The poem 'Cousin Kate' starts off by the maiden telling her life story, she starts by telling us that she was 'contented with my cottage mates', she was happy and had not a care in the world. This 'great lord' was the man who stole her heart and evidence for him falling for her beauty is-
'Why did a great lord find me out, and praise my flaxen hair?'
Flaxen means blonde and fair-haired, this was a highlight of her beauty, which he fell for. The maiden does not mention that he loved her for her personality, but it gives the feeling that he fell for her beauty more than anything else.
The second stanza starts off by the maiden telling us-
‘…he lured me to his palace home’.
This tells us that she was tricked and felt under pressure.
‘Woe’s me for joy thereof’.
The maiden is telling us that being with him at that time made her feel good and she felt joy, but now that she looks back at the whole situation, she regrets it and it brings her sadness and sorrow.
'He wore me like a silken knot'
This simile links the treatment of the cottage maiden with the treatment of discarded clothing. It shows that she can be 'put on' and 'taken off' just like a piece of clothing. She tells us that ‘he changed me like a glove’ this indicates that he just used her for his sexual satisfaction and then got rid of her. ‘So now I moan an unclean thing. Who might have been a dove’, this sentence tells us about her pain. She says she moans, which indicates the pain of her heart. The dove indicates pureness, and the fact that they are white indicates innocence. She would have been sexually pure, a virgin.
In the next stanza the maiden starts off by saying-
'O Lady Kate, my cousin Kate'.
This sentence shows a lot of sarcasm I think. She is calling her a 'Lady', which emphasises her cousin's higher status than her in a teasing tone. She says 'Cousin Kate', always emphasising the 'cousin' part., by saying this, she emphasises the relation between them and that they are blood-related. That as her cousin, she should have shown some respect to her feelings towards the man she loved and should not have betrayed her.
‘Chose you and cast me by'.
This tells us that her cousin Kate was chosen over her, by the man she truly loved.
'He lifted you from mean estate to sit with him on high'.
The maiden’s cousin Kate was a middle-class girl and the 'great lord' had a higher status and he made her live with him side by side and has raised her status also.
The maiden says- ‘Because you were so good and pure’, sarcastically.
Obviously her cousin Kate was not 'good' because she betrayed the maiden and stole the man she loved.
'The neighbours call you good and pure, call me an outcast thing'.
The maiden’s name has been blackened by people gossiping about her. They call her an outcast, a loner, someone who has been rejected.
'Even so I sit and howl in dust'.
The thought of howling creates the image of someone who is unhappy, like an animal in pain, and dust indicates dirtiness and unhappiness.
'You sit in gold and sing'.
Gold indicates riches and luxury, singing shows someone who is happy, it brings a pleasant sound and is the complete opposite of 'howling'. The maiden clearly shows the differences in their lives. She shows the true contrasts and this gives a slight effect of jealousy in her words.
The next stanza starts off-
'O Cousin Kate, my love was true'.
Again the maiden shows sarcasm and emphasises on the relation between the two women.
'Your love was writ in sand'.
Something in sand washes away, it does not last forever; whereas the maiden tells us her love was true.
'If he had fooled not me but you'.
The maiden is becoming quite confident about the past and accepts that she was 'fooled' by the 'great lord'.
'He'd not have won me with his land; nor bought me with his land; I would have spit into his face and not have taken his hand'.
These lines show great confidence; they show how strong a woman the maiden has become. She has learnt from her mistake in the past and now looking back at her life she would not make the same mistake again. She feels stronger as an individual and ready for anything, she is a single mother with confidence.
The last stanza starts by the maiden telling her cousin-
'Yet I've a gift you have not got, and seem not like to get'.
In an innocent way, she is making her cousin feel insecure.
'For all your clothes and wedding-ring, I've little doubt you fret. My fair haired son, my shame, my pride, cling closer, closer yet.'
The maiden tells us that her fair haired son is the son of the 'great lord'. Her cousin Kate cannot have children, and the fact that she has a son, is even better because in those times people thought that sons were 'better' and that they would make the family proud.
'Your father would give lands for one to wear his coronet'.
