Winners Don't Use Fruit: Thoughts on Christina Rossetti's "Goblin Market"

I've always been much more interested in prose than poetry. I’m trying to branch out, and I think that my tastes have expanded considerably in the last decade, but when all is done and said, I still prefer stories. Maybe this means that I'm the seven-billionth person on this planet who should be naming his favourite poem, but for the record, my favourite poem is the 19th-century classic “Goblin Market,” by Christina Rossetti.

The poem tells the story of two sisters, Laura and Lizzie, and what happens when they meet a sinister mob of fruit-pushing, animal-faced goblins. Lizzie won't touch the stuff ("We must not look at goblin men, / We must not buy their fruits / Who knows upon what soil they fed / Their hungry thirsty roots?") but Laura lacks her sister’s willpower. Using "a precious golden lock" in place of a coin, she buys herself something of a buffet from those goblin men. The stuff is delicious. Needless to say, she returns the next day. It is needful to say, however, that when she does return, she can’t see or hear the goblins or their market. But that's just Laura: Lizzie still can. I guess that's the sort of marketing we should expect from anyone who accepts hair as legal tender.

Lizzie tries to get some fruit for her sister, but it isn't easy; when she admits that she's shopping for another, the goblins decide to force-feed their wares to her. Fortunately, although the poor girl is drenched in juice, she doesn't swallow any. She returns home, and lets her sister drink the juice right off her body:

     She cried 'Laura,' up the garden,
     'Did you miss me?
     Come and kiss me.
     Never mind my bruises,
     Hug me, kiss me, suck my juices
     Squeezed from 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.'

Incidentally, this seems to be where many undergraduate lit students hit on their essay topics.

The good news is that Laura not only makes a full recovery, but is now so repulsed by the goblin’s fruit that she simply can’t stand the thought of eating any more of the foul stuff. Happy ending!

I've always been really interested in fairy tales and folklore, and the “Goblin Market” is definitely built on that land. The dire consequences of eating fruit may not be the most original subject, but there’s something about the setting of this poem that I love. A group of furry, selectively-visible goblins, peddling evil fruit that doesn't kill the victim directly but makes her so dependant on the stuff that she could die without it… it’s an imaginative image, and Rossetti describes it well. And there are some obvious real-world parallels in Lizzie’s struggles; although history is not my forte, I believe that opium addiction was a big problem in London at the time, so if these connections weren't intentional, they were at least subconscious. (Okay, so I would never make my cocaine-addicted sister snort cocaine off my body to help her with her cocaine-withdrawal symptoms; I never said it was a perfect metaphor.)

Simply put, “Goblin Market” appeals to a lot of people on a lot of levels. Like beautiful, lyrical poetry? You've got it here. Looking for a good work of classic literature to write your graduate thesis on? Not a problem! If you want a simple fairy story about scary goblins and magic, there’s nothing better. Or maybe you're just a pervert who wants to read about something dirty involving two sisters and some goblin juice. Hey, whatever floats your boat. Like all the greatest works of literature and Literature, “Goblin Market” has something for everyone.

This poem is in the public domain, and can be read at Project Gutenberg.