A Fallen Woman and her Cousin Kate

  Cousin Kate is another Rosetti poem. I have to say that it is one that I prefer to Goblin Market. Though it is short, it holds a lot of meaning. The poem relates to the theme of fallen women, women who have lost vtheir virtue and have been cast out of society. It tells the tale of a "cottage maiden", who was "contented" and "Not mindful (she) was fair", implying innocence and demureness.
  This narrator describes how she fell in love with a "great lord" and how he "lured" hern to his home to lead a "shameless shameful life", showing us that she gave him her virginity which, though it should have been shameful, felt quite the opposite to her. She explains "he wore me like a silken knot" and describes herself as "his plaything", hinting that he just used her. But then he discarded her, "changed me like a glove", leaving her feeling like "an unclean thing".
  In the third stanza, the narrator addresses "...Lady Kate, my cousin Kate". We are told of how he chose Kate and "cast (her) by". The fourth stanza tells us that the lord "bound" Kate with "his ring". She bitterly comments that the neighbours called Kate "good and pure" and called her "an outcast thing" all gbecause she did not wear a ring.

  The next stanza grows even more bitter and shows the morality of the narrator, a bit ironic considering the fact she is considered a fallen woman -a woman of no morals whatsoever. She describes the love Kate had for the lord as "writ in sand", impying that it was fleeting and easy lost. She tells Kate "if you stood where I stand/ He'd not have won me with his love/ Nor bought me with his land", insinuating that she would not have betrayed Kate or have been bribed by him like she obviously must have been. She shows how truly loyal and strong she would have been when she says that she would have "spit into his face".
  The last stanza, and the best, brings out the strength and resilience of our narrator. She gloats to Kate  "Yet I've a gift you have not/ And seem not like to get", showing that despite being cast out of society she is still strong enough bite back. This gift she describes is the son she has conceived by the lord, who is her "shame" as her is the result of her loss of virtue, but is also her "pride" as any child is to its mother. This son of hers who should make her an outcast, she explains, will inherit his father's land as Kate seems unable to provide the lord with another heir -which grants our narrator power and therefore revenge over the cousin who betrayed her and the lord who jilted her. By the end of the poem, she seems to have the reader on her side, fully supporting her revenge.