-1Explore the poem “Cousin Kate” by Christina Rosetti and “The

Seduction” by Eileen McAuley. Examine how the two girls have

been treated and decide whether or not society has changed very

much.

As you can see from the extremely long title, this essay looks at how society

views how the two women were treated by the male dominant figures.

Even though the two poems are set about 200 years apart, the story and view

of the society ends up the same way.

My task is to dissect each poem, looking for words or phrases that can help

me emphasize with the women or to follow the “dark side” and see their story

as one of the men or society.

I will also decide if society, men and women are still seen treating and being

treated in the same way as in these poems, but in present day 2008.

The first poem, Cousin Kate, is set in the 18th century (1700’s), the Victorian

period, although it was written in the 19th century (1800’s).

This poem is set in the first-person

It is about a cottage maiden (The Narrator) who was happy with her simple

life, however, a Lord found her by chance and seduces her.

She falls in love with him but he doesn’t love her back equally, instead viewing

her as an object to play with and show off to his guests.

 And although we don’t find out until the last stanza, it is during this time with

the Lord that The Narrator becomes pregnant.

During their time together, the Lord also meets The Narrator’s cousin, Kate.

Feeling that she (Kate) would make the Lord’s image appear better added to

the fact he saw her as the next model up from her cousin, The Narrator.

So, he shuns The Narrator, dumping her on the streets so that she had ended

up in a worse ordeal than before meeting the Lord.

Kate has also been seduced by the Lord and they are now married.

The Narrator is angry and feels betrayed at the fact that Kate has disowned

her and that, if their positions were switched, she would’ve helped Kate out.

The poem ends with The Narrator saying how she has a child, a feat which

her cousin could only hope to achieve and how this child is worth so much

more to her than anything she had while with the Lord. Finishing, finally, with

how the Lord would soon realise this when he needs an heir to the throne and

The Narrator has the only direct bloodline.

The second poem, The Seduction, is set in the 1980’s, also the time it was

conceived (seeing how we are following stories featuring babies).

Unlike the first poem (Cousin Kate), this poem is wrote in the third person,

making it harder for us to emphasize with The Narrator since it is like she has

detached herself from us.

 It’s about a young girl (The Narrator - about 16 years old) who, while at a

party, meets a man who seduces her.

The first verse is set the morning after the party.

In the verse, The Narrator is took to the docks alone with the man.

The second verse delivers an insight for us as to what happened while they

were there at the docks.

The following couple of verses tells us about what happened at the party the

night before and how she was seduced by the man.

The three verses after focuses on even more detail about what happened at

the docks the morning after the party.

Over to the next pages with the last eight verses.

These eight verses tells us about what perspired and how people in the

community reacted when The Narrator finds she is 3 months pregnant.

She regrets wasting her life as a young woman (due to her baby/ being

pregnant) and reminds herself of all the things she missed out on that all her

other friends are probably up to or planning to do.

She comments on how more people would/ will help out and give support to a

drug addict or the homeless rather than an unmarried, unprepared, pregnant

teen.

She ends on how she feels it would be no better to hide away all day, cooped

up in her own home than go outside and face people’s (snide) side comments

like her neighbour’s remarks on how she “always looked the type”.
I believe that society might have changed (between the 1700’s and 1980’s) in

that they are more accepting or allowing to dating and “one night stands”

which would’ve been a terrible atrocity in the 1700‘s.

I believe this would be especially true if the main perpetrator was a woman.

Now, I will go through each stanza as best as I can, using Evidence

Explanation.

I’ll start with Cousin Kate and then move on to the Seduction.

In the first two lines of stanza one, The Narrator says; I WAS a cottage

maiden, hardened by sun and air”.

This tells us that she was a working class, labourer.

Next, she said she was, “contented with her cottage mates, not mindful I was

fair”.

By saying this, we know that The Narrator was happy with the way she lived

her life and how it had turned out up to that point. Also, that she was found

beautiful to others but didn’t notice (or care?) herself.

We know that, when looking back, that The Narrator is puzzled by the turn of

events when she says, “Why did a great Lord find me out, And praise my

flaxen hair? Why did a great Lord find me out, to fill my heart with care?”

