Comparing and contrasting Christina Rossetti's 'Cousin Kate' and Eileen McCauley's 'The Seduction'
Rebecca Perry Year 10 Coursework Essay 1/11/00
Comparing and contrasting Christina Rossetti's 'Cousin Kate' and Eileen McCauley's 'The
Seduction'
I have compared poems 'Cousin Kate' by Christina Rossetti and 'The Seduction' by Eileen McCauley. Both poems describe different situations in which a young girl is seduced by a man and becomes pregnant. Both poems are equally angry and describe a loss of innocence and a sense of betrayal by both men and society.
'Cousin Kate' is set in the 1700's whereas 'The Seduction' has a much more modern context which is what makes them so interesting to compare as we can see how (if at all) society and its views on teenage pregnancy has changed. Whether it is an issue which has become more common and therefore more acceptable, or if it is still an issue frowned upon through the judgmental eyes of society who stereotype it's victims and brand them as outcasts. We can see what blinded these girls from reality and led them into the cruel and inauspicious trap of teenage pregnancy.
'Cousin Kate' is a poem about a young, naive cottage maiden who is seduced by a rich Lord, and then discarded for her cousin- Kate and left alone to raise his child and live a life of shame. The persona was 'contented' with her humble life as a cottage maiden and was not 'mindful she was fair.' I don't think she had ever been in a relationship or loved by a man before. She was naive and easily seduced by the Lords flattery- 'praise my flaxen hair' and riches- 'palace home'.
The Lord had 'lured' the girl to his 'palace home' like a hunter luring it's prey into a trap, with no intention of true love or marriage. He 'wore her like a silken knot', I get the impression that the persona was nothing more than an object or possession to the Lord in the way that their relationship is described in the poem. Metaphors and similes throughout the second stanza such as 'plaything' and 'silken knot', represent how weak and fickle their relationship was. The way she describes herself as becoming an 'unclean thing who might have been a dove', expresses a loss of innocence as if her shameful relationship with the Lord has tarnished her good and pure, 'dove'-like image. The line 'shameless shameful life', leads me to believe that she was unaware of what was going on and of how 'shameful' the life she was leading really was and 'woe's me for joy thereof ' means that because of the small amount of happiness she experienced in the short period of time while she was with the Lord, she is now left with a lifetime of misery.
Then the poem tells of how the Lord 'cast her by ' and chose her cousin-Kate to 'sit with him on high'. The quote 'He lifted you from mean estate to sit with him on high' always inserts a vision into my mind of Kate and the lord sitting on two grand throwns on the top of a mountain while the persona, dressed in rags, works in a near by field. Which I guess is what the writer wants you to think of whenever the relationship between the lord and Kate is mentioned; the fact that Kate is ...
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Then the poem tells of how the Lord 'cast her by ' and chose her cousin-Kate to 'sit with him on high'. The quote 'He lifted you from mean estate to sit with him on high' always inserts a vision into my mind of Kate and the lord sitting on two grand throwns on the top of a mountain while the persona, dressed in rags, works in a near by field. Which I guess is what the writer wants you to think of whenever the relationship between the lord and Kate is mentioned; the fact that Kate is now 'good and pure'. I suppose that is what the writer is trying to portray with the line 'He bound you with his ring'. The fact that the love between the persona and the Lord wasn't as strong as that of the Lord and Kate and that he was simply using the persona whereas his love for Kate is true and he has much more respect for Kate than he ever had for the persona. ' Even though I sit in dust and howl, you sit in gold and sing.' The contrast between the words 'dust' and 'gold' represents their two very different lives. While the persona has been left stained for life
and has been 'branded an outcast thing', Kate lives a life of happiness full of riches and material things.
In my opinion the next two lines could mean one of two things 'Now which of us has the tenderer heart? You had the stronger wing'. I think this could either mean that the persona's love for the lord was real but Kate was luckier or perhaps she is suggesting that the persona was so blinded by her love for the Lord that she was easily seduced whereas Kate was more firm and maybe insisted on marriage before anything else.
The next stanza is very bitter and expresses the persona's hatred for both the lord and her Cousin. 'Your love was writ in sand'- fickle and easily washed away. 'If he had fooled not me but you'- If I were in your place. 'He'd not have won me with his love nor bought me with his land'- again suggesting that Kate was in love the Lords wealth and status. 'I would have spit into his face'- she would have rejected him for what he had done.
The final verse ends on a triumphant note. The persona talks of the 'one gift he has not got'- a son and heir to his 'coronet'. It seems that Kate cannot have children 'and seem likely not to get'. Then she says that ' for all your clothes and wedding ring, I've little doubt you fret'- she knows that Kate too longs for a child. 'My faire-hared son, my shame, my pride'- an oxymoron which expresses her mixed emotions; Her shame- the reason that society call her an 'outcast thing' and yet her pride; she is proud of him, he is her child and the one thing the Lord and all his riches cannot take away from her.
'The Seduction' is a poem of a very similar theme to 'Cousin Kate', but the young girl is seduced by a boy she meets at a party.