This last sentence makes Cousin Kate feel bad about the fact that the maiden has a son and that she does not. This shows the strength of the maiden and the weakness of her cousin Kate, the fact that in this situation, it was really the maiden, who 'won'.
'The Seduction' tells the story of a young girl who was seduced by a young school boy to have sex with her. The poem starts-
'After the party, early Sunday morning, he led her to the quiet bricks of Birkenhead docks’.
After the party, this is telling us that she must've been tired. 'He led her', in other words, he lured her, he may have forced her to come with him or he gave her the impression that he was looking after her. This is just like what happened in 'Cousin Kate'-
'He lured me to his palace home', he tricked her.
The next stanza starts off-
'He sat down in the darkness’.
It was dark, he may have been comforting her, it creates a seducing and uneasy atmosphere.
“He handed her the vodka, and she knocked it back like water, she giggled, drunk and nervous, and he muttered 'little slag'”.
This is telling us that he gave her vodka to make her feel not her normal self. She was feeling anxious and unsure, so she took it, he then muttered 'little slag', this obviously isn't indicating love, he just wanted to use her to have sex with. Also in 'Cousin Kate', the maiden says- 'his plaything', both the women have somehow lost their honour, they are just a "plaything" and a "slag" because they have lost their virginity.
‘He’d told her about football; Sammy Lee and Ian Rush. She had nodded quite enchanted, and her eyes were wide and bright’.
He began to tell her about his personal life, this was to make her feel special and so that he could get closer to her. She fell for him instantly, her eyes 'wide and bright', which indicates her innocence.
'As he brought her more drinks she fell in love with him'.
He wanted to give her more drinks so that it looked as if he really cared for her.
'With the fingers that stroked her neck and thighs and the kisses that tasted of nicotine'.
He began to lead her into seduction by touching her and it also indicates that he smokes.
'Then: I'll take you to the river where I spend the afternoons, when I should be at school or eating my dinner', indicates that he plays truant from school, he is uneducated and doesn't care for his education.
'So she followed him there, all high white shoes, all wide blue eyes, and bottles of vodka'.
She seems innocent and unknowing of what is about to happen.
‘And sat down in the dark, her head rolling forward’.
She isn’t like her normal self because she is drunk; the boy intentionally gave her vodka to make her feel weak.
'And talked about school, in a disjointed way: about O levels she'd be sitting in June'.
He obviously doesn't like school, but she seems to take an interest and mentions exams she shall be taking. ‘She chattered on’, she just wanted to talk and thought this was going to be an innocent relationship and had no idea exactly what was on the boy’s mind.
'Then he swiftly contrived to kiss her'.
He made the first move and after kissing her this leads them both into having sex, he was overpowering her and she felt under his control.
‘And she stifled a giggle, reminded of numerous stories from teenage magazines’
The girl never thought that something like this would happen to her at such a young age. It mentions ‘teenage magazines’, which creates innocence, she is inexperienced.
'When she discovered she was three months gone she sobbed in the cool, locked darkness of her room', she regrets having sex with him, just like the maiden regrets in 'Cousin Kate'.
‘And she ripped up all her My Guy and her Jackie photo-comics until they were just bright paper, like confetti’.
She is full of rage and her hormones are taking over her actions. The young girl finds this unexpected and is full of anger and is also upset.
The girl feels anger- 'And on that day she broke her heels of her high white shoes'.
This symbolizes that she was sophisticated but now all she is, is 'truly truly frightened', this repetition here makes it look as if she wants everything to end, maybe even her life.
'But more than that, cheated by the promise if it all'.
She has bitter regrets; she learns not to trust another man again. The maiden in 'Cousin Kate also feels mentally stronger and has learnt not to trust a man again-
'I would have spit into his face and not have taken his land'.
'For where, now, was the summer of her sixteenth year?'
She is still very young and had not planned being pregnant at all. The poem then asks many questions, which makes the reader feel sympathy towards the young girl. She was looking forward to her sixteenth year; this is a big part in a young girl’s life.
‘Full of glitzy fashion features, and stories of romance?’
