore her gown and soiled her stocking’ Lizzie however, did not open her mouth to the goblin men.

- Lizzie has now come back from being vigorously attacked by the goblin men, and she has the fruit juice all over her face and Laura kisses her, this caused ‘her lips to begin to scorch’.

- Laura and Lizzie are both now wives and parents as Laura ‘awoke as from a dream’. This can be interpreted as Lizzie saved Laura by risking her life by finding the goblin men, and so it gives Laura the sense of guilt as someone else could have ruined their life to save her. This symbolises the fact that Jesus Christ out himself in danger for his people, and although he died it still symbolises the fact he risked his life to save us.

Goblin Market Critic

Feminist critics have argued that Rossetti has created a world and deliberately excluded men from it. For these critics, the word ‘sisterhood’ has reconfirmed the potential that they had for women’s independence and productivity. However, Goblin Market has also been interpreted as reducing the concept of ‘sisterhood’ as a single and unhesitant level of meaning. Feminist critics, are disregarding that the sound/voice of the poem is the ‘hallmark’. Also, the term ‘sisterhood’ is not exclusive in Goblin Market and can imply several meanings, like how it can include the experiences of both genders.

Another way Goblin Market has been interpreted is as a poem that Rossetti uses to symbolise her opinions on society and the fact that she wants to be independent. Rossetti uses the character of Lizzie to represent society, and she uses Laura to symbolise herself. As Lizzie tells Laura “You should not peep at the goblin men” this could represent society telling Rossetti how to act as she was a Victorian woman, and women were owned and controlled by men. However, when Laura ‘sucked and sucked and sucked the more’ this could represent Rossetti not wanting to live a life where she is limited to only doing what she’s told.

General notes

Song (When I am dead, my dearest)

The poem 'Song' expresses the fact that Rossetti is indecisive on whether or not she wants to forget about her life, however she doesn't want anyone's sympathy or sadness being dwelled upon her grave. The line 'Be the green grass about me' symbolizes the fact that she wants people to move on from her death and carry on growing. The word 'be' has a positive emphasis on it and this shows that she wants people to be happy when she's dead and not upset. Although, the lines 'Haply I may remember, And haply I may forget.' suggest she isn't sure if she wants to remember her own life or not. The word 'forget.' is the end of the stanza and it symbolizes the fact that one day nothingness will rule over people and there will be nothing left, and Rossetti uses this in her poems to state that if nothingness will rule anyway, she believes there's nothing to life. Also, Rossetti uses a comma in the middle of the line and she has an equal amount of syllables on each side of the comma. This shows how she is nonchalant to whether she's alive or not as in her own mind she's already started dying.


In the poem 'From the Antique' Rossetti is reminiscent of the Victorian times and how Victorian women had no control and were controlled by men. She has done this when she states 'Doubly blank in a woman's lot:' as this shows her being assigned her 'woman's lot' to life. This is similar to the poem 'Remember', as Rossetti says 'You tell me of our future that you plann'd' This shows how the male dominated the woman as he had planned their life together without her consultant. There is an angry emphasis on the word 'you' as it comes across as Rossetti is using some force. This could be because she was angered at the fact women weren't able to control their own lives, and Victorian women were dominated by men.

Feminist critics have argued that Rossetti has created a world and deliberately excluded men from it. For these critics, the word ‘sisterhood’ has reconfirmed the potential that they had for women’s independence and productivity. However, Goblin Market has also been interpreted as reducing the concept of ‘sisterhood’ as a single and unhesitant level of meaning. Feminist critics, are disregarding that the sound/voice of the poem is the ‘hallmark’. Also, the term ‘sisterhood’ is not exclusive in Goblin Market and can imply several meanings, like how it can include the experiences of both genders.