This tells us that even though the great Lord was praising her, she felt

inadequate when in his presence.

 She believed herself to be in love with the Lord but questions everything

about their relationship even wondering, “Why me?”

The narrator tells us how the Lord brought her to his home under (for want of

a better word/phrase) false pretences.

“He lured me to his palace home -- woe’s me for joy thereof --”

The word “lured” is a powerful word (connotation) which suggests trickery,

which would be what The Narrator feels has bestowed her.

She feels she has to mention his home is a palace since it is a new

experience (being in a castle) for her, being a working class girl with only

dreams of this “ambition“.

When she arrived, she thought she would be happy, possibly like a fairytale

princess (although she would probably be a Lady and not a princess).

Next, The Narrator tells us why she was brought to the Lord’s palace and

what she did while at the palace (her “job”).

“To lead a shameless shameful life, His plaything and his love”.

A shameless shameful life is an oxymoron (2 words that “cancel” each other

out since they are both opposite adjectives) but the meaning behind the words

are that what she was to (and doing) the Lord was shameful but she had to

feel shameless since there was not much she could do to stop him or leave

him.

He just used her when he wanted but pretended in front of others that he
 loved The Narrator.

Describing how the Lord treated her, The Narrator said, “He wore me like a

silken knot, He changed me like a glove”.

This meant that he showed her off to his guests as a possession of his and

that she meant so little to him, he could leave her for someone else with no

thought to her and no looking back.

Next, she says, “So now I moan, an unclean thing, Who might have been a

dove”.

She means that she’s now an outcast who could have been so much more if

he hadn’t messed up her life.

When I heard her referencing a dove, I automatically thought of the use of the

dove in Catholicism/Christianity, the dove being white and so forth until we get

to the part where the dove is pure (like the white at baptism).

Also, I believe the dove is mentioned since it is a bird and so can fly, high

above everything else. I believe The Narrator might have been thinking of the

dove in the same why I am now.

The Narrator now moves on to talk about her cousin, Kate.

“O Lady Kate, my cousin Kate, You grew more fair than I. He saw you at your

father‘s gate, Chose you, and cast me by. He watched your steps along the

lane, your work amongst the rye, He lifted you from mean estate To sit with
 him on high”.

This tells us that The Narrator now sees her cousin as her “title” (Lady) before

seeing her from their relationship’s view (Cousin).

Since Kate became more beautiful than The Narrator, the Lord started acting

out the same plan of seduction he used on The Narrator.

This shows us that, again, he sees women as objects and feels he can trade

them in for another without consequence.

So, when he succeeded, he “took” Kate from her home so that they could live

together as Lord and Lady.

In the next stanza, The Narrator comments on some of the differences

between herself and Kate.

“Because you were so good and pure He bound you with his Ring: The

neighbours call you good and pure, Call me an outcast thing. Even so I sit and

howl in dust, You sit in gold and sing: Now which of us had the tender heart?

You had the stronger wing“.

This tells us that because Kate looked better for the Lord’s image, he married

her.

The neighbours (part of society) have taken the view of the King on the

positions of The Narrator and Kate.

She says on how they now are living the most extremely different lifestyles

and that even she feels that she loved the Lord more than Kate, the Lord
 looked after and treated Kate more (better) than he did for The Narrator.

Next, The Narrator compares the relationship between the Lord and her and

then the new relationship between the Lord and her cousin, Kate.

She then comments on how she would have acted if she had been Kate.

“O cousin Kate, my love was true, Your love was writ in sand: If he had fooled

not me but you, If you stood where I stand, He‘d have not won me with his

love Nor bought me with land: I would have spit in his face And not have taken

his hand“.

Pretty obviously, here, The Narrator is saying that if Kate was the outcast and

she the about-to-be Lord’s wife, she would have refused his marriage

proposal and stuck to her family loyalty.

She was also saying that unlike her love for the Lord, which was undivided

and pure, Kate’s would “change” if something wasn’t going her way.

Lastly, she is saying that if their positions were switched, the Lord could not

have succeeded in marrying her even if he tried seducing her off bribing her

with land (power!).

Now, we’ve reached the last stanza which is where she reveals her pregnancy

to us, the readers and explains the importance.

