Cousin Kate edexcel 4-The-Poetry-Anthology

Cousin Kate

Your Edexcel GCSE English Literature Poetry Anthology contains 15 poems, and in your exam you will be given one poem – printed in full – and asked to compare it to another one from the anthology. As this is a “closed book” exam, you will not have access to the second poem, so you will need to know it from memory. Fifteen poems is a lot to revise. However, if you understand these four essential things about each poem, you will be able to produce a top-grade response:

• The meaning of the poem

• The ideas and messages the poet wanted to convey

• How the poet uses poetic methods to convey these ideas and messages

• How the ideas and themes in each poem compare and contrast with the ideas and themes of the other poems in the anthology

Here is a guide to Christina Rossetti’s ‘Cousin Kate’, from the Conflict Anthology. It includes the following sections:

• Overview: a breakdown of the poem, including its possible meanings and interpretations

• Writer’s methods: an analysis of the poet’s techniques and methods

• Context: an exploration of the poem’s context in relation to its themes

• What to compare it to: suggestions about which poems to compare it to in the exam

Overview

To answer an essay question on any poem, it is essential that you understand what it is about. This section includes:

• The poem in a nutshell

• An explanation of the poem, section-by-section

• An outline of Rossetti’s intention and message in each of these sections

‘Cousin Kate’ in a nutshell

In ‘Cousin Kate’, an unnamed young woman tells the story of her conflict with her cousin, Kate. She relates how she was fooled into becoming the mistress of a “great lord”, a man of much higher social status. Her lover then abandoned her in order to marry her cousin. The speaker is left with an illegitimate child, which makes her a social outcast. She rages against the injustice of her situation, especially in comparison with the respectability and luxury enjoyed by Kate. However, she takes bitter pleasure in the fact that she has a son, while Kate has not produced an heir for her husband. 

‘Cousin Kate’ breakdown

Lines 1–8

“I was a cottage-maiden 

Hardened by sun and air, 

Contented with my cottage-mates, 

Not mindful I was fair. 

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?”

Explanation

• The speaker was once a young woman from a low social status who lived in the countryside

• She was healthy and happy with her life

• She was not aware of her beauty and had not thought about romantic relationships

• Why did a “great lord”, a man of much higher social standing, notice her and flatter her?

• Why did he do that, then make her miserable?

Rossetti’s intention

• The speaker is remembering her life before the events that led to her current situation

• Rossetti wants to contrast the speaker’s early, happy life with her current misery

• Rossetti implies that the speaker’s life would have continued happily if the “great lord”, a nobleman, hadn’t noticed her

• The speaker’s rhetorical questions show that she doesn’t understand why these things happened:

  • This implies that she had little control over the situation

• The repetition of “find me out” implies that the man was searching, or hunting, for her

• Rossetti is making the case that the speaker was an innocent victim, and the “great lord” is responsible for her suffering

Lines 9–16

“He lured me to his palace-home – 

Woe’s me for joy thereof – 

To lead a shameless shameful life, 

His plaything and his love. 

He wore me like a golden knot, 

He changed me like a glove: 

So now I moan an unclean thing 

Who might have been a dove.”

Explanation

• The nobleman tempted the speaker to go and live with him in his palace

• The speaker now regrets that she went with him happily

• The nobleman appeared to love her, but treated her casually and without respect

• He discarded her like a glove when he spotted someone he preferred more

• Now, she is miserable and disgraced, when she could have been pure and innocent, like a dove

Rossetti’s intention

• The speaker was “lured” by the nobleman to live with him, which implies that he tricked or trapped her into becoming his lover, possibly with promises of marriage

• The speaker’s current “woe” is for feeling “joy” when she became his lover:

  • This implies that she believed his love to be real, before realising that he seduced her under false pretences

• “Shameless” describes how people would have characterised her actions: 

  • Her life was also “shameful” because she wasn’t married, which went against the social expectations of Rossetti’s time

• The contradiction in the speaker being both a “plaything” and the nobleman’s “love” emphasises the nobleman’s deceit:

  • He made her believe he loved her, but she was just a casual enjoyment for him

• The image of being worn “like a glove” shows how easily the nobleman cast the speaker aside, like taking off a glove

• The speaker’s bitter regret for her actions is shown in her description of herself as an “unclean thing”:

  • She has internalised her social rejection, seeing herself as a “thing” that isn’t even human

• The dove, a traditional image of purity and innocence, is used to present a dramatic contrast between the speaker’s ruin and what might have been

• In this verse, Rossetti is illustrating the difference between the terrible consequences of sexual transgression for a woman and the apparent lack of any consequences for men

Lines 17–24

“O Lady Kate, my Cousin Kate, 

You grow 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 sport among the rye: 

He lifted you from mean estate 

To sit with him on high.”

