The author of this poem, Christina Rossetti, begins this poem with "I was a cottage maiden." This shows us that the narrator is writing in the past tense the narrator is reminiscing on the past. The narrator is also writing in first person narrative which creates a bond between the author and the reader as if the narrator is talking directly to us.
The next line of this poem starts with “Hardened by sun and air” this tells us that the narrator is a tough person.
On the next line we realize that the narrator is a happy women “Contented with my cottage mates”. In the next line we learn a lot about the narrator that she is a beautiful young women but she doesn’t realize it we also learn she is naïve.
“Not mindful I was fair” The word ‘mindful’ implies that she is naïve and that she doesn’t even realize how beautiful she really is.
“Why did a great lord find me out and praise my flaxen hair? The tone in this line is bitter and reproachful; the rhetorical question conveys her recrimination and regret. Almost that she is wailing with woe. “Why did a great lord fine me out to fill my heart with care?” There is also another rhetorical question here which implies that she is searching her conscious, “why did a great lore find me out” this line is repeated twice in the first eight lines and is what we call repetition which emphasizes her regret. Alternate rhyme is also used in the first eight lines “air”, “fair”, “Hair” and care”.
“He lured me to his palace home – Woe’s me for joy thereof” There is a very emotive word in this one line this word is ‘Lured’ it implies that he exploited her like to advantage of her like the girl was exploited by the magazine editors in the seduction, it also implies his predatory nature. Exploitation is also a theme of this poem and ironically is also a theme of ‘The Seduction’ the theme exploitation implies that both women in both poems were exploited by society. In ‘The Seduction’ teenagers were leaded to believe it was normal to lose there chastity at a certain age not doing so was seen as abnormal. Ironically though in ‘Cousin Kate’ it was far from normal to lose your chastity before marriage and doing so was seen as abnormal as an ‘unclean thing’… These poems also contrast because they were written in the 19th century and one in the 20th century, and in the 20th century it is acceptable to lose your chastity but in ‘Cousin Kate’ it was disgraceful as being chaste was highly important at that time.
“Shameless shameful” This live is incongruous an oxymoron the alliteration of the letter ‘S’ also emphasizes the oxymoron.
The next line implies his predatory nature and his desire from the beginning of meeting the narrator “His plaything” The word ‘plaything’ this word is very emotive word it conveys to us the lord’s true intentions of using the narrator just for sexual intercourse. This is also similar to ‘The Seduction’ as in The Seduction the young male teenager buy’s the girl drinks and encourages her to come to the river with him “’I’ll take you to the river where I spend the afternoons.” This line implies that there is only one thing on his mind and that is not to talk about but to take her chastity as the lord intended to do with the narrator in ‘Cousin Kate’.
