Whoops.

I realized that in my post from last night I completely misquoted the poem, which really made my point moot. No more 2am blog posts. I swear. Anyway, here's a new one to make up for it.


In class today, Professor Porter pointed out that we should be reminded of Wordsworth when listening to the flow, cadence, and diction of "Goblin Market." I hadn't really made an in depth connection between Rossetti and Wordsworth other than the fact that Rossetti probably did read him and was influenced in some way. But going back and looking at it from that perspective, I now see a much closer resemblance. Both poets, when creating the settings of their poems, use imagery that could almost be described as pastoral -- Wordsworth with his fields and flowers; Rossetti with her fruits and markets. However, both do so in such a way that the pastoral sense that might normally accompany these images is distorted. The flower in Wordsworth may mark a grave, as Rossetti's fruits are associated with rape, loss of innocence, improper desire, and so forth. This distortion, coupled with the almost sing-songy nature that both poets employ, creates an interesting dynamic that completely perverts all sense of what's what by the end of the poem. Obviously the outcomes are somewhat different in regards to physical life, but the structure and setup are very similar, and each done very well in their own regards.