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.
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 cottage maidens love for the lord was real but Kate was luckier or perhaps she is suggesting that the maiden 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 cottage maiden’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 successful note. The cottage maiden talks of the 'one gift he has not got'- a son and heir to his 'coronet'. It seems that Kate cannot have children as in the poem it says '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 fair-haired 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.
As the poem progresses it becomes more hatred, in the beginning the poem isn’t all ‘happy happy’ but it isn’t as angry as it is nearer the end. The poem rhymes and the use of punctuality makes it easy to read.
The setting of the poem ‘The Seduction’ is - Birkenhead docks- where the seducer leads the girl and the way it is described is almost chilling. The 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.
The poem ‘The Seduction’ is about a young girl who gets seduced by a boy she meets at a party. For the first part of the poem, the young girl is drunk and unaware of what is happening. In the poem the writer constantly reminds you of innocence that is the girl with words like ‘giggle’, ‘high white shoes’ and ‘wide blue eyes’ 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 the seducer as some kind of hero maybe a potential boyfriend, her first true love, she is blinded from the danger she is in and how the big and stupid mistake she is going to do will ruin her life.
In the beginning of the poem the writer is telling us what is happening but in the second half of the poem its mainly thoughts and feelings of the girl when and after she discovers she’s 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.
The repetition in lines ‘truly, truly frightened’ and in ‘stupid, stupid promises’ increases the effectiveness of the line as it gives the impression of extreme emotions that she is feeling.
‘Walk hand in hand, an acne’d wonderland, with a glass of lager shandy, on a carpeted floor’ I think that this gives an impression of how life should be when your younger, on a carpeted floor protected and safe from the world.
The next part of the poem shows more anger at herself more than anything, for falling into the ‘despicable, feminine void’ which is teenage pregnancy, she also says she would rather be unemployed or addicted to drugs than to become pregnant. 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 in the poem 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 its remarks of 'She always looked the type'
These two poems have few things in common; they both are poems about a girl being seduced by a member of the other sex. Both girls seem oblivious to what’s happening, it’s as if they are in there own world and can’t see the reality of what’s really going on. Also both girls become pregnant as a result of this event.
In the poem ‘The Seduction’ it seems to focus on the harsh reality of this situation and in a lot more detail than ‘Cousin Kate’. ‘Cousin Kate’ seems a lot more brief and light hearted, this may be due to the rhyming scheme and language, which I feel isn’t as effective as ‘The Seduction’. In the lines where it says, ‘I sit and how in dust’, I don’t think it describes a realistic image of the situation, whereas in ‘The Seduction’ when the words ‘little slag’, green as a septic wound’ and ‘despicable feminine void’ are used and it gives you more of a realistic image of the situation which is distressing for the girls.
Both poems express a loss of innocence and betrayal from men, but the issue of who’s to blame in each poem is very different.
When first looking at the poem ‘Cousin Kate’ it is not obvious what the poem is about whereas ‘The Seduction’ gives an indication of what the poem is about. Both poems have short, sharp titles.
Both poems are excellently written, but I think that ‘The Seduction’ is the better one of the two, as it is more realistic and the words used are more dramatic.
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 accept 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.
By Angharad Lucas
11s1
Ms George.
