Cousin Kate by Christina Rosetti compared with The Choosing by Liz Lochhead

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Cousin Kate by Christina Rosetti/The Choosing by Liz Lochhead

Cousin Kate

Cousin Kate is a poem, written in the Victorian times by a woman called Christina Rosetti. Christina was a very religious woman, she wanted eventually to be a nun, and she did voluntary work at a London reform home for young prostitutes.

The poem is about a young cottage maiden who falls in love with a lord. The lord “changed her like a glove”, this suggests that the lord could get anyone he wanted.  The story is about a cottage maiden who falls in love with a lord, he praises her and treats her like a queen. The lord then falls in love with the cottage maiden’s cousin (cousin Kate). They get married, the only problem is Kate can’t have children and the lord will need a son to take over his role of lord.  “Yet I’ve a gift you have not got” when the cottage maiden says this she means her child, she has a son to the lord.  She was not married to the lord when they were having a sexual relationship so she is seen to be unclean. “The neighbours call you good and pure, call me an outcast thing” this quotation shows us that Kate was a virgin when she married the lord so she is good and pure.

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This poem is simply stating one of the sexist problems in the Victorian times. Men would not treat women with respect, they would have sex with them and then be done with them.

        

The choosing

This poem is by Liz Lochead, it was written in 19th century. The poem has a very strong view on the way women used to be treated.  The choosing is about two best friends, the friends are equally clever in everything they do. They girls were both very similar, they both came from the same sort of background “the same ...

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