One difference between the boy and the lord is that the lord doesn't really have to try to impress the maid or Kate. He can just use his power and money. The boy in 'The Seduction', however, has to try to impress the girl. The poem tells us he is wearing a leather jacket; this could be to make him look older or more sophisticated. "He told her about football; Sammy Lee and Ian Rush" also suggests that the boy is showing off. He tells her about football because he knows a lot about it and so shares all his knowledge in the hope that he will look intelligent and so he will impress her.
The use of language is also very important in both poems. Imagery is a technique that is used frequently in 'The Seduction' and in 'Cousin Kate'. In 'Cousin Kate' the maid says ' even so I sit and howl in dust, you sit in gold and sing'. This creates an image of how bad Kate is feeling. The use of the world howl gives us an understanding of how upset the maid is and how she feels down. The use of the word howl makes us compare her crying to the sound of a wolf. There is a lot of imagery in 'The Seduction'. The setting is described using phrases such as "the quiet bricks of Birkenhead docks", "far past the silver stream of traffic" and "far from the blind windows". Adjectives such as quiet, silver and blind build up a picture of the setting. Also the use of "the silver stream" tells us that the girl is drunk by using alliteration to create a slurring sound. In 'The Seduction' there are similes such as "his eyes as blue as iodine" and "the Mersey, green as a septic wound". These similes help to create a picture of the setting by giving the reader something to compare with. In 'Cousin Kate' the metaphor "your love was writ in sand" is used. This tells us that the maid thinks Kate's love is temporary and fake. She believes it could simply be washed away.
