Throughout the verse, the mood is generally angry and shameful but towards the end of the verse, she feels neglected as she claims she could have been a ‘dove’. The last group of four lines in the verse portrays this slight change in her emotions. Once again, there is a strong rhyming scheme to show the way she feels now and then. It helps in making the reader understand the impact of the affair on her.
The third verse is slightly different to the first two, as it is a personal address to her ‘Cousin Kate’; this can be inferred from her beginning the verse with ‘O Lady Kate, my cousin Kate’. Once having addressed her cousin she immediately tells her that her cousin grew more ‘more fair’ than her, this gives me the impression that the cottage maiden is jealous and this can also be observed at the start of the verse. She addresses her cousin ‘O Lady Kate’, which makes me feel that perhaps she is saying it sarcastically and perhaps trying to tell Kate that she should be in her position. The maiden highlights the differences in their lifestyles with aggression as she says ‘You grew more fair than I… Chose you and cast me by’ this gives a sense that perhaps the maiden is feeling rejected because the lord just ignored her showing especially when she says ‘cast’ this gives the impression that he was totally ignorant of her presence. She continues to present the differences in their lifestyles by saying ‘He lifted you from mean estate/ To sit with him on high’ depicting an image of the lord literally lifting Kate from her lifestyle similar to that of the cottage maidens to come and live a new lifestyle with him in a higher position in society.
Running through the verse is a strong rhyming scheme such as ‘I’, ‘Bye’, and ‘rye’ once again these were most probably use to emphasise her feelings about her cousin and her mixed emotions at present. The general mood is jealous and rejected as she feels both the lord and Kate rejected her and now she is no longer a cottage maiden even perhaps due to the fact she is no longer a virgin. However in this verse the first set of four lines does not affect the general mood.
The first verse is very similar to the third as the cottage maiden is still addressing her ‘Cousin Kate’ but she also talks of how she is treated by others in comparison to Kate.
The cottage maiden starts off by saying ‘because you were so good and pure /He bound you with his ring’ this evokes a feeling of jealousy as the lord never proposed to the cottage maiden when they were together and the fact that he proposed to her cousin would trigger jealousy. Simultaneously she feels neglected by the neighbours as she mentions that ‘the neighbours call you good and pure,/ Call me an outcast thing’ to Kate, this shows that due to her having an affair with the lord and falling pregnant outside wedlock she is being perceived as an ‘outcast’ and ‘unclean’ as she described herself before. On the other hand they think that Kate is ‘pure’ because she didn’t fall pregnant outside of marriage and is married to the lord which seems to suggest that the people in her town or village have a lot of respect for the lord perhaps due to his wealth. The point at which she compares their situations the most is when she says ‘I sit and howl in dust’ and ‘You sit in gold and sing’ this shows a great contrast as she describes herself in a position where noone cares unlike Kate who is in a position where she is
respected and surrounded by all the things anyone could ask for. She also uses metaphors to get her point across and this is very effective as it highlights the main difference between their lives and makes the reader empathise with the cottage maiden because it made me feel her anger with the lord and Kate. Lastly she compares their strengths and justifies the reason why Kate is in a better position and this is because Kate had the ‘stronger wing’. In other words, Kate was stronger than she was and maybe not as foolish as her either.
Once again, a rhyming scheme is used to emphasise the differences in their lives and words such as ‘thing’ and ‘wing’ make the reader know how alone she feels and neglected. The mood throughout the verse is in similar manner to the third verse and a sense of jealousy and neglect appears in the reader’s mind as the cottage maiden is still comparing their lives.
In the fifth verse, the cottage maiden compares their love for the lord rather than comparing themselves.
As in the previous verse she begins with an address to Kate, ‘O cousin Kate’ and then says ‘my love was true your love was writ in sand’, this suggests that Kate’s love with the lord isn’t as genuine as the maiden’s love for the lord according to the maiden. ‘Your love was writ in sand’ creates the impression, that Kate’s love is temporary because it can easily be rubbed away from the sand. The cottage maiden then goes on to say that if only the lord hadn’t fooled her but her cousin Kate and if Kate was in her position. This suggests that the lord may have used charm and trickery to lure the maiden, as he knew that the maiden wasn’t as strong in comparison to Kate and he misused his power. Therefore, the cottage maiden wishes that she were in Kate’s position and Kate in hers because Kate is stronger than her. The maiden then tells of what she would do if she was in Kates position as she says she would ‘not have taken his hand’ and ‘would have spit in his face’ this signifies that the cottage maiden is still very angry at both Kate and the lord for what they did to her and tries to gain superiority by saying she would literally ‘spit into his face’ if she had the chance and would not allow herself to get fooled.
The mood throughout the verse is still angry as she feels she is a fool to both the two of them and this time halfway through the verse the mood slightly changes as she says she wouldn’t allow him to buy her with ‘his land’ this signifies a change as she is not as angry but feeling quite better about herself. A rhyming scheme flows through that verse also to show her feelings as always and show properly the slight change in her mood.
The sixth verse is absolutely different from all the other verses because the cottage maiden finally talks of what she has now rather than what she has lost in the past especially when she says ‘Yet, I’ve a gift you have not got’. This suggests that maiden is very happy even though she lost all those things in the past, she then says how Kate would give all the things she has to have what the maiden has; a son revealing that the maiden is felling superior and maybe Kate is infertile and so consequently never going to have her own biological child. The cottage maiden describes her son as ‘my shame, my pride’ which shows that he is her shame because he was born outside of a marriage but her pride as he is probably the most important thing in her life at the moment. Due to her calling him her shame first but her pride last, I think that the good outweighs the bad in him for her. She finally finishes off by saying ‘Your father would give lands for one To wear his coronet’ this evokes a feeling of joy and suggests that perhaps she isn’t so sad anymore despite what happened in the past.
