Cousin Kate (Edexcel GCSE English Literature)
Revision Note
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
Examiner Tips and Tricks
In your exam, you may be asked to compare 'Cousin Kate' with another poem from your Conflict Anthology. When you compare poems, you should focus on the way each writer presents their ideas about conflict. The conflict they depict may be a military conflict, such as a war or a battle, or it may be a personal conflict, as in this poem.
The section below on ‘What to compare it to’ offers detailed suggestions about how to compare 'Cousin Kate' with other poems in the anthology. If the poem printed on your exam paper is 'Cousin Kate', you should start by stating which poem you’re going to compare it to, and why. For instance, you could compare this poem to one that also focuses on personal conflict, such as William Blake’s 'A Poison Tree'. Your introduction should include a summary of the main similarities and differences you intend to focus on.
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
Examiner Tips and Tricks
The best way to discuss the technical aspects of poems, such as their form, structure and language, is to link your knowledge of them with the themes and ideas in the poem. You should demonstrate your understanding of how Rossetti gets her meaning across.
That means you should avoid identifying poetic techniques without linking them to the themes of 'Cousin Kate'. Your response should show how Rossetti uses form, structure and language to make her ideas clearer and more effective. For example, instead of writing “Rossetti uses a traditional ballad form”, you could state that “Rossetti’s use of the ballad form emphasises the universal nature of her message”.
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.
Theme | Evidence | Poet’s intention |
Conflict and injustice
| The rhythm and rhyme scheme of the ballad form give the speaker’s story a traditional feel:
| The traditional ballad form highlights the injustice suffered by the speaker:
|
Rossetti uses enjambment at the end of alternate lines, so that the poem is largely presented as a series of statements | This emphasises the declaratory effect of the speaker’s 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.
Theme | Evidence | Poet’s intention |
Conflict and injustice
| The rhythm and rhyme scheme of the ballad form give the speaker’s story a traditional feel:
| The traditional ballad form highlights the injustice suffered by the speaker:
|
The poem uses iambic metre (with a stress on every second syllable: de-DA), which emphasises certain words:
| Rossetti uses the metre to emphasise particular words:
| |
Rossetti’s use of direct address (“I” and “you”) emphasises the accusatory tone of her conflict with her cousin | The continuous movement between “I” and “you” from the third stanza onwards emphasises the conflict between the speaker and her cousin:
| |
Conflict and inequality | The speaker does not address the “great lord” directly, as she does her cousin Kate:
| The speaker never uses “you” to address the nobleman:
|
Rossetti uses anaphora and parallel syntax in the first stanza when the speaker repeats her question: “Why did a great lord find me out?”
| Rossetti uses these techniques to emphasise the speaker’s lack of power in her situation:
| |
Rossetti uses repetition to draw attention to the inequalities between the speaker’s social disgrace and her cousin’s socially secure position:
| The speaker’s repeated description of herself as a “thing” shows how her experiences have dehumanised her:
|
Language
Rossetti employs a range of metaphors and similes to convey her speaker’s situation. This is because her Victorian readers would have been shocked, or even alienated, by more direct descriptions of her speaker’s sexual relationship. They would have been capable of interpreting Rossetti’s language and its intended meaning. The poem also uses a number of language techniques to convey the speaker’s misery, disempowerment and sense of injustice.
Theme | Evidence | Poet’s intention |
Conflict and injustice
| Rossetti uses animal metaphors to convey the speaker’s feelings of injustice:
| The image of the dove has associations with purity and innocence:
|
Rossetti also makes use of assonance to convey her speaker’s emotional state | Rossetti uses the repeated “o” sounds of “woe”, “moan” and “howl” to emphasise the speaker’s sorrow:
| |
Conflict and inequality
| The poem presents the speaker’s unequal relationship with the nobleman through the use of similes:
| These similes compare the speaker to an object that can be discarded without a second thought or any consequences:
|
The way Rossetti uses verbs conveys the speaker’s – and her cousin’s – lack of power in their relationship with the nobleman | In interactions with the nobleman, his actions are described using active verbs, such as “find”, “lured”, “chose” and “watched”:
| |
The use of contrast in the poem illustrates the speaker’s conflicted state of mind | The phrases “shameless shameful life” and “my shame, my pride” convey her conflicting emotions:
|
Context