“Yet I’ve a gift you have not got, And seems not like to get: 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: Your father would give lands for one To wear his

coronet”.

The gift is, of course, the baby (boy, I presumed) and The Narrator is implying

that Kate may be barren (unable to produce babies) but also feels that Kate

loves the material possessions more than she would a baby.

It’s shameful for her to have the baby since she is unmarried and an outcast

but it’s prideful because she’s a mother (of a perfectly healthy child). I believe

that sentence contains another oxymoron with the shameful/pride words but I

may have missed the point a little (I hope not!).

The Lord will need a successor to the throne and, with most people with

something they want to pass on (in this case, it being power), the Lord wishes

a direct member of his bloodline to have it. And one day, close to the Lord’s

death, he will most likely realise that The Narrator has his son.

But, for the way she was treated by the Lord, The Narrator wants to

“manipulate” (again, for want of a better word) her son so that he knows what

happened to her (discarded by his father) so that he will never help him with

anything.

I also believe that her trying to get the baby to “cling closer yet” is not only a

way of showing she is trying to get him as close to her as possible so that she

can hide and, more importantly, protect him, but a deeper/further meaning of

feeding the baby on her breasts to symbolize nurturing.

 So, now we have finally finished the Cousin Kate section of this essay, we

move on to the more modern and I’d say, slightly more complex, The

Seduction……

In the first stanza, we are taken to the docks, the night after the party.

“After the party, early Sunday morning, He led her to the quiet bricks of

Birkenhead docks. Far past the silver stream of traffic through the city, Far

from the blind windows of the tower blocks”.

This first stanza shows us that the female character is under the influence of

the male character. We know this because the poem says “He led her”.

It also seems like he wants to get the female alone so no one can see

whatever he’s planning.

Also, since it is early Sunday morning, I do not believe that they have had

sexual intercourse or maybe even gone to sleep that night before.

The second stanza tells us what goes on at the docks.

“He sat down in the darkness, leather jacket creaking madly, He spat into the

river, fumbled in a bag. He handed her the vodka, and she knocked it back

like water, She giggled, drunk and nervous, and he muttered “little slag””.

I feel that we know from how the female character drinks the vodka that she is

either; able to hold her liquor (doubtful because of the story’s plot) or that she

feels she may have to impress the male character by showing (bluffing) her
 ability to drink alcohol easily.

The third stanza tells us what happened at the party on the Saturday night.

“She had met him at the party, and he’d danced with her all night. He’d told

her about football: Sammy Lee and Ian Rush. She had nodded, quite

enchanted, and her eyes were wide and bright, As he enthused her about the

Milky Cup and the next McGuigan fight.”

This shows us how that since he’s paying her so much, undivided, attention,

she feels mesmerized and acts a little naïve, thinking she is in love.

Also, as a matter of trivial interest, it’s from the references in this stanza that

we can deduce that the poem is set in the 1980’s.

The fourth stanza stands out more when contrasted with most of the others

(especially the three previously) and you can see why now.

“As he brought her more drinks, so she fell in love, With his eyes as blue as

iodine. With the fingers that stroked he neck and thighs And the kisses that

tasted of nicotine”.

There is not much I can say about this except that it shows us that the male

character takes drugs (eyes as blue as iodine) and smokes.

This means he could be very dangerous, on or off the drugs.

The fifth stanza gives us a small insight into how the male character spends

his time.
 “Then: I‘ll take you to the river where I spend the afternoons, When I should

be at school, or eating my dinner. Where I go, by myself, with me dad‘s

magazines And a bag filled with shimmering, sweet paint thinner.”

So, from this, we know that the male character is into the “dark side” of

activities, his dad’s magazines being of, most likely, pornographic material and

the fact he misses school shows he is a slacker and cares more for the paint

thinner he smells (as a drug/ high) than his education.

The sixth stanza shows us how gullible the female character is by showing us

how she arrives and acts while at the docks on the Sunday morning.

“So she followed him there, all high white shoes, All wide blue eyes, and

bottles of vodka. And sat in the dark, her head rolling forward, Towards the

frightening scum on the water. “

The ”high white shoes” show us how she feels that she and he are special

and meant to be together.

