Goblin Market

Christina Rossetti's 1862 poem 'Goblin Market' was one of the first pieces of proper poetry I was exposed to. I must have been about six when I first heard it. It was in a children's magazine called Storyteller and, like many things from that collection, it has stuck with me ever since. You'll immediately see why from reading just the first 30 or so lines:

Morning and evening

Maids heard the goblins cry:

'Come buy our orchard fruits,

Come buy, come buy:

Apples and quinces,

Lemons and oranges,

Plump unpecked cherries,

Melons and raspberries,

Bloom-down-cheeked peaches,

Swart-headed mulberries,

Wild free-born cranberries,

Crab-apples, dewberries,

Pine-apples, blackberries,

Apricots, strawberries;

All ripe together

In summer weather,

Morns that pass by,

Fair eves that fly;

Come buy, come buy:

Our grapes fresh from the vine,

Pomegranates full and fine,

Dates and sharp bullaces,

Rare pears and greengages,

Damsons and bilberries,

Taste them and try:

Currants and gooseberries,

Bright-fire-like barberries,

Figs to fill your mouth,

Citrons from the South,

Sweet to tongue and sound to eye;

Come buy, come buy.

If there's a more sumptuous, evocative opening stanza for a poem, I've yet to hear it.

It's only recently that I've discovered the 30 or so lines published in Storyteller represent just a fraction of the original poem, which runs to an impressive 568 lines! Rossetti wrote the poem for children, so one can only imagine they had longer attention spans back then. 

But Storyteller may well have had another good reason for abridging the work...it's wonderfully dark (an innocent child corrupted and enchanted by a band of devilish goblins)and just a wee bit racy! The imagery,  which is sumptuous throughout, gets decidedly sexual in places. Says one sister to another: 

"Hug me, kiss me, suck my juices"

The story is one of decadence, decline and redemption. A foolhardy acceptance of proffered fruit inviting obvious parallels with the Garden of Eden. It's also a story of unconditional love. The abstemious Lizzie puts her life on the line for her fallen sister.

Carol Rumen discussed the poem recently in the Guardian and, while she acknowledged the eroticism and allegory, she played  this down in favour of a more innocent interpretation. I tend to agree with her - I think the poem is so gorgeously rich and engrossing that to focus too much on either the biblical or bacchanalian aspects of it does it a great disservice.

I'll leave you with one of her more vivid descriptions of the goblins, preparing to ensnare the second sister with their enchanted fruits:

Laughed every goblin
When they spied her peeping:
Came towards her hobbling,
Flying, running, leaping,
Puffing and blowing,
Chuckling, clapping, crowing,
Clucking and gobbling,
Mopping and mowing,
Full of airs and graces,
Pulling wry faces,
Demure grimaces,
Cat-like and rat-like,
Ratel- and wombat-like,
Snail-paced in a hurry,
Parrot-voiced and whistler,
Helter skelter, hurry skurry,
Chattering like magpies,
Fluttering like pigeons,
Gliding like fishes

The complete works of Christina Rossettti are available for free download through the fantastic Project Gutenburg.

Illustration for Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market (1862). Dante Gabriel Rossetti. University of South Carolina. http://www.sc.edu/library/spcoll/kidlit/kidlit/kidlit3.html