Context offers you a different perspective on a poem and can enrich your engagement with it. However, you should aim to only use your knowledge of context to support your analysis of Rossetti’s ideas. Examiners don’t want to see chunks of information about Rossetti’s life or the times she lived in, unless they are supporting a response about the themes of the poem. The ideas explored in 'Cousin Kate' centre on the conflicts caused by injustice and inequality, especially for women. Therefore, this section has been bullet-pointed under the following themes:
Conflict and injustice
Conflict and inequality
Conflict and injustice
The Victorian Era, when Rossetti was writing, was marked by deep injustices in the way society was organised:
There was a huge gap between the richest and the poorest in society
Things like infant mortality rates for the poor were extremely high
Christina Rossetti grew up in a very artistic family:
All the children were encouraged to develop their creative talents
Rossetti’s brothers went on to have successful careers in painting and writing
Rossetti wrote poetry all her life, and some of it was published:
However, she did not have a professional career, like her brothers
Instead, she spent most of her life caring for her invalid father
Rossetti became deeply involved in the Anglo-Catholic movement at an early age:
Her life was ruled by strict moral and religious principles
She never married, and cancelled plans for marriage twice
Rossetti published 'Cousin Kate' in 1862 in her collection Goblin Market and Other Poems:
The title poem of the collection, ‘Goblin Market’, focuses on women’s vulnerability to deception, just like 'Cousin Kate'
Much of Rossetti’s writing focuses on the injustice experienced by women
Conflict and inequality
One of the most striking inequalities in the Victorian Era was the attitudes towards men and women:
Women were believed to be inferior to men physically and intellectually
They had few legal rights, and were seen as their husbands’ property
However, the moral expectations of women were extremely high
Rossetti’s work often focuses on the unfair expectations placed on women’s moral and sexual behaviour:
Women were expected to be chaste (to not have sex outside of marriage)
The same expectations were not placed on men
Rossetti experienced the results of this inequality directly:
She volunteered at a charity for fallen women for ten years
She worked with women whose lives had been ruined by their transgression of sexual norms
Rossetti’s concern with the inequality between women and men can be seen in 'Cousin Kate':
The speaker is an outcast, because she has had a child outside of marriage
The nobleman who ruined her life suffers no consequences
The speaker lacks the power to confront the man, and instead attacks her cousin
Examiner Tips and Tricks
Your response should show your understanding of the relationship between the poem and its context. Demonstrating your knowledge of contexts is a great way to add complexity to your analysis of the poem’s themes and ideas.
However, you should avoid including sections of information about Rossetti’s life or the Victorian Era without connecting them to the ideas she presents in 'Cousin Kate'. Aim to use your knowledge of contexts to support your analysis of Rossetti’s message. Your main focus should be on the poem’s key themes and how you can link them with the themes of other poems in your Conflict anthology.
What to compare it to
In your exam, you are asked to compare the ideas and themes explored in two of the poems in your anthology. That means it’s a good idea to revise pairs of poems together, to understand the similarities and differences in how each poet presents their ideas about conflict in relation to each other. In 'Cousin Kate', Rossetti’s main themes are conflict and injustice, and conflict and inequality, so the following comparisons are the most appropriate:
'Cousin Kate' and 'A Poison Tree'
'Cousin Kate' and 'No Problem'
For each pair of poems, you will find:
The comparison in a nutshell
Similarities between the ideas presented in each poem
Differences between the ideas presented in each poem
Evidence and analysis of these similarities and differences
Examiner Tips and Tricks
Your comparison of 'Cousin Kate' with another poem should show your detailed understanding of both poems. You will need to compare how Rossetti uses language, form and structure to present her themes with the methods used by other writers. Therefore, it’s important that you have a thorough knowledge of all the poems, rather than just memorising a series of quotations.
Make sure your comparison includes the named poem and one other poem in the anthology. If you only write about the poem given on the paper, you will only achieve half the marks available. Writing a thorough comparison of two poems will achieve the highest marks. For instance, you could compare how Rossetti and Blake present anger, or how Zephaniah and Rossetti illustrate the effects of inequality.
'Cousin Kate' and 'A Poison Tree'
Comparison in a nutshell:
Both William Blake’s 'A Poison Tree' and 'Cousin Kate' explore how deception can lead to acts of injustice in ordinary people’s lives. In both poems, there is a contrast between how people see themselves and how other people see them. Blake depicts how his speaker’s misrepresentation of his feelings leads to a tragedy, while Rossetti shows how her speaker’s tragedy has been caused by someone else’s deception. In 'Cousin Kate', the speaker’s bitterness and anger are caused by her sense of injustice, while in 'A Poison Tree', the speaker’s anger leads to the injustice of his enemy’s death.
