The Narrator seems happy to have her baby, because she says “Yet I’ve a gift you have not got” which implies that the child is something to boast about and something she’s happy that she has, and a gift, or blessing, whereas the girl in “The Seduction” doesn’t have her baby during the poem, but she says “Better to destroy your life in modern, man-made ways, Than to fall into this despicable, feminine void” which shows that she thinks it’s better to take drugs than be pregnant. This shows a complete contrast in the feminine attitude because the Narrator has pride in her son and isn’t jealous of Kate, even though she realises the shame of her situation, but is level-headed enough to see that the Lord isn’t all that he’s made out to be. This is shown by the phrase “If you stood where I stand, He’d not have won me with his love, Nor bought me with his land;” whereas the girl is completely taken in by the boy and doesn’t see that he doesn’t love her at all.
The Lord in “Cousin Kate” saw the Narrator as a pretty little girl who could be a “trophy wife”. She was someone who he could show off because she was attractive. This is shown by the phrases “changed me like a glove” and “Chose you and cast me by” these show that he used her and then liked her cousin Kate more, so he cast aside the Narrator and took Kate instead, he was bored of the Narrator so he got rid of her.
The local people are very disapproving of the Narrator because in the Victorian period, when this was written, people were strongly opposed to sex before marriage and illegitimate children were completely unacceptable. They call her “an outcast thing” because the Lord just used her and didn’t marry her.
The boy in “The Seduction” clearly has no respect for the girl. He calls her a “little slag” and he pretended to love her so that she would go to the docks with him. He just takes a fancy to her so he gets her; he doesn’t care about her at all. It is obvious that he uses her, both from his reference to her as a “slag”, but also because after the night at the docks, she never sees him again.
The poem doesn’t actually say what the people around think of her getting pregnant; it only says what she thinks they will say, she says “to have the neighbours whisper that “you always looked the type”.” This shows that the attitude of the neighbours to her is similar to that of the local people towards the Narrator in “Cousin Kate”.
“Cousin Kate” is recognisable as a Victorian poem because, firstly, there is a Lord of the Manor, and we don’t have Lord’s nowadays. She also uses the phrase “Your father would give lands for one, To wear his coronet” which shows that it is in the days of Lords owning land because it says that her son will inherit the Lords estate.
In the first paragraph, the poem says, “I was a cottage maiden” the word maiden is rarely used today but would have been commonly used then. The expression “wore me like a silken knot” silken knot is old language. The poem is very much on the Narrator’s side, as it is written from her point of view, and refers to her as “I”. It makes the Lord out to be an uncaring person who doesn’t care about her feelings “Chose you and cast me by” shows that he can pick who he wants freely, and “changed me like a glove” shows that he thought that she was meaningless. It leads the reader to believe that he is entirely at fault and that we should feel sorry for the Narrator.
“The Seduction” was clearly written in the 1980’s because it says, “silver stream of traffic through the city” and “O levels”. It also has references to “the Milk Cup” and “the next McGuigan fight” and also “Sammy Lee and Ian Rush”. The use of language is quite revealing too because she uses the phrase “knocked it back” which is very off-hand and therefore relatively modern. The photo-comics are again, tokens of the time, “Jackie” and “My Guy” aren’t published anymore, and probably would be referred to as magazines, not photo-comics. The speech in the poem is indicative of the culture because it is colloquial, “I’ll take you the river The poem is sympathetic towards the girl, because it shows him as a typical boy because he only talks to her about “football; Sammy Lee and Ian Rush” and “the Milk Cup and the next McGuigan fight”.
The poem makes out that he doesn’t love her at all because he just leaves her, after the night, and he only pays her attention to get her to go to the docks with him. The poem makes us feel sorry for the girl because it says things like “For where, now, was the summer of her sixteenth year” and “how did she feel betrayed”. By saying this, it implies that because of this boy, she is missing out on everything that other sixteen year old girls do. This shows sympathy for the girl and selfishness from the boy.
In conclusion, regardless of the gap of nearly a century and a half, there are several things which haven’t changed. Although many customs have changed through the years, most misconceptions of love and opinions of teenage pregnancy are still the same. The neighbours and local people in both poems disapprove strongly of unmarried pregnant women. Primarily, the attitudes of the girls towards love and romance weren’t really different; they both were naïve and had preconceived ideas, though they lead quite different paths to their ultimate disappointment.