Compare what happens to the two girls and the attitudes they and the other people have towards it. In what ways do the poems seem typical of the period in which they were written?

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Compare what happens to the two girls and the attitudes they and the other people have towards it. In what ways do the poems seem typical of the period in which they were written?

The two poems "Cousin Kate" by Christina Rossetti and "The Seduction" by Eileen McAuley, although written nearly a century and a half apart, have some similar features.

In "Cousin Kate", the narrator is taken from her cottage life, where she was content, and goes to live with the Lord in his Manor. She then is overlooked for her cousin Kate, hence the name of the poem, who the Lord prefers. The neighbours and people around her disapprove of pre-marital relations and call her unclean, whereas because Kate is "innocent", the Lord marries her. The poem ends with the Narrator talking about her son.

In "The Seduction", the girl goes to a party and meets a boy there. He buys her drinks and dances with her all night, and she falls in love with him and he gets her drunk, then he takes her to the docks. The girl ends up pregnant, but she doesn't find out until three months later.