Goblin Market

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1862

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Irregular Meter Scheme

Because the plot of “Goblin Market” pulls from folklore, it makes sense for its form to draw from the formal aspects of folktales too. Rossetti draws from older narrative forms like ballads, sonnet sequences, and epics. However, she does not use a regular rhyme and meter scheme often found in those older forms. Rossetti uses meters experimentally, frequently changing them to mirror a character’s action.

Rossetti replicates the shouts of street vendors in the first listing of goblin fruit by alternating between trochee and dactyl feet (Roe). A foot shows where a speaker emphasizes a word. Stressed is where people emphasize a word while speaking. The rest of the word is unstressed. A trochee emphasizes the first syllable and un-stresses the second. Dactyls are a bit longer. They have a stressed syllable that proceeds two unstressed syllables. The mixed pattern makes the lines sound like breaths: “mel-uhns and raz-ber-ees.”

Rossetti’s meter is trickier to pin down. The meter measures the number of poetic feet per line. Rossetti, in this part of the poem, does not stick to one type of foot per line. For example, “apples | and quinces” contains trochee and pyrrhic (two unstressed syllables) feet. Throughout the poem, Rossetti shifts into different meters.

The most common metrical patterns are trochaic tetrameter, iambic tetrameter, iambic pentameter, and iambic trimeter. Pentameter is five feet per line, tetrameter is four feet, and trimeter is three feet. An iamb is a foot where an unaccented syllable comes before an accented syllable.

However, scholar Zachary Rearick has proposed that Rossetti shifts the meter to signify the characters’ state of being. He points out that iambic tetrameter and trimeter—the two most frequently occurring meters—represent stability, safety, and the social norm. For example, the poem’s happy ending crosses between iambic tetrameter and trimeter over 18 lines (Rearick).

Zoomorphism

The goblins appear “Cat-like and rat-like” and move like snails and fish throughout the poem (Lines 340-47). The animal comparisons are zoomorphism: a literary device and an anthropological trend.

Zoomorphism is when human or human-adjacent beings—like deities and other supernatural beings—are described through or given animal-like behavior and traits. It is the opposite of anthropomorphism, where authors give animals human characteristics and motivations.

In “Goblin Market,” zoomorphism signals something is off about the goblins. They are capable of human speech and transactions. They also have table manners and a ritualized and visual sense of dining, as seen in their use of plates and bowls. The goblins appear and act human.

Despite their decorum, they are also quite noticeably “other.” They make animal calls like purrs and whistles. One noticeably has a cat’s face and another the voice of a parrot (Lines 109, 112-14). “The whisk-tail’d merchant” references either whisk brooms or the Chinese fuzi (Line 107). Visually, his tail is similar to one on a horse, mule, or donkey. It makes their other non-human but non-animal traits, like a desire for human hair over currency, all the more unsettling and eerie.

At the same time, zoomorphism allows Rossetti to blur the line between animal and human, civilized and uncivilized. Notably, when the goblins attack Lizzie, Rossetti weaves together descriptions of human violence and animal violence. One moment, they “Tore her gown and soil’d her stocking,” “pinch’d her,” and the next, they “Claw’d with their nails…Scratch’d her” (Lines 401, 403, 427). The contrast will appear within a single line, “Maul’d and mock’d her” (Line 429). Their taunts blur between bestial and recognizable, including “barking, mewing, hissing, mocking” (Line 402).

Through this comparison, “Goblin Market” seems to ask its readers to reflect on human behavior. Scholars have often wondered if the goblins represent violent men, the patriarchy, or sinners. Rossetti places the goblins’ violence within the human realm regardless of what they symbolize.

Rossetti wrote at an unstable time. Women fought for better treatment. Meanwhile, the schism between science and religion grew deeper. Overseas and at home, Britain gained financial at the expense of workers. It was a culture that often contradicted itself. Rossetti’s goblins make the reader question whether the veneer of decorum and proper behavior hides cruelty.

Narrative Poem

“Goblin Market” is a narrative poem. Narrative poetry features a plot with distinct characters. Epics like The Iliad, The Odyssey, and Gilgamesh are some of the oldest and most famous narrative poems. Ballads like Tam Lin are also narrative poems.

“Goblin Market” is an excellent example of narrative poetry. It follows a basic plot structure: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and conclusion. The poem opens with an overview of the goblins’ scheme, which gives the reader context for the story’s conflict. Then Rossetti shows the poem’s conflict: Laura wants to try the goblins’ fruit despite its dangers. The rising action happens when Laura eats the fruit and slowly falls ill because she cannot get more of it. Now, her sister, Lizzie, must find a way to save Laura’s life.

“Goblin Market” climaxes when Lizzie tries to buy fruit to take back for Laura. The goblins do not take this well and try to force Lizzie to eat the fruit. The Goblins’ violence and Lizzie’s resistance create suspense over who will come out the victor. The climax concludes when Lizzie survives the night and reveals she has some of the fruit juice left on her lips.

The falling action is Laura’s recovery. The poem’s conclusion is the sisters living happily into adulthood. Laura now shares her experience with her children instead of shunning the stories as she did in her youth.

The poem also gives a character arc for its lead, Lizzie. Lizzie starts scared of the goblins’ power. She worries that if she gets too close, she will be seduced and end up dead like Jeanie. Each time they show up, she flees. However, Lizzie’s love for her sister allows her to grow and face the goblins. Lizzie’s newfound bravery and knowledge of the goblins’ tricks enable her to resist the goblins. In challenging the goblins, she gains a new sense of agency and power.