
''Goblin Market'' is an 1862
narrative poem
Narrative poetry is a form of poetry that tells a story, often using the voices of both a narrator and characters; the entire story is usually written in metered verse. Narrative poems do not need to rhyme. The poems that make up this genre may ...
by
Christina Rossetti
Christina Georgina Rossetti (5 December 1830 – 29 December 1894) was an English writer of romanticism, romantic, devotional and children's poems, including "Goblin Market" and "Remember". She also wrote the words of two Christmas carols well k ...
. It tells the story of sisters Laura and Lizzie, who are tempted with fruit by goblin merchants. In a letter to her publisher, Rossetti claimed that the poem, which is interpreted frequently as having features of remarkably sexual imagery, was not meant for children. However, in public Rossetti often stated that it ''was'' intended for children, and went on to write many children's poems. When it appeared in her first volume of poetry, ''
Goblin Market and Other Poems'', it was illustrated by her brother, the
Pre-Raphaelite
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB), later known as the Pre-Raphaelites, was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, ...
artist
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti (12 May 1828 – 9 April 1882), generally known as Dante Gabriel Rossetti ( ; ), was an English poet, illustrator, painter, translator, and member of the Rossetti family. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brother ...
.
Plot

''Goblin Market'' tells the adventures of two close sisters, Laura and Lizzie, with the river
goblin
A goblin is a small, grotesque, monster, monstrous humanoid creature that appears in the folklore of multiple European cultures. First attested in stories from the Middle Ages, they are ascribed conflicting abilities, temperaments, and appearan ...
s.
Although the sisters seem to be quite young, they live by themselves in a house, and draw water every evening from a stream. As the poem begins, the sisters hear the calls of the goblin merchants selling their fantastic fruits in the twilight. On this evening, Laura, intrigued by their strangeness, lingers at the stream after her sister goes home. (Rossetti hints that the "goblin men" resemble animals with faces like wombats or cats, and with tails.) Longing for the goblin fruits but having no money, the impulsive Laura offers to pay a lock of her hair and "a tear more rare than pearl."
Laura gorges on the delicious fruit in a sort of
bacchic
In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; ) is the god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. He was also known as Bacchus ( or ; ) by the Greek ...
frenzy. Once finished, she returns home in an ecstatic trance, carrying one of the seeds. At home, Laura tells her sister of the delights she indulged in, but Lizzie is "full of wise upbraidings," reminding Laura of Jeanie, another girl who partook of the goblin fruits, and then died at the beginning of winter after a long and pathetic decline. Strangely, no grass grows over Jeanie's grave. Laura dismisses her sister's worries, and plans to return the next night to get more fruits for herself and Lizzie. The sisters go to sleep in their shared bed.
The next day, as Laura and Lizzie go about their housework, Laura dreamily longs for the coming meeting with the goblins. That evening, however, as she listens at the stream, Laura discovers to her horror that, although her sister still hears the goblins' chants and cries, she cannot.
Unable to buy more of the
forbidden fruit
In Abrahamic religions, forbidden fruit is a name given to the fruit growing in the Garden of Eden that God commands mankind Taboo#In religion and mythology, not to eat. In the biblical story, Adam and Eve eat the fruit from the tree of the know ...
, Laura sickens and pines for it. As winter approaches, she withers and ages unnaturally, too weak to do her chores. One day she remembers the saved seed and plants it, but nothing grows.
Months pass, and Lizzie realises that Laura is wasting to death. Lizzie resolves to buy some of the goblin fruit for Laura. Carrying a
silver penny
A penny is a coin (: pennies) or a unit of currency (: pence) in various countries. Borrowed from the Carolingian denarius (hence its former abbreviation d.), it is usually the smallest denomination within a currency system. At present, it is t ...
, Lizzie goes down to the brook and is greeted warmly by the goblins, who invite her to dine. But when the merchants realise that she has no intent to eat the fruit, and only intends to pay in silver, they attack, trying to feed her their fruits by force. Lizzie is drenched with the juice and pulp, but consumes none of it.
Lizzie escapes and runs home, but when the dying Laura eats the pulp and juice from her body, the taste repulses rather than satisfies her, and she undergoes a terrifying
paroxysm
Paroxysmal attacks or paroxysms are a sudden recurrence or intensification of symptoms, such as a spasm or seizure. These short, frequent symptoms can be observed in various clinical conditions. They are usually associated with multiple scleros ...