The setting of the poem- Birkenhead docks- where the seducer leads the girl and the way it is described is almost chilling. Words such as 'frightening scum' and 'septic wound' are both effective and frightening. The first few lines of the poem immediately give us an impression of what the seducer is doing and exactly what the scene is like. Lines 2,3 and 4 create a sense of isolation. The line 'blind windows' represent how alone the girl is, that no one will see what is going on and no one will help her. I think that the line 'away from the quiet bricks of Birkenhead docks' might mean that the only thing that can see what is going on are these bricks and they can't tell anyone.
For the first part of the poem, the persona is drunk. She is very confused, unaware of what is happening and completely in a world far from the harsh reality. The poem constantly reminds you of the innocence that is the persona with words like 'giggle', 'wide blue eyes' and 'high white shoes', whereas the seducer is obviously less innocent as depicted with the use of phrases such as- ' he swiftly contrived to kiss her', 'He spat into the river', 'muttered little slag' and 'eyes as blue as iodine'- which is particularly effective in the way it contrasts the innocent image which is what the girl can see and reality. The girl sees her seducer as some blue eyed hero and does not see past what her mind wants her to see. She is seeing the boy as more of a potential boyfriend, her first true love, or even some one from some romantic love story and is blinded from the danger she is in and how the stupid mistake that she is about to make is going to ruin her life forever.
The second half of the poem consists mainly of the thoughts and feelings of the persona after she discovers she is pregnant.
'She sobbed in the cool locked, darkness of her room' this line shows her isolation and loneliness she is experiencing. She is frustrated both at herself and teenage magazines which she adamantly blames; but I noticed there seems no further mention of the seducer which I find very strange because in Cousin Kate, he along with Kate, is the very source of her frustration.
The simile ' like confetti' makes me think of marriage, commitment and being tied down which is like what her life will be like after she has her child and also of her dreams of a fairytale wedding which will probably become nothing more than just a dream. The repetition in lines 'truly, truly frightened' and 'stupid, stupid promises' adds to the impact of the word which increases the effectiveness of the line as it gives a clear impression of the extreme emotion she is feeling at the time.
The second stanza talks of a sort of 'teenage magazine world' a stereotyped image of the world in which teenagers should live is just a cruel reminder of what she thinks she is missing. Line 'She was sickened every morning' could mean one of two things The fact that she is sickened by the fact she has been betrayed by the magazines and also because she is pregnant- morning sickness.
'Walk hand in hand on a carpeted floor', gives an impression of how life should be when you're a teenager- innocent and 'carpeted' or protected from all the bad things in the world.
The next stanza expresses the persona's shame and anger at herself for falling into the 'despicable, feminine void' which is teenage pregnancy. She says that she would rather be unemployed or addicted to drugs than to become pregnant. A lot of people find this very strange but I think what she is trying to say is that if you are any of these at least people sympathise with you. These are thinks which are new, modern understandably easy to get caught up in but teenage pregnancy is something which has been around for years. It is something all teenagers are constantly warned about and yet she has still not learned from the mistakes made by hundreds of women before her.
The last two lines are very effective 'better now to turn away. Move away, fade away'- she would rather run away or even die because her life is over anyway and she cannot face society and it's remarks of 'She always looked the type'
Unlike 'Cousin Kate', ' The Seduction' focuses a lot more on the actual harsh reality of the situation in a lot of detail. 'Cousin Kate' seems a lot more brief and light hearted I think due to it's 'fairy tail'- like rhyme scheme, setting and language which I don't think is as emotionally effective.
Lines such as; 'so now I moan an unclean thing', 'Woe's me joy thereof' and 'I sit and howl in dust', do not portray neither a realistic nor distressing image of the situations both girls are in as do words like; 'little slag', 'despicable feminine void' and 'green as a septic wound'.
Both poems express a loss of innocence and a sense of betrayal by both men and society. The issue of 'blame' is very different in both poems. Though 'The Seduction' is a much more modern poem, the girl's bitterness towards teenage magazines can certainly not be justified in this day and age. Teenage magazines have come a long way in the form of informing young girls and
Boys about the dangers of unprotected sex. Though magazines have become more informative, teenage pregnancy is still a very 'awkward' and 'touchy' issue which is seen as unacceptable by the majority of today's society. The story of Cousin Kate is a much less controversial and twisted tale. It has a very 'fairy tale ' like context and it seems to be more structured with a distinctive beginning, middle and an end. It has a very simple 'sing-song' like structure which again makes it much less emotional. Although, the Seduction also has a subtle hidden 'fairytale' like theme as well with lines like 'enchanted' and 'wide blue eyes,' but I think their purpose is to portray an image which the persona has of the seducer on the night of the seduction. During the second half of 'The Seduction', the way in which the persona's thoughts of what she is missing are put across, in a blurry, subconscious- like pattern, adds to all the confusion and emotion which the girl is experiencing that day after she discovers she is pregnant. The 'stream of thought' -like verses in which her mind thinks back to all the promises made by her object of blame; the teenage magazines also adds effectively to the overall emotion which the poem brilliantly evokes.
Rebecca Perry 10CP