The shoes themselves reminded me of the glass slippers Cinderella wore at

the ball.

We can also tell she is very drunk from the fact that she has “bottles of vodka”

and her “wide blue eyes” only serve to strengthen my point.

I can also say with certainty that, at this moment at least, the female character

does not feel that the male character is a “frightening scum”.

The next stanza (number seven) gives us the basic profile information given
 to us on the female character.

“And talked about school, in a disjointed way: About O Levels she’d be sitting

in June. She chattered on, and stared at the water, The Mersey, green as a

septic wound.“

This tells us that the female character must be sixteen since she is taking O

levels, which, if my sources are correct, are part of your GCSEs which you

take in Y11 when you are between fifteen and sixteen.

The fact that the Mersey river is so dirty goes to show that the male character

doesn’t care about the quality of where he takes his “girlfriend” out on a date,

which is effectively, what they’re on now.

We’re now on stanza eight which tells us of the kiss the two characters share

on the docks.

“Then, when he swiftly contrived to kiss her, His kiss was scented by Listerine.

And she stifled a giggle, reminded of numerous Stories from teenage

magazines….. “

The fact that he had used Listerine makes it seem as if the male character

made some effort to impress the female character.

Although I thought it more of a way as softening the blow for himself since he

is preparing to do something bad which involves the female character.

But the more I think about the theory, the less likely it seems.

Concerning the magazines, it sounds like she is one of those teenage girls

who believe everything they read in the magazines and even go as far to try
 and base their relationships with boys on the ones they have read.

The next stanza (eight), I feel, is pretty self explanatory and I do not feel I

could write anything else about it without typing things already obvious from

the poem or observations I’ve already made.

I feel the same way for stanzas ten, eleven, twelve and thirteen.

I will not write out those five stanzas since it would be a waste of the paper I‘m

using.

In stanza nine, the female character finds that she is pregnant.

“On the carpet. And on that day, she broke her heels, Of her high white shoes

(as she flung them at the wall). And realised, for once, that she was truly, truly

frightened. But more than that, cheated by the promise of it all.”

I feel the only reason for not putting this in the self explanatory pile of stanzas

is for the reference to her shoes.

Now she has realised they’re nit going to be together forever, her special

feeling has been lost and so now her shoes must be broken to symbolize this.

I feel that stanza 14 raises a very good point.

“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.”

This means that the female character believes it is better to be a drug addict
since more people are willing to help you and they may even take pity on you.

But if you are an unmarried, pregnant teen like the female character, they

believe that you brought the troubles on yourself so they won’t help you.

Now, finally on to the final stanza (fifteen) and probably my favourite for this

poem.

“Better to starve yourself, like a sick precocious child Than to walk through

town with a belly huge and ripe. And better, now, to turn away, move away,

fade away, Than to have the neighbours whisper that ‘you always looked the

type’.”

At first, the stanza carries on with the point made on drug addicts but with the

homeless instead.

But, more importantly, she mentions it is better to fade away.

This is quite a strong word to use and makes me feel that she is on about

suicide or abortion. Both of which are, in the eyes of Catholicism/ Christianity ,

evil.

So, now at the end of the two poems, I now go over if I think society has

changed much.

And, to be honest, I feel that between the times of the 1700’s (Cousin Kate)

and the 1980’s (The Seduction), hardly anything has changed.

There is not one or even a few reason why it hasn’t changed but I do wish to
 say what I feel is the man reason/perpetrator of the reason there has been

hardly any change.

I actually blame the media in recent years (early 1900’s - 1980’s) but before

that, and still in the 1980’s, the church religion would be one of the biggest

influences in the country. You should see the last stanza of The Seduction as

to why the church would be the perpetrator.

However, in present day 2008, I feel that the views presented in the two

poems have changed so dramatically in the past twenty years that, in most

places, the views the places are the complete opposite of the poems.

I blame this almost entirely on teenage pregnancies and the lack of religion

these days due to the knowledge of science.

Now, before I go, I will leave the decision of whether the changes are for the

better or worse up to you to debate in class, on the sofa or in the pub.

Finally, thank you for taking up the time to read my essay and I hoped you

found it both entertaining and informative.

Goodbye.