Compare and Contrast Cousin Kate By Christina Rossetti with The Seduction By Eileen McAuley
Compare and Contrast 'Cousin Kate' By Christina Rossetti with
'The Seduction' By Eileen McAuley
I read and enjoyed two poems 'Cousin Kate' by Christina Rossetti and 'The Seduction' by Eileen McAuley. In this essay I will compare and contrast the two poems.
'Cousin Kate' is a pre-twentieth century poem, set in the countryside. It is about a young woman who is a cottage maiden, she is seduced by a lord, who she falls in love with and has sex with out of marriage. The lord then discards her for her cousin Kate. She then has a son, which is the lord's, but she keeps it from him, knowing that this is what the lord wants, because he needs an heir to all his land and wealth. The cottage maiden also knows that her cousin is infertile and cannot give him children.
The main themes of this poem are; love because the cottage maiden loved the lord, seduction because the lord seduced her and made her his 'plaything'. Also betrayal because the lord tossed her aside and also because her cousin married the man that the cottage maiden loved. Another theme is teenage pregnancy and how it is perceived by other people. Also innocence, because she was young and happy with the cottage life before she met him.
The Seduction' is a twentieth century poem, set in the urban city of Liverpool. It is about a teenage girl who is seduced by a boy at a party. He gets her drunk and then they have sex. Three months later she finds out she is pregnant and is very distraught and angry and she feels very betrayed.
The main themes of this poem are love, because on that night she did think that she love the boy. Also seduction, because the boy got her drunk and seduced her. Another theme is naivety, because she believed that he wanted more from her than just sex, but she was wrong. Also teenage pregnancy and the way she feels it's ruined her life. Another theme is disillusionment because she feels cheated of her sixteenth year and all the fun that she is meant to be having, so she feels like it should have been her choice to ruin her life and not to have it just taken from her.
These poems have things in common, for example they were both virgins before sleeping with the fathers of their babies, and are not with the fathers anymore (in 'The Seduction' the boy is not mentioned after the eighth paragraph, when she finds out she is pregnant, so we know that he is gone from her life by that point). They both feel that they have lost their innocence and childhood, and they are both treated badly by people around them, the peoples attitudes are the same in the two poems, that they are dirty, unclean and it's always ...
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These poems have things in common, for example they were both virgins before sleeping with the fathers of their babies, and are not with the fathers anymore (in 'The Seduction' the boy is not mentioned after the eighth paragraph, when she finds out she is pregnant, so we know that he is gone from her life by that point). They both feel that they have lost their innocence and childhood, and they are both treated badly by people around them, the peoples attitudes are the same in the two poems, that they are dirty, unclean and it's always their fault, 'neighbours whisper that ''you always looked the type'' and, 'call me an outcast thing'. These show that in both poems, they are made to feel ashamed by people around them.
They are also different in many ways. The girl in 'Cousin Kate' lived in a cottage in the country more than a century ago, where women would be expected to get married a virgin, then have children with their husband. But if like the girl in 'Cousin Kate' you had a child out of wedlock, it would be very hard to get a job or to ever get married to another man, because having a child out of wedlock in those days was very shameful. While the girl in 'The Seduction' lives in an urban city in the 1970's where, although it was not completely accepted, it was a lot more common. It would have been easier for a girl to be able to get on with her life and get help.
Another difference is the men in the poems, in 'Cousin Kate' the lord did love her in a shallow way, 'He wore me like a silken knot. He changed me like a glove'. This shows that he did enjoy her and love her, but his feelings did not run deep and that he could change her like an object, she could be swapped for someone else.
Whereas the boy in 'The Seduction' did not have any respect for the girl, and did not even seem to like her, let alone love her: 'he muttered 'little slag''. This gives the impression that he does not like her and has no respect for her, he does not treat her with love like the lord did to the cottage maiden.
The mood of 'Cousin Kate' is sad because she did love the lord and feels that her cousin does not truly love him like she did 'O cousin Kate my love was true.
Your love was writ in sand' this shows that she feels that her cousins love for the lord is shallow, which is like the lords love for the girl, it can be easily washed away. But the mood is also triumphant because she knows that she has got what the lord wants most, something which her cousin cannot give, 'your father would give lands for one
To wear his coronet'
She says this to her son, because she knows that this is what the lord wants most, an heir, and her cousin is infertile and cannot give it to him.
This is also ironic because the one thing that he wants, is with the thing that he cast away and that one thing, is the one thing his chosen one cannot give. So this gives the cottage maiden some comfort that she knows this and he does not, so it gives her power over him and her cousin Kate.
The mood of 'the Seduction', in the second half of the poem is anger and betrayal, she rips up her teenage, girlie magazines, throws her shoes against the wall and she say's that she feels 'cheated by the promise of it all'. It also has an ironic theme because at the beginning she wanted to lose her innocence, ' reminded of numerous stories from teenage magazines', she thought that having sex would be romantic and would make her more grown-up. But in verses 9-16 she wishes she had all her innocence back again and remembers the dreams she had before, 'Day trips to Blackpool' and' full of fresh fruit diets', and also how she has 'missed all the innocence around her'. This marks the point in which she has to become an adult and have responsibilities, of a child and pregnancy.
Christina Rossetti uses words such as ' an unclean thing which might have been a dove' the 'dove' representing the cottage maidens innocence and virginity before she met the lord and 'lured' which gives an image of her almost being put under a spell, that the lord is mesmerising her and leading her. She also says 'my shame, my pride' which shows that although the cottage maiden is ashamed, he is also the greatest thing in her life. I find these words and phrases very effective because of the images and imagery it creates. Which helps the reader to understand the poem easier, and also for them to picture what is happening. It is also used to give the right impression of each person, for example that the girl was innocent and good, until the lord 'lured' her away to be sinful-so he is seen as evil.
The language in 'The Seduction' paints a bleak picture of the nights events. The poet use words such as, 'he spat' and 'muttered ''little slag'', creates a picture of the boy, that he is rude and has no respect for anyone but himself, and so he 'handed her the vodka' so he could have his own way and have sex with her. Also she use the phrase 'high white shoes' which creates the image of girl trying to be grown up. The poet also uses the phrases 'The Mersey, green as a septic wound' and 'The frightening scum on the water' about the river Mersey which is used as a metaphor of the situation and also of the boys character, and also 'his eyes as blue as iodine', can show that the girl has other problems and somehow the boy can fix it because iodine is what you put on wounds and the Mersey is as 'green as a septic wound', so the Mersey is a metaphor for another problem in the girls life, that she thinks somehow he can fix and make better.
These words and phrases make me feel sorry for the girl and make me feel that the boy is horrible, and use her to get his own way. It also makes me feel that her surroundings of the urban city have somehow added for need to grow up because the girl in the other poem says she was 'contented' with her life before she met the lord. But the girl in 'The Seduction' seems to be unhappy and looking for happiness in the boy, which she does not find.
I prefer 'Cousin Kate' because the girl in that poem does have something which makes her happy, her son, and she also has power which the girl in the other does not. So this poem does not make you pity the girl, but it does make you see it from her point of view. This is because it is written from her point of view, so you can see all her emotions and thoughts.
I think that the attitude to teenage pregnancy has not changed because in both poems, which are written in pre-twentieth and late twentieth, that the attitude is basically the same and the fear that they both feel about what people say about them. Also there is the same point in the poems that it is the girls are ones seen as dirty and that 'type'. The men in both poems don't seem to have been made to accepted their responsibilities, because it is also their child. But society, as shown in these poems has always left the woman to take all the blame, responsibility and comments from other people.