Similarities:
Topic sentence | Injustice in both poems is caused by acts of deception | |
Evidence and analysis | 'Cousin Kate' | 'A Poison Tree' |
Rossetti uses a ballad form and regular quatrains to emphasise the universal nature of her theme:
| Blake also uses a ballad form with regular quatrains to emphasise the poem’s universal quality:
| |
Rossetti’s speaker is “fooled” by the “praise” of the “great lord” into becoming his “plaything”:
| Blake’s speaker uses “soft deceitful wiles” to fool everyone about his “wrath”:
| |
Rossetti uses contradictory language, such as “Woe’s me for joy thereof”:
| Blake also uses contradictory language when he describes watering the tree with his “tears” and his “fears”
| |
Rossetti’s poem conveys ambiguity about the injustice done to her speaker, and the identity of her enemy:
| Blake’s poem conveys similar ambiguity about who is harmed by the injustice of the speaker’s deadly deception:
| |
In 'Cousin Kate', the nobleman’s deception leads to the speaker’s transgression:
| In 'A Poison Tree', the metaphor of the tree and the apple link to the biblical story of Satan’s deception of Eve:
| |
The injustice suffered by Rossetti’s speaker results her anger and complete disempowerment:
| Deception and anger cause a catastrophic injustice for the speaker’s foe:
| |
Rossetti’s speaker ends the poem on a note of bitter triumph:
| Blake’s speaker’s triumph at the end of his poem is similarly bitter:
| |
Both poems show how deception leads to bitterness, destruction and injustice | ||
Differences:
Topic sentence | Both poems explore injustice using literary techniques to present different aspects of the theme | |
Evidence and analysis | 'Cousin Kate' | 'A Poison Tree' |
'Cousin Kate' employs a range of imagery to present the theme of injustice, but it tells the events of its story in a straightforward way | 'A Poison Tree' uses the extended metaphor of the tree and its fruit, which makes it feel more like an allegory than a story | |
In Rossetti’s poem, the injustice is done to the speaker:
| In Blake’s poem, the injustice is committed by the speaker:
| |
Rossetti shows how her speaker is completely disempowered by the injustice she suffers:
| Blake shows his speaker becoming increasingly fixated and apparently empowered by his anger:
| |
Rossetti presents her speaker’s anger as a natural outcome of the injustice done to her | Blake shows how injustice is caused by the speaker’s unnaturally repressed anger, which leads to its fatal outcome | |
'Cousin Kate' presents injustice in a direct narrative form, while 'A Poison Tree' focuses on its speaker’s feelings, rather than the injustice itself | ||
'Cousin Kate' and 'No Problem'
Benjamin Zephaniah’s 'No Problem' and Rossetti’s 'Cousin Kate' focus on the theme of inequality. In 'Cousin Kate', the speaker’s unequal status is due to her being low-born – a “cottage-maiden” – and a woman. In 'No Problem', the speaker experiences inequality because he is Black. In both poems, the speakers are not the cause of inequality, but they suffer the consequences of it.
Similarities:
Topic sentence | In each poem, inequality and social prejudice are shown to be caused by various external factors, but the protagonists are affected in similar ways | |
Evidence and analysis | 'Cousin Kate' | 'No Problem' |
Rossetti makes it clear that the speaker is not the source of her social rejection:
| Zephaniah also makes it clear that his speaker is not the source of the racism he experiences at school:
| |
The speaker identifies the source of the inequality that has ruined her life:
| The speaker also identifies the source of the inequality that has impacted his life:
| |
Rossetti uses the first and second person to address the contrast between the speaker and her cousin:
| Zephaniah also uses the first and second person:
| |
The poem illustrates how inequality has led to the speaker being treated in a particular way:
| The poem demonstrates how inequality forms other people’s expectations of the speaker:
| |
Rossetti demonstrates how the speaker’s experience of inequality has affected her entire life:
| Zephaniah also describes how racial inequality has affected his speaker’s life:
| |
Rossetti shows how inequalities of gender and social class have led to her speaker’s suffering, while Zephaniah demonstrates the negative impact of racial inequality on his speaker’s early life | ||
Differences:
Topic sentence | While both poems address the negative effects of inequality, they also show how different attitudes can result in contrasting outcomes | |
Evidence and analysis | 'Cousin Kate' | 'No Problem' |
The ballad form of 'Cousin Kate' recounts the speaker’s downfall as a story:
| The form of 'No Problem', with its uneven lines and subtle rhymes, is more conversational:
| |
The poem’s speaker adopts a passive attitude towards her suffering:
| The poem’s speaker adapts to his circumstances with an active attitude:
| |
The negative tone of the poem reflects the speaker’s lack of hope:
| The poem adopts a positive tone towards the end:
| |
Rossetti shows how her speaker’s experiences of inequality have left her feeling negative and permanently damaged:
| Zephaniah shows his speaker’s defiance of racism and his pride in who he is:
| |
Rossetti’s speaker is left bitter at the end of the poem:
| Zephaniah ends his poem on a positive note:
| |
While Rossetti’s speaker has been defeated by her experiences, and seems hopeless and bitter, Zephaniah shows his speaker looking towards the future with positivity and pride | ||
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