In verses three and four of ‘Cousin Kate’ the narrator is talking to her cousin- Kate, whom has been made the wife of the Lord, father of the country girl’s child. Verse three describes how the lord found Kate and left the maiden alone with his son. ‘chose you and cast me by’ verse three line four. The word ‘cast’ is effective because it implies a careless or far throw. Verse four proposes how neighbours look upon Kate and how the ‘cottage maiden’ is left ashamed, ‘call you good and pure’ verse four line three. ‘Call me and outcast thing’ verse four line four. She is named an ‘outcast’ for having a child out of wed-lock which was unacceptable in those times. The narrator then assumes that her cousin does not love the lord, she really on enjoys the luxury and rich lifestyle. ‘you sit in gold and sing’ verse four line six and tells Kate that she loved the lord. ‘which of us had a tenderer heart?’ verse four line seven. These verses continue the rhyming pattern and repetition is also bought up when ‘good and pure’ was used twice in verse four. This verse also uses an effective rhetorical question. The narrator still seems upset and ashamed.
Verse five, shows the country girl with a new emotion beholding a new emotion, anger. She begins to use a stronger approach at accusing her cousin and she shows more signs of jealousy. She begins by accusing Kate of only having temporary love for the lord. ‘Your love was writ in sand’ verse five line two. This puts forward the image of the sea washing away Kate’s love. The cottage maiden then tells Kate she is not loyal to her family to marry someone that her cousin loves, she attempts to make Kate feel guilty by trying to put Kate in her place. ‘If you stood where I stand’ verse five line seven. She gets aggressive and says to Kate that not only would she not have ‘taken his hand’ she would have ‘spit in his face’ verse 5 line seven. The narrator is telling Kate she should have been disgusted with the lords proposal. The rhyming pattern still remains similar with rhyming every other lines.
Verse six of ‘Cousin Kate’ is a flash of hope for the narrator as she is showing off to Kate that although she may not have the lord’s hand in marriage she has his son, ‘a gift you have not got’ verse six line one. Although her son has labelled her an ‘outcast’ is shows that she treasures him by calling him a gift. She is also reassured that the lord could one day need an heir for his land and would come back for his son. ‘your father would give lands for one to wear his coronet’ verse 6 lines seven and eight. The words ‘give lands’ show she is hoping to get rich when he comes back and implies that they are economically struggling now. The pattern remains the same and language style stays similar. The narrator seems less insecure in this verse.
‘Human Interest’ is about a man whom has been sentenced to at least fifteen years in prison. The first three lines of this poem are intriguing and make you want to read on because the poem begins with a shock tactic. Line three of verse one really pulls you in ‘I stabbed her when she wasn’t looking’ this poem does not have many obvious rhyming patterns or does not really have any patterns in how it is written. I think Duffy supposedly did this to match what she was writing about, it is quite jumpy and shocking. We do not find out who the man stabbed or why until the next verse when he describes how he thought someone he cared about or ‘worked hard for’ was lying to him. Verse three gives away that the female was girl he loved and although he had no real evidence he was sure she was cheating on him, he thought this was because he found out that another man had bought her jewellery ‘bought her a chain with a silver heart’, verse three line five. It makes the reader believe that the necklace was bought by another man but really she may have bought it for herself.
The man in this poem felt jealous of the man that he believed his girlfriend was seeing behind his back, this shows in how upset it got him, ‘honest, she really upset me’ verse three, line three. He felt betrayed because he trusted her. The man must have bottled these emotions until he got really angry in a moment ‘my mind was hot with anger’ verse one, line four. Once in prison he realises how much he loved his victim and how much he misses her. ‘it makes me cry when I think about her now’, verse four, line one. He also feels a lot of guilt as he claims he would not every usually think of doing such a thing ‘I wouldn’t normally harm a fly’, verse four, line three. This is effective because a fly is seen as quite a worthless animal.
The end of the poem has a sympathy factor in that the man tries to make us understand that he is not evil, he is humane by saying that this anger and ’30 seconds’ worth of violence was out of character and he seems very sure about this by adding a definite ‘I’m not joking’, verse four, line four ending. Duffy puts across the feeling of guilt very clearly in the last two lines of the poem. I think that the man was slightly too fast thinking, yet Duffy’s writing does not make me hate the narrator.
The two poems are fairly similar in that they are both written in first person. This makes both poems very personal and close to the feelings of the narrator. Both poems include betrayal, although in ‘Cousin Kate’ the girl is betrayed by her lover and cousin whereas in ‘Human Interest’ it is just his lover. Both poems are filled with regret and bitterness. Both poems narrators have been hurt by someone close or that they love and it has changed their lives.
Although the poems do have similarities they are also very different. The writing styles are contrasting, ‘Cousin Kate’ is old English language whereas ‘Human Interest’ is written with slang. The way in which the poems are written or patterns are also very different as Rossetti writes with a less effective, in my opinion, flowly rhyming technique. Carol Ann Duffy writes with mildly rhyming sharp and punchy effect, which I believe is more dramatic. I think overall ‘Human Interest’ with its shocking language and storyline is more effective. Although I prefer this poem I do like how the feelings of the country maiden in ‘Cousin Kate’ are put across as they are much more descriptive as Rossetti uses imagery words such as ‘love writ in sand’. These have a more indirect approach but the romantic language is able to express feeling in a different but more descriptive manor.