.
By morning, however, Laura is fully restored to health. The last stanza attests that both Laura and Lizzie live to tell their children of the evils of the goblins' fruits, and the power of a bond between sisters.
Interpretation
The poem has inspired disparate interpretations. James Antoniou wrote in his 2020 ''
Canberra Times
''The Canberra Times'' is a daily newspaper in Canberra, Australia, which is published by Australian Community Media. It was founded in 1926, and has changed ownership and format several times.
History
''The Canberra Times'' was launched in 1 ...
'' article that "while the sheer lusciousness of the goblins' 'sugar-baited words' undercuts the moral
f restraint and sisterly love the strange contradictions of the story itself repel any easy allegorical readings."
Critics in the late 1970s viewed the poem as an expression of Rossetti's
feminist
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...
and homosexual politics. Some critics suggest the poem is about feminine sexuality and its relation to
Victorian social mores. In addition to its clear allusions to
Adam and Eve
Adam and Eve, according to the creation myth of the Abrahamic religions, were the first man and woman. They are central to the belief that humanity is in essence a single family, with everyone descended from a single pair of original ancestors. ...
,
forbidden fruit
In Abrahamic religions, forbidden fruit is a name given to the fruit growing in the Garden of Eden that God commands mankind Taboo#In religion and mythology, not to eat. In the biblical story, Adam and Eve eat the fruit from the tree of the know ...
, and
temptation
Temptation is a desire to engage in short-term urges for enjoyment that threatens long-term goals.Webb, J.R. (Sep 2014). Incorporating Spirituality into Psychology of temptation: Conceptualization, measurement, and clinical implications. Sp ...
, there is much in the poem that seems overtly sexual,
such as when Lizzie, going to buy fruit from the goblins, considers her dead friend Jeanie, "Who should have been a bride; / But who for joys brides hope to have / Fell sick and died", and lines like, "She sucked their fruit globes fair or red"; and "Lizzie uttered not a word;/ Would not open lip from lip/ Lest they should cram a mouthful in;/ But laughed in heart to feel the drip/ Of juice that syruped all her face,/ And lodged in dimples of her chin,/ And streaked her neck which quaked like curd."
The poem's attitude toward this temptation seems ambiguous, since the happy ending offers the possibility of redemption for Laura, while typical Victorian portrayals of the "
fallen woman
"Fallen woman" is an archaic term which was used to describe a woman who has "lost her innocence", and fallen from the grace of God. In 19th-century Britain especially, the meaning came to be closely associated with the loss or surrender of a ...
" ended in the fallen woman's death. Rossetti volunteered at
Highgate
Highgate is a suburban area of N postcode area, north London in the London Borough of Camden, London Boroughs of Camden, London Borough of Islington, Islington and London Borough of Haringey, Haringey. The area is at the north-eastern corner ...
Penitentiary
A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where people are Imprisonment, imprisoned under the authority of the State (polity), state, usually ...
for fallen women shortly after composing ''Goblin Market'' in the spring of 1859.
Some critics believe that some feminist interpretations of the work ignore an anti-semitic aspect of the poem. The critic Cynthia Scheinberg believes the Goblins to be "Hebraic", anti-semitic and anti-Judaic characters that the tested Christian sisters Laura and Lizzie must face in order to transition into wholesome and complete young women.
Other critics focus not on gender but on the Victorian consciousness of a capitalist critique of the growing Victorian economic market, whether in relation to sisters' Lizzie and Laura's interaction with the market as gendered beings, the agricultural market, or in the rapid increase in advertising the "Market".
When ''Goblin Market'' was released in April 1859, most Victorians weren't able to purchase fresh fruit, a historical note of importance when reading the poem for Victorian agriculture and tone.
According to Antony Harrison of
North Carolina State University
North Carolina State University (NC State, North Carolina State, NC State University, or NCSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1887 and p ...
,
Jerome McGann
Jerome John McGann (born July 22, 1937) is an American academic and textual scholar whose work focuses on the history of literature and culture from the late eighteenth century to the present.