Lastly, A rhyming scheme is used and is effective as her superior feelings really stand out. The mood of this verse is totally different to the moods of all the previous verses as in this verse she feels superior and happy as she has her ‘fair haired son’ who she describes as her ‘pride’ this emphasises her happiness, ‘Yet, I’ve a gift’ is best for showing her happiness as it shows she treasures her son.
For the second poem ‘A Birthday’ the title has relevance to the content as it gives the impression of rebirth or new life for the speaker as it is like new life because she has found the one which can be assumed to be her lover. Similarly, ‘Cousin Kate’ had relevance to the poem as Kate was being addressed all the way in the poem. The poem is made up of two verses and is a love poem whereas ‘Cousin Kate’ was made up of six verses and was a narrative ballad.
The first verse starts off with the speaker saying ‘My heart is like a singing bird/ whose nest is in a watered shoot’ the fact that she compares her heart to a singing bird gives the impression that the speaker is so happy as a singing bird could represent harmony and by saying it is this it can be said her heart is in harmony. Also as she mentions ‘ a watered shoot’ illustrates a constant supply of water which makes me think that her heart is so full of love. It gives a sense of richness. The speaker then goes on to describe her heart as ‘an apple tree /Whose boughs are bent with thickset fruit’ this reiterates an image of a tree whose branches are absolutely bent because of the ‘thickset fruit’. The words ‘bent’ and ‘thickset fruit’ really emphasise the fullness of her heart as it makes me think of something that is so full and heavy it could break maybe even ominous. Her heart is then described as ‘a rainbow shell That paddles in the halcyon sea’ this evokes a feeling of peace within herself perhaps its due to her being in love, this is particularly clear when she says ‘halcyon’ as it creates an image of a small shell paddling in a calm sea. ‘Halcyon’ shows that perhaps she is in such a state of peace that nothing could disturb her or even frighten her. The speaker finally stops using images of nature to describe the state of her heart and says ‘My heart is gladder than all of these Because my love has come to me’ this makes me feel that even though she compares her heart to nature at its best state it isn’t permanent and so she decides its better than all of those things as her love is permanent unlike in ‘Cousin Kate’ when the cottage maiden describes Kate’s love for the lord as not genuine.
The mood throughout the verse is happy and elated and stays the same throughout. On the other hand, the mood generally in ‘Cousin Kate’ was more sombre; it changed within the verse and was usually affected by the punctuation. However, ‘A Birthday’ also has significant punctuation as semi colons are used to separate the ideas but are used to connect the images of nature. Similar to ‘Cousin Kate’ a rhyming scheme was used once again to probably show the speaker’s feelings.
In the second verse the speaker refrains from describing the state of her heart and instead starts to give what seem to be a list of instructions to someone special as she uses verbs for example ‘Raise’, Hang’, ‘Carve’ and ‘Work’.
The second verse starts begins with the speaker saying ‘Raise me a dais of silk and down’ suggesting that she is asking for a more permanent structure for their love such as a platform or a marriage bed with silk and feathers giving the idea of a rich relationship as she uses rich materials to describe how she wants her love to be shown. The idea of a rich relationship continues as she says ‘Hang it with vair and purple dyes, the fact that she asks for ‘purple dyes’ relates to royalty and so it could be that she considers her love to be as special royalty and that she feels like a queen. Royalty was very important especially in Christina Rosetti’s times.
The speaker then goes back to using natural images as she mentions ‘doves’ which implies that the relationship between them is pure but then she adds ‘pomegranates’ which are full of seeds, this can be seen as an object related to fertility as the seeds portray the eggs within a female body. A contrast can be observed as she goes from talking about purity to intimacy and children. Moreover she says ‘Work it in gold and silver grapes’; the colours she uses to describe nature here are also related to royalty and give a sense of something permanent as the royalty are always there.
Lastly, the speaker justifies the reason behind what seem to be the commands she made and this is ‘Because the birthday of my life is come, My love is come to me’ this seems to suggest she wants everything to be perfect because her lover has come to her, someone who she considers important, this is especially shown when she says ‘birthday of my life’ as this indicates the most important birthday of her life. ‘Birthday’ can be assumed to be like a rebirth for the speaker as she is in love and everything feels new to her. The repetition of the last line also emphasises how she feels for her lover. In this verse the speaker uses more important objects to show her feelings similarly the cottage maiden described her love for the lord as true which also indicates permanence.
The mood of the verse is happy and joyous as before; alternatively in ‘Cousin Kate’ the mood varied between the verses. The same punctuation remains in the second verse as it did in the first verse and it does not affect the mood whereas sometimes it did in ‘Cousin Kate’. The rhyming scheme also remains maybe to show her intimate feelings and the importance of her relationship.
Both poems are similar overall as they explore the topic of love and each have a speaker. However they differ in many ways for example the moods, in ‘Cousin Kate’ the mood was generally angry and unhappy whereas in ‘A Birthday’ the mood was much happier. The structures vary also, as the first poem was a narrative ballad and the second a love poem. More imagery was used in ‘A Birthday’ whereas in ‘Cousin Kate’ it was not used so frequently. Consequently, ‘A Birthday’ appealed to me more as it went in to more detail of the physical impacts of love and made you want to fall in love, as it was positive. Even though I thought ‘Cousin Kate’ was more effective as it told a story and has relevance to us today. After reading both poems, I would say that even though they differ in their interpretations of love I enjoyed them both as showed all different aspects of love.
