Representations of sin and

betrayal
Christina Rossettis poems

About the author

Cousin Kate analysis
Sister Maude analysis
The world analysis
Conclusion

Project by Alexandra Preda

Christina Rossetti
Christina Georgina Rossetti (5 December
1830 29 December 1894) was an
English poet known for her poems. She is
one of the finest poets in the Victorian
age. She was seen as a dedicated Anglo-
Catholic but this is questioned in the
majority of her poems along with her
sexuality and her gender.

Illustration for the cover of

Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market
and Other Poems (1862), by her
brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Cousin Kate

I was a cottage maiden

Hardened by sun and air,
Contented with my cottage mates,
Not mindful I was fair.
Why did a great lord find me out,
And praise my flaxen hair?
Why did a great lord find me out
To fill my heart with care?

He lured me to his palace home--

Woe's me for joy thereof--
To lead a shameless shameful life,
His plaything and his love.
He wore me like a silken knot,
He changed me like a glove;
So now I moan, an unclean thing,
Who might have been a dove.

O Lady Kate, my cousin Kate,

You grew more fair than I:
He saw you at your father's gate,
Chose you, and cast me by.
He watched your steps along the lane,
Your work among the rye;
He lifted you from mean estate
To sit with him on high.
 Cousin Kate -
Analysis
The narrator is a blond(flaxen hair) cottage girl(her social standing is established from
the beginning) .
The lord appears as a predator/hunter which lured her. His high social status(lord,
palace home)hangs as a sign of power over her, who sees herself as an plaything of his
joy. The metaphor wore me suggest that he used her for sex, she appears to be a
fashionable accessory to him(silken knot). Silken symbolizes is a quality asset and which
makes him look good, which highlights her confusion as to why he chose to leave her easily
(like a glove)for another woman (her cousin Kate). The knot symbolizes that she is tied in
his game, restricted women who is treated as a possession.
The oxymoron in the second stanza shows us that the narrator is shameless because
she truly loved the lord, but shameful because of the way society will treat her. Also, In the
beginning appears the word: care, which emphasis the narrator worry: having a child
outside the marriage)
The poem is a monologue, directly addressed to Cousin Kate. The speaker is envy on
her siblings fairness who made him to cast (her) by. The question: Who might have been a
dove is answered in the forth stanza, which present her cousin Kate as a dove(good and
pure) who fly to a upper, stable(He bound you with his ring:)level: He lifted you from
mean estate/ To sit with him on high.
The speakers jealousy is caused by the contradictory outlook of the society on them:
Kate is seen as good and pure although she betrayed her cousin in opposition of the
neighbors view on the narrator: outcast thing, who is a victim of love(my love was
true).
Furthermore, the voice questions the validity of Cousin Kate pure intentions, this
because she claims your love was writ in sand. The speaker add the fact that if they
changed shoes, she would not followed him, not even for his money, but she would be
disgusted by him(I would have spit into his face, protecting her sibling dignity).
Finally, she is revenge by the fact that her cousin doesnt have the gift of raising the
 First stanza: the accusatory tone of the poem is well-
established
Sister Maude The repetition creates emphasis and establishes a
hypnotic rhythm.
Who told my mother of my shame, shame clearly expose the fact that the narrator
became pregnant outside marriage a terrible sin in
Who told my father of my dear?
Victorian times
Oh who but Maude, my sister The last line make clear her contempt. The words
Maude, lurked, spy and peer have long vowels that slow
Who lurked to spy and peer. down the pace of the line and have a sneering quality.
The speakers subject of her hatred and anger is her
Cold he lies, as cold as stone, sister. This revels a severe betrayal due to the fact the
are bound by blood.
With his clotted curls about his face:
The comeliest corpse in all the world Second stanza: a melodramatic story is set up
And worthy of a queen's embrace. The repetition cold enhanced by the comparison as
stone together with the epithet suggest that he(the
You might have spared his soul, narrators lover) is dead. The oxymoron comeliest
sister, corpse indicate the devastating and sudden death of a
loved young man.
Have spared my soul, your own soul
too: Third stanza:
Though I had not been born at all, The monologue from the first two stanzas is interrupted
He'd never have looked at you. by a direct address to her sister. The repetition of the
word soul is a reflection of Victorian religious obsession.
My father may sleep in Paradise, The soul of her lover is spared from suffering of shame
by death which came as peace in opposition with her
My mother at Heaven-gate:
desire of restlessness for her sister sister Maude shall
But sister Maude shall get no sleep get no sleep written the forth stanza. Even in her grief
Either early or late. she cannot resist to shows her subtle jealousy (last two
lines).
My father may wear a golden gown,
My mother a crown may win; Forth stanza:
- Shows that both the speakers parents are dead. She
If my dear and I knocked at Heaven- clearly loves them and indicates that her father is in
gate heaven and her mother soon to join him. The
 The world was written in 1854 and published in
The world the 1862 volume Goblin Market and Other
Poems.

By day she wooes me, soft, exceeding fair; Its a representation of Petrarchan sonnet:
But all night as the moon so changeth she; the octave (the first 8 lines) typically
Loathsome and foul with hideous leprosy introduces the theme
And subtle serpents gliding in her hair. the sestet (the last 6 lines) clarify the
By day she wooes me to the outer air, problem of the poem and rhymes variously
The sestet presents the consequences of being
Ripe fruits, sweet flowers, and full satiety: attached to worldly pleasures rather than
But thro' the night, a beast she grins at remembering the importance of spiritual
me, devotion. The world here is presented as an
A very monster void of love and prayer, attractive yet deadly female figure, a kind
By day she stands a lie: by night she offemme fatale. This women is attributed
stands with: pushing horns which entice and clawed
and clutching hands ( these symbolizes the
In all the naked horror of the truth attaching danger). She is seen also as an
With pushing horns and clawed and imitation of Medusa whose watchers turn to
clutching hands. stone, so in a direct confrontation it takes a good
Is this a friend indeed; that I should sell self control to avoid looking at her face.
My soul to her, give her my life and youth,
Till my feet, cloven too, take hold on hell? The antithesis between night and day suggest a
dual perception of the sin. Day is assigned to
t h e sly t
cen desire outer space, where natural frame is an idyllic
s t s inno
s u gge of sin e en l erot
ic space, thereby truth is romanticized, while Night
I t g w
eakin n bet sinfu represents the inner fight against the naked
s n c ti oa nd horror of the truth.
t radi love
con antic
rom Theme is erotic desire in opposition with
religion. The narrator tries to resist being taken
in by earthly temptations, when the soul departs
from God(which is represented as a friend being
about to be sold) and leaving the narrator
fearing for her immortal life. So it raises the
question: Is it worth to take hold on hell for a
Conclusion

In my opinion the poems Cousin Kate, Sister

Maude and The world deeply portrait sin and
betrayal using touching images , which makes more
easily for the reader to empathize. In conclusion,
Christina Rossetti revels the a Victorian societys
perspective upon sin in contradiction with the
subjective vision oppressed by fear of consequences
but who craves desire. The first betrayal is an inner
one, the narrator surrender his principles to misleading
love.
 Bibliography

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christina_Rossetti
http://genius.com/artists/Christina-rossetti
http://
genius.com/Christina-georgina-rossetti-sister-maude-annotate
d
http://
www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/english_literature/poetry_
wjec/love/cousinkate/revision/2/
http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/crossetti/simmons6.html