Career
Educated at Le Moyne College ( B.S. 1959), S ...
reads the poem as a criticism of Victorian marriage markets and conveys "the need for an alternative social order". For
Sandra Gilbert, the fruit represents Victorian women's exclusion from the world of art. Other scholars – most notably Herbert Tucker – view the poem as a critique on the rise of advertising in pre-capitalist England, with the goblins utilising clever marketing tactics to seduce. Laura. J. Hartman, among others, has pointed out the parallels between Laura's experience and the experience of
drug addiction
Addiction is a neuropsychological disorder characterized by a persistent and intense urge to use a drug or engage in a behavior that produces natural reward, despite substantial harm and other negative consequences. Repetitive drug use can ...
. Another interpretation has observed an image of Jesus Christ in Lizzie when she says: "Eat me, drink me, love me."
This is imagery used to identify Christ's sacrifice in communion services.
The poem uses an irregular
rhyme scheme
A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhymes at the end of each line of a poem or song. It is usually referred to by using letters to indicate which lines rhyme; lines designated with the same letter all rhyme with each other.
An example of the ABAB rh ...
, often using couplets or ABAB rhymes, but also repeating some rhymes many times in succession, or allowing long gaps between a word and its partner. The
metre
The metre (or meter in US spelling; symbol: m) is the base unit of length in the International System of Units (SI). Since 2019, the metre has been defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of of ...
is also irregular, typically (though not always) keeping three or four stresses, in varying
feet
The foot (: feet) is an anatomical structure found in many vertebrates. It is the terminal portion of a limb which bears weight and allows locomotion. In many animals with feet, the foot is an organ at the terminal part of the leg made up of ...
, per line. The lines below show the varied stress patterns, as well as an interior rhyme (grey/decay) picked up by the end-rhyme with "away". The initial line quoted here, "bright", rhymes with "night" a full seven lines earlier.
::But when the noon waxed bright
::Her hair grew thin and grey;
::She dwindled, as the fair full moon doth turn
::To swift decay, and burn
::Her fire away.
Notable editions
*
Christina Rossetti
Christina Georgina Rossetti (5 December 1830 – 29 December 1894) was an English writer of romanticism, romantic, devotional and children's poems, including "Goblin Market" and "Remember". She also wrote the words of two Christmas carols well k ...
. ''
Goblin Market and Other Poems''. 1st Ed.
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
:
Macmillan, 1862. (Binding, frontis and title page by
D.G. Rossetti
Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti (12 May 1828 – 9 April 1882), generally known as Dante Gabriel Rossetti ( ; ), was an English poet, illustrator, painter, translator, and member of the Rossetti family. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brother ...
).
* Christina Rossetti. ''Goblin Market''.
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
:
Macmillan, 1893. (Illustrator:
Laurence Housman
Laurence Housman (; 18 July 1865 – 20 February 1959) was an English playwright, writer and illustrator whose career stretched from the 1890s to the 1950s. He studied art in London and worked largely as an illustrator during the first years o ...
)
* Christina Rossetti. ''
Goblin Market, Prince's Progress and Other Poems
A goblin is a small, grotesque, monstrous humanoid creature that appears in the folklore of multiple European cultures. First attested in stories from the Middle Ages, they are ascribed conflicting abilities, temperaments, and appearances depe ...
''.
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
:
Oxford UP
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...
, 1913.
*
Philadelphia
Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
:
J. B. Lippincott Co. Printed in
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...
by
R. & R. Clark, Limited,
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
, 1933. (Illustrator:
Arthur Rackham
Arthur Rackham (19 September 1867 – 6 September 1939) was an English book illustrator. He is recognised as one of the leading figures during the Golden Age of British book illustration. His work is noted for its robust pen and ink drawings, ...
)
* Christina Rossetti. ''Goblin Market''.
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
:
George G. Harrap, 1933. (Illustrator:
Arthur Rackham
Arthur Rackham (19 September 1867 – 6 September 1939) was an English book illustrator. He is recognised as one of the leading figures during the Golden Age of British book illustration. His work is noted for its robust pen and ink drawings, ...
)
* Christina Rossetti. ''Goblin Market''.
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
New York may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* ...
:
E.P. Dutton, 1970. (Illustrator:
Ellen Raskin
Ellen Raskin (March 13, 1928 – August 8, 1984) was an American children's writer and illustrator. She won the 1979 Newbery Medal for '' The Westing Game'', a mystery novel, and another children's mystery, '' Figgs & Phantoms'', was a Newbery ...
