My Early Reaction to Goblin Market

The poem that I reacted to most was “Goblin Market” by Christina Rosetti.  At first read it was the vivid imagery and fairy tale quality that I liked.  The idea of little ‘goblin men’ dancing through the glen enticing young maidens to buy their fruits is a fanciful story, but one that the speaker tells skillfully.  The meter and language were fairly easy to follow and do a good job of lulling the reader into the rhythm of the story, a rhythm that changes throughout, becoming more subdued in some places and more intense in others, all of which mesh and flow with what’s going on at that point in the poem. By the end of the poem it is easy to see that the story can be interpreted as a story of how one sister’s love can ultimately save the other sister’s life. After all, Lizzie braves an encounter with the goblin men to bring back the juices and pulp of their fruit to save her sister Laura.  However, after reading the poem more closely I see a story of temptation and the devastation that blindly giving into it can create in one’s life, and, on the other side of the coin, how having the personal strength to resist can bring salvation and empowerment.

From the very beginning temptation is a theme.  The speaker describes how the goblin men cry, “Come buy our orchard fruits, / Come buy, come buy:” (line 3-4).  The images of all the perfect and varied fruit that one could not possibly find anywhere else follows in such a way that you can almost see in your mind’s eye these perfect, ripe and delicious specimens.  The goblins sing their song of “grapes fresh from the vine” (20) and “Bright-fire-like barberries” (27) in such a way that you can almost taste them and indeed want to.   

From here, it is easy to understand how difficult it would be for someone like Laura, utterly lacking willpower, to resist such charm and seduction in spite of her sister’s dire warnings. 

“We must not look at goblin men,
We must not buy their fruits:

Who knows upon what soil they fed
Their hungry thirsty roots?”(42-45)

Here Lizzie tries to warn her sister of the dangers of giving in to the goblin men because what they offer can’t possibly be natural.  The idea being that anything unnatural cannot be good and most surely has undesirable consequences and effects no matter how good it seems at first.

The poem continues, on and on, vividly depicting how one person can blindly give in to such seduction at the price of one’s soul.  It is not until this temptation is met with such strength and the will to not give in, that the power is defeated, never to be anything but a memory again. 

This is a poem and a story that affected me strongly because I see in it parallels of personal power, of starting with a lack of it and only through the near destruction of one’s own soul coming to find that power and happiness is within oneself.

Image source: http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2009/09/garden-goblins.html

Works Cited

Rosetti, Christina.  “Goblin Market.” Goblin Market and other Poems. Cambridge: Macmillan, 1862.