Goblin Market & Playboy

Christina Rossetti is a poet found in our anthology, but unfortunately, my favourite poem of hers is not. Goblin Market is a poem originally intended for children that is gothic, allegorical, moralistic and didatic. It was originally marketed for children due to its rhyming, repetition, and sensory descriptions, yet has been transformed into a poem marketed to adults due to its sexual undercurrents. It is the poems flexibility that truly interests me, that one poem could be geared towards both children and adults due to two very different perspectives and interpretations of the text. It is a truly gothic poem due to creepy settings, images of ruin and decay, and depiction of the seedy underbelly of society, which in itself is fantastical. The allegory contained within the poem is a religious allegory of the Fall from innocence which is depicted in the corruption and degregation of Laura from eating fruit. The far most interesting fact I have learned about this poem, however, is that in the 1970's Playboy came out with an illustrated (obviously adult) version of the poem that focused on the eroticism of the poem by illustrating the lines literally, focusing on violence, pleasure and pain as described in the poem. Playboy also interpreted Laura & Lizzie's sisterhood as a form of lesbian love, exagerating the line "Eat me, drink me, love me" . Interested yet? Check out the site and interpret the poem for yourself!

http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/crossetti/gobmarket.html