‘He lured me to his palace home-’ this line suggests the narrator was tricked or tempted by the great Lord. The palace is a stark contrast to her simple cottage and it shows up their social differences. ‘Woe’s me for joy thereof-’ the pleasure she felt there caused her to feel sadness. ‘To lead a shameless shameful life’ her love for the Lord was pure, and she slept with him before marriage, this would have been frowned upon and she would have been treated as a social outcast. ‘His plaything and his love,’ the narrator was nothing to the Lord but a pass-time. He used her and it was inevitable that he’d get bored of her soon. ‘He wore me like a silken knot, He changed me like a glove’ these lines indicate that the Lord used the narrator like a fashion accessory, he used her when he felt like it. ‘So now I moan, an unclean thing, Who might have been a dove,’ here she is showing regret for her romance with the Lord, no other man will want her as she was ‘soiled goods’. This underlines the theme of loss, in the sense of her lost love and lost innocence. The dove metaphor is there to portray what she could have been. White symbolizes purity, something the narrator is now not, according to the views of others, and the bird imagery is continued throughout.
The next verse brings in ‘Cousin Kate’, the title of the poem. In doing so, it illustrates how Kate appeared and took the Lord’s attention from the narrator. ‘O Lady Kate, my cousin Kate’ this line tells us that Kate has married the Lord, as she is now known as Lady. ‘You grew more fair than I’ the narrator believes the Lord chose Kate over her was because she was more beautiful and young. ‘Chose you, and cast me by’ this line conveys how the Lord really didn’t care for her as he was able to dump her with no emotional attachments. He simply exploited her until something better came along. ‘He lifted you from mean estate, To sit with him on high’, The Lord took Kate from poverty and gave her his power to share.
Verse four concentrates on purity, and how her neighbours have exiled the narrator. ‘Because you were so good and pure, he bound you with his ring’ unlike the narrator, Kate is unspoilt, she was not naïve enough to sleep with the Lord straight away. ‘The neighbours call you good and pure, Call me an outcast thing’ here the narrator is making a contrast between herself and Kate. She was been outcast because it was unheard of for a woman to sleep with a man out of wedlock, and therefore frowned upon. The next lines take us into the present with the narrator, this is the position she is now in. ‘Even so I sit and howl in dust, You sit in gold and sing’ the narrator has gone back to her poverty, while the cousin has all the riches. The narrator howls because she is unhappy, whereas Kate is shown as being happy by singing. ‘Now which of us has tenderer heart? You had the stronger wing’ these lines bring back the bird or dove imagery, Kate was able to fly above her poverty and up the social ladder.
Verse five deals with the narrator’s true love for the Lord and Kate who used him for money. ‘O cousin Kate, my love was true, Your love was writ in sand’ the narrator genuinely loved the Lord, while Kate’s love for him was shallow and would disappear. ‘If he had fooled not me but you, if you’d stood where I stand, He’d not have won me with his love’ the narrator is saying if places were switched she wouldn’t have bought her love. This shows that the narrator has strength of character and that she blames the Lord.
Verse six shows how the narrator has got her revenge on the couple, and emphasizes the theme of motherhood; ‘Yet I’ve a gift you have not got, And seem not like to get,’ despite being cast aside, she has a treasure, or something special that Kate will never have. ‘For all your clothes and wedding-ring, I’ve little doubt you fret’ although Kate has all the possessions money can buy, she is unable to have this one thing that the narrator has. ‘My fair-haired son, my shame, my pride, Cling closer, closer yet:’ this is ironic because the Lord needs an heir for his lands and wealth, but the son is illegitimate. Her son is her pride because she loves him, but he is her shame because he is a visual reminder of her relationship with the Lord. This is her final revenge on the Lord, because he’ll likely cast aside Kate to find a woman who can produce children for him.