The young girl hoped for romance and true love but all she got was betrayal and the fact that she was used.
‘Now, with a softly rounded belly, she was sickened every morning’.
She has put on weight and has morning sickness, she is far too young to be going through this experience and she cannot cope.
'By stupid stupid promises'.
She feels betrayed and hurt; she is beginning to realize her mistake and faces reality.
'And where, now, were the pink smiling faces in the picture'.
She is looking back to the past, reminding herself of all the good old days, when she was young. The girl also says 'picture', which shows her sense of innocence and childhood.
'Three girls paddling in the grey and frothy tide'.
This creates the image of her as a young girl and that she had not a care in the world and was content with her life just like the cottage maiden in ‘Cousin Kate’ was before she became pregnant.
The next stanza starts off by carrying on the same image of her being innocent.
'So she cried that she had missed all the innocence around her'.
She wanted to go back in time and be care-free.
'And all the parties where you meet the boy next door'.
She was free from all responsibilities and could easily go out and enjoy herself.
The following stanza goes into depth about this young girl's feelings.
'But, then again, better to be smoking scented drugs or festering, invisibly, unemployed. Better to destroy your life in modern, man-made ways than to fall into this despicable, feminine void'.
The young girl feels that she would rather be living a life on the edge, where you take chances and risks than to have your name blackened and to lead a life of shame.
The last stanza starts:
“Better to starve yourself, like a sick, precocious child than to walk through the town with a belly full and ripe. And better, now, to turn away, move away, fade away, than to have the neighbours whisper that ‘you always looked the type”. This stanza makes you feel the girl’s pain and what she has to put up with. She wants to end her life and her talk is suicidal, she is serious and cannot cope with what destiny has brought along her path. The situation was unexpected and she wants to be unknown, everyone gossips about her and it is just going too far for her.
Both the poems express the types of love in different ways. ‘Cousin Kate’ is written in the first person narrative, which makes the girl's feelings more directed and it therefore creates intensity for the reader. Also there is a sense of a real person talking that suggests that the poem is true. ‘The Seduction’ is written in the third person, which makes the poem more balanced and the poem tells us both the boy's thoughts and actions and the girl's thoughts and actions and gives the reader a documentary feeling. ‘Cousin Kate’ is fairly tightly structured with each stanza structured as ABCB, ABCB, creating a strong rhyme. ‘The Seduction’ has sixteen, four line stanzas, but it uses rhyme to create different effects and emphasis.
In ‘Cousin Kate’, the author does not give us a clear setting, she does not tell us about the cottage maiden’s past. We are not told exactly how the maiden meets the ‘great lord’, so we have to use our imagination. In ‘The Seduction’, we are given very precise details as to how everything happened, we do not have to use our own imagination as much. ‘Cousin Kate’ is more of a short, moving piece of poetry, I don’t think the poem is asking the reader to sympathise, but is asking them to understand and imagine that they are in the maiden’s shoes.
In ‘The Seduction’ the reader feels a lot of sympathy for the young girl because she seems so confused and lost in her life. Both the women have had their names blackened and people look down upon them because they committed fornication. The maiden in ‘Cousin Kate’ still loves the ‘great lord’ and is proud to have his child and feels as if she has achieved something from the relationship. Whereas the girl in ‘The Seduction’ knows that the young boy did not love her and that she did not love him, she feels absolutely useless and feels very negative about the whole situation whereas the maiden looks towards the positive side. The maiden has built inner confidence and belief in herself.
I feel as if ‘Cousin Kate’ portrays the feelings of love, relationships and betrayal in a very good way. This poem lets you open up your own imagination and lets you think for yourself that is why it is effective. The reader feels as if they are the maiden, the poem shows how the maiden felt like when she was in love with the ‘great lord’. He had sex with her and then never bothered to see her again and lost interest. She felt very hurt and useless until she had her son. The ‘great lord’ fell for the maiden’s cousin Kate because she was ‘good and pure’. The maiden now feels confident and proud. The poem also gives the feeling that it may have been a true story because of the first person narrative, therefore makes the reader think about it; this is how it is very effective.
