Cousin Kate
Christina Rossetti
Apple Inc.
1st Edition
Context.........................................................................................3
Cousin Kate.................................................................................5
Initial Response............................................................................7
S.M.I.L.E. Analysis......................................................................9
Sample Exam Question Part A..................................................20
Comparison................................................................................21
Sample Exam Question - Part B................................................22
Context
Pre-Reading Questions:
What do you know about Victorian Britain?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------What was the status of women in Victorian England? What role
were they expected to fulfil in society?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------How were unmarried mothers perceived at this time?
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Context - Christina Rossetti
Christina Rossetti was a well-known British poet of the nineteenth
century. She was born in London in 1830 to Italian parents, and grew up
with her sister and two brothers (one brother, Dante Gabriel Rossetti,
became a famous painter). Rossetti suffered from bouts of depression
throughout her life, and was deeply religious - many of her poems are
devotional, and she became involved in the Anglo-Catholic movement.
She wrote poetry from her early teens, and was published in literary
magazines from the start of the 1850s. Her most famous collection is
‘Goblin Market and Other Poems,’ which was published in 1862. Critics
have paid particular attention to the themes of repression, sexuality and
gender in Rossetti’s work.
Whilst Rossetti herself never married, it is interesting to note in relation
to this poem that Rossetti volunteered at the St Mary Magdalene ‘House
of Charity’ for ‘fallen women’ (prostitutes, single mothers etc) from 1859
until 1870; this experience may have caused her to become interested int
‘fallen women’ and their stories.
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.
“Cottage maiden” - peasant girl who
worked outside; “hardened by sun
and air.”
“Flaxen” - blonde.
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.
“Rye” - type of grain.
“Mean estate” - humble, lower class
life.
Because you were so good and pure
He bound you with his ring:
The neighbours call you good and pure,
Call me an outcast thing.
Even so I sit and howl in dust,
You sit in gold and sing:
Now which of us has tenderer heart?
You had the stronger wing.
O cousin Kate, my love was true,
Your love was writ in sand:
If he had fooled not me but you,
If you stood where I stand,
He'd not have won me with his love
Nor bought me with his land;
I would have spit into his face
And not have taken his hand.
Yet I've a gift you have not got,
And seem not like to get:
For all your clothes and wedding-ring.
I've little doubt you fret.
My fair-haired son, my shame, my pride,
Cling closer, closer yet:
Your father would give lands for one
To wear his coronet.
“Fret”- worry
Christina Rossetti
Initial Response
Who are the three main characters in the poem?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------What story is the narrator telling? What happened to her, and
what happened to Cousin Kate?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What is the narrator’s attitude towards Cousin Kate?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------What tone do you think this poem should be read in? Why?
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S.M.I.L.E. Analysis
Remember, to analyse a poem we need to look at:
-Structure
-Meaning
-Imagery (similes, metaphors, personfication)
-Language
-Effect on the reader
Meaning
“Meaning” is a good place to start when thinking about a poem, as here
you can discuss the principal theme(s) of the poem and why you think
the poet has written it.
Meaning - Key points:
• In this poem, the narrator (a former “cottage girl”) tells the story of
how she was seduced by a nobleman and became his “plaything and
his love” before the nobleman cast her aside and left her pregnant. The
nobleman then married her cousin, Kate, who now gets to “sit with
him on high” whilst the narrator is outcast by her friends and
neighbours.
• The narrator addresses her cousin Kate in the poem, and insinuates
that Kate did not love the Lord (“your love was writ in sand”), and that
she married him for money and status (“bought me with his land,”
“clothes and wedding ring”). She also criticises Kate for having married
the nobleman after how he treated her, and insists that had the situation
been reversed she would have “spit unto his face.”
• She laments that she is now “an outcast thing” who can only “sit and
howl in dust.”
• However, at the end of the poem, the tone changes. The narrator
tells “Cousin Kate” that whilst Kate has the status and the ring, the
narrator has one thing Kate seems unlikely to have - the nobleman’s
baby.
Exploration - Meaning
The narrator addresses Cousin Kate as “O Cousin Kate” and
refers to her many times as being “good and pure.” How do you
think these lines should be read?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Give two pieces of evidence that show that the narrator believes
Cousin Kate married the nobleman for money.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------What impression do you think Rossetti wants us to have of the
narrator? Is she supposed to be a sympathetic character or not?
What about the nobleman? Cousin Kate?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Why do you think the narrator is angry at Cousin Kate and not
at the nobleman? What does this tell us about a) the character of
the narrator and b) society’s attitudes to men and women at the
time?
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Structure
Structure refers to the way a poem is set out and organised. Here, you
write about things like rhyme scheme, length, repetition and the flow of
ideas throughout the poem.
Read the poem aloud. How many syllables are there in:
a) The first, third, fifth and seventh lines of each stanza?
b)The second, fourth, sixth and eighth lines of each stanza?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------What is the rhyme scheme of the poem?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Structure - Key Points
• The poem is a monologue. A monologue is a speech read aloud by a
single character.
• Cousin Kate uses an iambic rhythm. In poem, an iamb is a pair of
syllables in which the second syllable is stressed (e.g. da-dum).
• The poem uses the pattern below, in which the bold syllables are stressed:
• Why did a great lord find me out,
And praise my flaxen hair?
• In lines 1, 3, 5 and 7 of each stanza there are eight syllabes (so four iambs)
- this is called iambic tetrameter.
• In lines 2, 4, 6 and 8 of each stanza there are six syllables (so three iambs) this is called iambic trimeter.
