I’ve spent the better part of the weekend immersed in this long 1862 poem by Christina Rossetti, sister of the great Pre-Raphaelite painter. Reading it over and over, and combing the 'Net for critical commentary. I read it years ago, but only REALLY got deep into it now.
I’ve got a copy of the 1983 Dover reprint of the 1892 edition, with dozens of spooky illustrations by Laurence Housman. And I have orders in to used booksellers for copies of the 1930s Arthur Rackham-illustrated edition, and a few others.
This is a REALLY EERIE fucking POEM.
Anybody else here a fan? Here’s a copy of the text. Look for illustrations your ownself.
Our choir recently sang a work, called Heartland, by the Australian composer Matthew Hindson. Some of its lyrics were drawn from the Rossetti poem Goblin Market. It’s pretty weird stuff.
I think the cast of the Courtney Crumrin books visit the Goblin Market during a couple of adventures. Not as nice as having a fully illustrated text, but the creepiness of the original poem comes across in the setting.
Just read it for the first time, very interesting stuff.
I’m not sure if it supposed to be a Christian allegory, an allegory for drug addiction, about the evils of sex, or lesbian porn - or some combination of the four.
I have the Dover edition, too. Malthus said it well, it’s definitely erotic, but what else could you expect from someone with a brother named Dante Gabriel?
It reminds me of Charlotte Mew’s The Changling. “The shy green grasses making love.”
(Thought of The Changling during week before last’s Torchwood episode in the US – Small Worlds, the one with the fairies)
(Wow, Charlotte had a sad life – didn’t know until just now.)
Oh, man, I don’t think it ever struck me that “Goblin Market” could be a children’s book. Probably because it’s so very erotic – all that fruit and the weeping juices everywhere. It would be, I think, one of the stranger selections of Victorian poetry for a children’s book, though I wouldn’t doubt that people would buy it if it were pretty enough.
Much to my surprise, I have actually seen the poem recommended for children a few times. I suppose people figure that all that eroticism will go right over their heads if they’re young enough!
It may help to understand the poem if you know that Christina Rossetti volunteered for an organization that helped women get out of prostitution. The Goblin Market is about predatory male sexuality.
Since the poem has a fairy-taleish air of fantasy about it, Victorian people assumed it was written for children. Many ghastly tales from the mid to late 1800s were originally thrown at children as children’s fare…see my earlier comments on “The New Mother,” one of the most terrifying stories about children ever written.
The poem is unfortunately imperfect (which increases my fascination with it). Lizzie’s sacrifice for her sister has been called Christ-like (although she doesn’t die and Laura is completely cured), and “Goblin Market” closes with a soupy, sappy stanza about how “a sister is your best friend!” Very much at odds with the preceding narrative concerning “rape,” “drug addiction,” and the sucking of lots and lots of sweet goopy fruit.
I have a copy of the 1930s Arthur Rackham-illustrated version coming by mail, but I also understand that the British artist **Martin Ware ** did a version in 1980. Anyone with better Googling skills than I want to put out some samples?
That doesn’t make a lot of sense though. Laura is the one that’s desperate to buy carnal pleasures, one would think that if its a warning about the dangers of prostitution, it would be the Goblin’s desperate to buy things from her.
