After all, it’s not merely a single goblin man on his own, offering only apples or pears. In a contrast with Wordsworth’s “Nutting,” it seems like a masculine nature sullies an innocent female representation of humanity. Is knowledge of the natural world a male domain, juxtaposed with female “innocence” by virtue of their domestic association? I’m tempted to look at the poem as an allegory for carnal knowledge, and replace “goblin men” with simply “men” but I think there’s more going on here. While Lizzie heeds Laura’s advice and runs away, the latter chooses to stay and watch the parade of fantastic creatures.īut yet again something odd stands out: the goblins all seem to be male, standing “brother with sly brother” (519). However, unlike the biblical figure, she not only chooses not to entice her sister into partaking in the experience, but actively urges her to reject it (even at the risk of acting hypocritically). Laura, perhaps standing in for Eve, chooses to accept that knowledge anyway. It seems like any sense-related experience would transgress some moral boundary. Of course taste seems to be the weightiest sense in terms of sinfulness (especially given the context of the rest of the poem) but the maids (Lizzie in particular) endeavor to shut off all of their senses: at one moment Lizzie “thrust a dimpled finger in each ear/shut eyes and ran,” (519). They shout out a variety of fruits, not just apples, and describe them as “full and fine” (518) and “sweet to tongue and sound to eye,” (519). But the hearkening to original sin isn’t enough: while the biblical apple refers to abstract knowledge, specifically of good and evil, what the goblins seem to offer is a much more concrete knowledge.

It is significant to note that, of all the available wares touted by the whimsical salesmen, apples make the very first appearance. Therefore these maids are innocent, and “must not look at goblin men” (519) for fear that their purity will be sullied. Maids could of course refer to the girls’ role as servants, but far more likely is the older definition of “an unmarried girl or young woman” or, more specifically, “a virgin,” (OED). In the first lines we are introduced to “maids” who hear the goblins selling their wares.

If indeed the poem conveys a message, it is quite possibly related to temptation and the natural world. When so many of Rossetti’s poems seem to make clever points, it’s tough to believe that the fanciful “Goblin Market” belies no secret meaning.

Apparently not very many readers were convinced, and neither was I. In the few short pages of biographical information on Christina Rossetti, we learn that William Michael Rossetti insists that “his sister “did not mean anything profound” by “Goblin Market’,” (518).

The goblin market