Why did a great lord find me out, (8 syllables, iambic tetrameter)
And praise my flaxen hair? (6 syllables, iambic trimeter)
• On a few occasions, this pattern is broken e.g.:
“Even so I sit and howl in dust” (9 syllables)
“And not have taken his hand” (7 syllables)
• The second, fourth, sixth and eighth lines of each stanza rhyme.
Exploration - Structure
How does the tight meter and rhyme scheme affect how we read the
poem?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The structure echoes those of medieval ballads, which were designed to
convey a moral lesson. Is this significant?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On occasions, the rhythm of the poem is broken (most notably on the
seven-syllable last line of stanza 5: “And not have taken his hand). What
is the effect of these breaks?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Imagery
This is where you look at techniques such as similes, metaphors and
personification. What pictures has the poet tried to create in your head?
• “He wore me like a silken knot” - simile. There is probably a veiled
reference to sex here, with the ‘silken knot’ being the narrator’s
hymen, and the phrase ‘he wore me like a silken knot’ referring to her
loss of virginity.
• “He changed me like a glove” - simile. Again, the literal meaning is
that he cast her aside as he would change his clothes, but ‘glove’ is in
all likelihood a reference to the narrator’s vagina.
• “Who might have been a dove” - metaphor. A dove represents
purity and innocence - she is saying that her innocence and virginity
would still have been intact had he not been able to ‘find her out.’
• “I sit and howl in dust” - metaphor demonstrating her despair and
inability to do anything more than ‘howl’ - she is powerless.
• “You sit in gold and sing” - metaphor which presents a contrast
between Kate’s situation and that of the narrator. ‘Gold’ suggests
wealth. However, Kate, like the narrator is also passive; although she is
able to ‘sing’ rather than ‘howl,’ could it be the song of a caged bird?
• “You had the stronger wing” - metaphor. Again, the word “wing”
has the connotations of a bird, suggesting that Kate has been able to
fly higher in society than the narrator.
• “Your love was writ in sand” - metaphor suggesting Kate’s love for
the nobleman was baseless - written only in shifting sand. Again, the
narrator is implying that Kate married the nobleman for his wealth.
Exploration - Imagery
How could you analyse the significance of the references to a “silken
knot” and a “glove?”
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Language
This is where you comment on the language the poet uses. What choices
has he/she made, and why?
Key Points - Language
• The verbs the narrator uses emphasise the powerlessness of Victorian
women - the narrator and Cousin Kate are always passive whereas the
nobleman is active:
- “He lured me”
- “He wore me”
- “He changed me”
- “He saw me”
- “He chose you”
- “He watched your steps”
- “He lifted you”
• The only bit of the poem where the narrator is active is the stanza
where she says what she would have done (“I would have spit into his
face”). The use of the conditional (would) tense emphasises that this is
not reality - although she dreams of doing this, she is made passive by
her society.
• Rossetti uses oxymorons to convey the narrator’s confused feelings
about her situation:
• She describes her affair with the noble as a “shameless shameful
life” (she felt ‘shameless’ when she was with him but society views what
happened as “shameful”).
• She claims she was his “plaything and his love” - these give us very
different and contradictory ideas about what the relationship was.
• She describes her son as “my shame, my pride” (this oxymoron
highlights how, despite the fact that bearing an unborn child was seen
as shameful, she is proud that she has the one thing that Kate cannot
seem to get).
• The plosive sound of “K” in “Cousin Kate” highlights the narrator’s
bitterness.
Exploration - Language
Look for rhetorical questions in the poem. Why has the narrator used
these; what point is she trying to make?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------What role do oxymorons play in the poem, and how do they highlight
the narrator’s ambivalence about her son?
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Effect on the reader
Exploration - effect on the reader
Do you see the narrator as a sympathetic character or not? Why / why
not?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Is Rossetti trying to highlight the powerlessness of Victorian women, or is
she commenting on their materialism and desire to marry for wealth?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sample Exam Question Part A
3. a) “Explore how the writer presents her ideas
about conflict between individuals in “Cousin
Kate.”
Use examples of the language from the poem to
support your answer. (15 marks).
NB - In the exam, you would have about 30 minutes to
complete this question.
Write an answer to this question and email it to me.
Comparison
Cousin Kate stands rather alone in the collection, but the most obvious
comparison would be Catrin, as this is also about conflict between family
members (with, obviously, the difference being that Catrin is about the
fierce, at times conflicting love between mother and daughter, whilst in
Cousin Kate the narrator is entirely bitter towards her cousin, accusing
Kate of betrayal and selfishness in marrying the same nobleman who
wronged her).
Another potential comparison would be “Hitcher” - these poems are
both fictional monologues in which the main character may be seen as
unlikeable. Whereas the narrator in Hitcher commits senseless murder
and appears to feel no emotion or remorse, the narrator in Cousin Kate
attempts to portray herself as a wronged victim of both a predatory
nobleman and her own cousin.
Christina Rossetti “Cousin Kate”
Meaning
Structure
Imagery
Language
Poem 2
Christina Rossetti “Cousin Kate”
Poem 2
Effect
Sample Exam Question - Part B
Answer EITHER 3(b)i OR 3(b)ii
3 b) (i) Compare how the writers of “Cousin Kate” and
“Hitcher” present the poem’s narrators (15 marks).
3 b) (ii) Compare how the writers of “Cousin Kate” and
one other poem of your choice from the Clashes and
Collisions collection present their views about conflict in
any setting. (15 marks)
Use examples from the language of both poems to
support your answer.
NB - In the exam, you would have about 30 minutes to complete this
question.
Write an answer to this question and email it to me.