Explanation

• Cousin Kate’s title, “Lady”, shows that she is married to the nobleman

• Kate grew up even more beautiful than the speaker

• When the nobleman saw her, she was still living in her father’s house

• The nobleman chose Kate and discarded the speaker

• He watched Kate as she went about her daily life

• He raised her social status by marrying her

Rossetti’s intention

• The speaker’s direct address to her cousin makes her grievance feel more dramatic

• The description of the nobleman watching Kate suggests the calculating, almost predatory nature of his interest:

  • It also mirrors his behaviour towards the speaker when he first met her

• In this stanza, Rossetti emphasises the nobleman’s power:

  • He is able to marry the woman of his choice, regardless of his immoral behaviour

  • He is also able to discard his previous lover without consequence

Lines 25–32

“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 has tenderer heart? 

You had the stronger wing.”

Explanation

• Kate refused to have sex with the nobleman unless he married her

• For this reason alone, the neighbours praise Kate’s goodness and purity, while they reject and despise the speaker

• While the speaker is suffering for her actions, Kate is enjoying a pleasant, luxurious life

• The speaker speculates that she was persuaded by the nobleman because she has a softer heart

• However, Kate’s determination to make the nobleman marry her was stronger:

  • Her “stronger wing” is a metaphor for her stronger will and ambitions

Rossetti’s intention

• In this stanza, the speaker is comparing the nobleman’s seduction of her with Kate’s resistance to him

• Rossetti shows the contrast between the outcomes for the speaker and her cousin:

  • Kate’s happiness is based on her marital status

  • The speaker’s misery is based on her unmarried state

• The reference to the “gold”, or wealth, that Kate enjoys contrasts with the “golden knot” that characterised the speaker’s relationship with the nobleman:

  • This represents a sense of the speaker’s entrapment, as opposed to Kate’s ease and luxury 

• Rossetti is illustrating how misplaced trust can lead to a lifetime of social exclusion

Lines 33–40

“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 had not won me with his love 

Nor bought me with his land: 

I would have spit into his face 

And not have taken his hand.”

Explanation: 

• The speaker’s love for the nobleman was real, but Kate’s was not

• If the situation were reversed, the speaker wouldn’t have been persuaded by his wealth and status – “his land” – or his love

• Instead, she would have rejected him violently

Rossetti’s intention:

• The speaker compares her actions with her cousin’s:

  • She claims her love was genuine, but Kate’s was “writ in sand”: not sincere or lasting

• If their situations were reversed, and Kate had been the seduced one, the speaker would have seen what kind of man he was:

  • She would never have agreed to marry him 

• The speaker implies that Kate has only married the nobleman for his wealth:

  • However, Rossetti also implies that Kate has less autonomy than the speaker suggests

  • She describes her being “won” like a prize, and “bought” like an object

• This stanza questions the social mores of Rossetti’s time:

  • Kate has done the right thing according to social convention, but has wronged the speaker

  • This is because she has behaved in a materialistic, uncaring and disloyal way

Lines 41–48

“Yet I’ve a gift you have not got 

And seem 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 sire would give broad lands for one 

To wear his coronet.”

Explanation:

• However, the speaker has something that Kate hasn’t got, and doesn’t seem likely to get

• Despite Kate’s marriage and riches, the speaker believes she is sad about something

• The speaker has an illegitimate son, who is a source of shame and pride to her

• The nobleman would love to have a son to inherit his lands and title

Rossetti’s intention:

• Rossetti shows that, although the speaker’s son is illegitimate, he is loved: 

  • The speaker describes him as a “gift” and her “pride”

  • She instructs him to “cling closer” to her, implying that she is his only source of comfort and protection

• However, being an unmarried mother is also a reason for the speaker’s “shame” in the eyes of society

• She expresses her bitterness by taunting Kate:

  • Kate is the one who has married the nobleman, but she can’t give him a child

  • The speaker’s son is illegitimate, so he can’t be the nobleman’s heir

• The fact that the speaker has something that Kate wants very much gives her a sense of bitter victory

• However, Rossetti’s focus is on the injustice that led to the speaker’s social rejection: 

  • Women were disempowered in her society, because men could get away with destroying a woman’s life without suffering any negative consequences

Writer’s methods

This section is split into three separate areas: form, structure and language. However, it’s important to link these areas of Rossetti’s writing together, in order to understand how she is presenting her ideas and why she has made those choices. Think about how Rossetti’s language, structure and form contribute to her theme and message in ‘Cousin Kate’. 

You will gain far more marks by focusing on Rossetti’s theme, rather than individual poetic techniques. In the following sections, all the analysis is arranged by theme, including Rossetti’s intentions behind her choices of:

• Form

• Structure

• Language

Form

‘Cousin Kate’ is a narrative poem, written in the form of a ballad. The stanzas contain two quatrains each, with alternating lines of eight and six beats and a rhyme scheme of ABCB. The poem is also a monologue, which emphasises the speaker’s direct address and intensifies her emotions as she tells her story. 

Structure

The poem’s structure tells the story of the speaker’s downfall, returning every few lines to her current feelings of sadness, shame, anger and resentment towards her cousin. This movement between the past and present emphasises the cause-and-effect nature of events in the poem. This in turn suggests the inevitability of the outcome, as well as the lack of consequences for the nobleman who betrayed her trust.