)
* Christina Rossetti. ''Goblin Market''. ''
Playboy
''Playboy'' (stylized in all caps) is an American men's Lifestyle journalism, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, available both online and in print. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, funded in part by a $ ...
'' September 1973: 115-119. (Illustrator:
Kinuko Y. Craft
Kinuko Yamabe Craft (born January 3, 1940) is a Japanese-born American painter, illustrator and fantasy artist.
Biography
Kinuko Yamabe Craft was born in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan on January 3, 1940. She graduated with a Bachelor of ...
) -- also includes nude photography
* Christina Rossetti. ''Goblin Market''.
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
:
Victor Gollancz
Sir Victor Gollancz (; 9 April 1893 – 8 February 1967) was a British publisher and humanitarian. Gollancz was known as a supporter of left-wing politics. His loyalties shifted between liberalism and communism; he defined himself as a Christian ...
, 1980. (Illustrator:
Martin Ware)
* Christina Rossetti. ''Goblin Market''. ''
Pathways to Fantasy
Pathway or pathways may refer to:
Music
* ''The Pathway'' (album), a 2001 album by Officium Triste
* ''Pathway'' (album), by the Flaming Stars
* ''Pathways'' (album) (2010), by the Dave Holland Octet
* Pathways (band), an American progressiv ...
'' July 1984: 9-18.
Adaptations
* The English composer
Emanuel Abraham Aguilar, brother of the novelist
Grace Aguilar, collaborated with Rossetti on a choral cantata, ''Goblin Market'', in 1880. This was the only nineteenth century musical setting of the poem, as Rossetti granted Aguilar an exclusive. It was lightly adapted (with the author's approval) to remove sexual and erotic connotations, making it more suitable for school performances.
* Italian composer Vittorio Ricci (1859–1925) was the first to come up with a setting once Aguilar's exclusive rights had expired. The cantata ''Der Gnomen Markt'' was published in 1901 with an English libretto adapted by M.C. Gillington, and a German translation.
*
Ruth Gipps
Ruth Dorothy Louisa ("Wid") Gipps (21 February 1921 – 23 February 1999) was an English composer, oboist, pianist, conductor and educator. She composed music in a wide range of genres, including five symphonies, seven concertos and ma ...
composed the cantata ''Goblin Market'' in 1954, the first female composer to produce a setting. It is sung by two soprano soloists (solo 1 Laura, solo 2 Lizzie) and female three-part chorus, accompanied by string orchestra or piano. Her careful adaptation anticipated feminist literary interpretations of the poem that emerged in the 1970s.
*A 70-minute stage musical version of the poem adapted by Peggy Harmon and Polly Pen was performed at the
Vineyard Theater in New York City in 1985.
* American composer
Aaron Jay Kernis
Aaron Jay Kernis (born January 15, 1960) is a Pulitzer Prize- and Grammy Award-winning American composer serving as a member of the Yale School of Music faculty. Kernis spent 15 years as the music advisor to the Minnesota Orchestra and as direct ...
set the poem in 1995 for narrator and chamber ensemble, without alterations or abridgement, and with each syllable precisely notated. It is "probably the most detailed and sustained interpretation of the poem's irregular meter to date". It has been recorded.
* A 75-minute chamber opera ''Goblin Market'' was presented by
Youth Music Theatre UK
British Youth Music Theatre (BYMT), formerly Youth Music Theatre UK, is a UK-based national performing arts organisation founded in December 2003. BYMT provides music theatre training to young people aged 11–21 and a stepping stone to drama sc ...
at George Square Theatre,
Edinburgh Fringe Festival
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featur ...
in 2005. The adaptation and libretto was by Kath Burlinson and the score by
Conor Mitchell.
* New Zealand circus company The Dust Palace adapted the story into a performance piece titled ''The Goblin Market'', incorporating various aerial and adagio circus arts. The production toured in Canada in 2016 and New Zealand in 2019.
*In July 2020,
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...
broadcast a reading of the poem interwoven with testimony from sisters whose lives had been caught up in the cycle of addiction.
Popular culture references
* ''Goblin Market'' was the title of a swing instrumental written by
Spud Murphy
Miko Stephanovic (August 19, 1908 – August 5, 2005), better known as Lyle 'Spud' Murphy, was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist, bandleader, and arranger. He studied clarinet and trumpet, and has been recorded playing the oboe, among other ...
for the
Joe Haymes orchestra, recorded in 1934.
