Comparing and contrasting Christina Rossetti's 'Cousin Kate' and Eileen McCauley's 'The Seduction'

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Rebecca Perry Year 10 Coursework Essay 1/11/00

Comparing and contrasting Christina Rossetti's 'Cousin Kate' and Eileen McCauley's 'The

Seduction'

I have compared poems 'Cousin Kate' by Christina Rossetti and 'The Seduction' by Eileen McCauley. Both poems describe different situations in which a young girl is seduced by a man and becomes pregnant. Both poems are equally angry and describe a loss of innocence and a sense of betrayal by both men and society.

'Cousin Kate' is set in the 1700's whereas 'The Seduction' has a much more modern context which is what makes them so interesting to compare as we can see how (if at all) society and its views on teenage pregnancy has changed. Whether it is an issue which has become more common and therefore more acceptable, or if it is still an issue frowned upon through the judgmental eyes of society who stereotype it's victims and brand them as outcasts. We can see what blinded these girls from reality and led them into the cruel and inauspicious trap of teenage pregnancy.

'Cousin Kate' is a poem about a young, naive cottage maiden who is seduced by a rich Lord, and then discarded for her cousin- Kate and left alone to raise his child and live a life of shame. The persona was 'contented' with her humble life as a cottage maiden and was not 'mindful she was fair.' I don't think she had ever been in a relationship or loved by a man before. She was naive and easily seduced by the Lords flattery- 'praise my flaxen hair' and riches- 'palace home'.

The Lord had 'lured' the girl to his 'palace home' like a hunter luring it's prey into a trap, with no intention of true love or marriage. He 'wore her like a silken knot', I get the impression that the persona was nothing more than an object or possession to the Lord in the way that their relationship is described in the poem. Metaphors and similes throughout the second stanza such as 'plaything' and 'silken knot', represent how weak and fickle their relationship was. 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.
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Then the poem tells of how the Lord 'cast her by ' and chose her cousin-Kate to 'sit with him on high'. The quote 'He lifted you from mean estate to sit with him on high' always inserts a vision into my mind of Kate and the lord sitting on two grand throwns on the top of a mountain while the persona, dressed in rags, works in a near by field. Which I guess is what the writer wants you to think of whenever the relationship between the lord and Kate is mentioned; the fact that Kate is ...

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