[Reader-list] Goblin Market: 1862 Feminist poem

[Inder Salim]

Dear All,

Just wondering, if there can be some active exchange of thoughts on a
subject like Feminism. I guess, by and large, Men on List would shy
away from active participation on the subject, but some women, who are
very active on subjects like politics, might feel inclined to vent
their anger against male chauvinistic  social practices, here in India
and elsewhere.

To being with I thought of Christina Rossetti’s poem Goblin Market
published in 1862. . A poem which  even its critics have celebrated to
the last alphabet of the poem.

Christina Rossetti, throughout her lifetime, the author, claimed that
the poem, which features remarkably sexual imagery, was a children's
poem.

The poem is about feminine anxiety and sexuality and its relation to
Victorian social mores .Here is much in the poem that seems overtly
sexual, such as when Lizzie, going to buy fruit from the goblins,
considers her dead friend Jeanie,
.
"Who should have been a bride; / But who for joys brides hope to have
/ Fell sick and died", and lines like "Lizzie uttered not a word;/
Would not open lip from lip/ Lest they should cram a mouthful in;/ But
laughed in heart to feel the drip/ Of juice that syruped all her
face,/ And lodged in dimples of her chin,/ And streaked her neck which
quaked like curd."

The poem conveys "the need for an alternative social order". The
symbolism, of Women as merely as fruit in the market for Men is quite
explicitly woven within the poetic of the poem.  Wondering if we have
felt the hidden anguish, pain and oppression of our own Goblin
Markets, which can be shared.

A strong feminist poem which ends like this:

For there is no friend like a sister,
In calm or stormy weather,
To cheer one on the tedious way,
To fetch one if one goes astray,
To lift one if one totters down,
To strengthen whilst one stands."

in the speech to her sister explicating her sacrifice:



'Did you miss me?
Come and kiss me.
Never mind my bruises.
Hug me, kiss me, suck my juices
Squeez'd from the goblin fruits for you,
Goblin pulp and goblin dew.
Eat me, drink me, love me;
Laura, make much of me;
For your sake I have braved the glen
And had to do with goblin merchant men.'

 The stanza concludes very boldly, almost declaring helplessness,
almost a forced prostitution: this market controlled by Men in power.
This is how our Hero Laura cries, when she says : “ had to do with
Goblin Merchant Men”. One can, almost hear  loudly, "Come buy, come
buy" throughout the poem

…………………………………………………
The full poem with illustrations :


http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/crossetti/gobmarket.html

more illustration on the poem
http://www.courses.vcu.edu/ENGL624-nf/goblinmarket/book%20images.htm

for more detailed illustrations, spread out on 9 pages
	
http://www.jamballa.de/pics/comics/goblinmarket.html

the same on you tube in two parts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpRbEVYqrtQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqyZGQaUWFQ

in this piece on youtube
one can see how fruits are sold in present day markets ,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ss7jeeErng


-
with love
inder salim