*
Helen McCloy wrote a mystery novel called "The Goblin Market" which quotes the poem.
*
Grant Morrison
Grant Morrison (born 31 January 1960) is a Scottish comic book writer, screenwriter, and producer. Their work is known for its nonlinear narratives, Humanism, humanist philosophy and counterculture, countercultural leanings. Morrison has writt ...
in the 1990s version of
Dan Dare
Dan Dare is a British science fiction comic hero, created by illustrator Frank Hampson who also wrote the first stories. Dare appeared in the ''Eagle'' comic series ''Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future'' from 1950 to 1967 (and subsequently in ...
quotes from ''Goblin Market''—“'We must not look at goblin men, / We must not buy their fruits: / Who knows upon what soil they fed / Their hungry thirsty roots?'”—as a clue to
the Mekon's intentions.
*
Jeanette Winterson
Jeanette Winterson (born 27 August 1959) is an English author.
Her first book, '' Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit'', was a semi-autobiographical novel about a lesbian growing up in an English Pentecostal community. Other novels explore gender ...
's 1985 novel ''
Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit
''Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit'' is a novel by Jeanette Winterson published in 1985 by Pandora Press. It is a coming-of-age story about a lesbian who grows up in an English Pentecostal community. Key themes of the book include transition from ...
'': Elsie reads Jeanette ''Goblin Market'' when she is in hospital; scholar LaDelle Davenport has argued this insinuates her awareness of Jeanette's being a lesbian.
*''Doctor Who'' "
Midnight
Midnight is the transition time from one day to the next – the moment when the date changes, on the local official clock time for any particular jurisdiction. By clock time, midnight is the opposite of noon, differing from it by 12 hours.
...
" (first aired 14 June 2008, episode no. 196): Dee Dee, a graduate assistant accompanying a professor, quotes the same lines, suggesting that the alien who has possessed a passenger on their shuttle cruiser is like a goblin (a dangerous and mysterious entity). The Doctor explains the literary reference.
*
Sarah Rees Brennan's 2009 novel ''
The Demon's Lexicon'' features the Market as a
Gypsy
{{Infobox ethnic group
, group = Romani people
, image =
, image_caption =
, flag = Roma flag.svg
, flag_caption = Romani flag created in 1933 and accepted at the 1971 World Romani Congress
, po ...
-like society of people who barter and trade magical artifices and oppose the power hungry
Magicians and the
Demon
A demon is a malevolent supernatural entity. Historically, belief in demons, or stories about demons, occurs in folklore, mythology, religion, occultism, and literature; these beliefs are reflected in Media (communication), media including
f ...
s they have
evoked to the earthly plane.
*
Rena Rossner identifies the ''Goblin Market'' as a source of inspiration for her 2018 novel ''
The Sisters of the Winter Wood'' in the Afterword.
*Poirot: Cat Among the Pigeons (TV Episode 2008) Eileen Rich is seen reading the poem to her students and later in the episode Poirot comments on her reading of the poem.
*
Heather O'Neill
Heather O'Neill (born 1973) is a Canadian novelist, poet, short story writer, screenwriter and journalist, who published her debut novel, '' Lullabies for Little Criminals'', in 2006. The novel was subsequently selected for the 2007 edition of ' ...
's 2022 novel ''When We Lost Our Heads'' draws on themes from the poem. The female protagonists both recite the poem in a poetry competition, and later see it as a representation of their relationship.
*The 2022 Young Adult novel ''Not Good for Maidens'' by Tori Bovalino tells of a Goblin Market in York and family of witches who care for its human victims until one witch sister, May, is seduced into the market by a Goblin woman and she and her sister must flee to Boston. A generation later, a cousin is abducted into the horror of the market, and May and her niece must return to save her.
*Goblin Market is the title of a podcast series of short stories about the strange and macabre.
References
External links
*
*
*
''Goblin Market'' Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives audiobook accompanying text o
* {{gutenberg, no=16950 , name=Goblin Market, The Prince's Progress, and Other Poems
on the Victorian Web
Poetry by Christina Rossetti
Fictional goblins
Fantasy poetry
Narrative poems