An Apple Gathering

An Apple Gathering Written in 1857 STRUCTURE: Quatrains RHYME: ABAB Rhyme Scheme CONTEXT: this poem is written at a time when Rossetti has lost her first love, James Collinson, after his flitting between Catholicism and Anglicanism left them with irreconcilable differences.

An Apple Gathering Read through the poem. What are your initial impressions of the poem? What do you think it is about? Given what you know about when it was written, what can we infer from Christina’s position on relationships and marriage?

An Apple Gathering Summary We start with a poem about fertility and feminine fulfilment with the apple orchard serving as an analogy: reaping the fruit representing marriage and motherhood. Rossetti talks of visiting the orchard as it blooms, in her youthful adolescence, but when she actually wants an apple they’ve all gone. She’s miserable and jealous of those with baskets full of apples and shows a desperation by staying in the orchard in the hope of some sort of miracle.

Critical Analysis Use the following questions to help guide your own analysis: What is the significance of the ‘pink blossoms’ and why does she put them in her hair? How does this poem link to the idea of the ‘Fallen woman’? Consider the theme of pleasure and temptation. What do the apples represent? What links to other poems in the collection can you make?

I plucked pink blossoms from mine apple-tree And wore them all that evening in my hair: Then in due season when I went to see I found no apples there

With dangling basket all along the grass As I had come I went the selfsame track: My neighbours mocked me while they saw me pass So empty-handed back.

Lilian and Lilias smiled in trudging by, Their heaped-up basket teased me like a jeer; Sweet-voiced they sang beneath the sunset sky, Their mother’s home was near.

Plump Gertrude passed me with her basket full, A stronger hand than hers helped it along; A voice talked with her through the shadows cool More sweet to me than song.

Ah Willie, Willie, was my love less worth Than apples with their green leaves piled above? I counted rosiest apples on the earth Of far less worth than love.

So once it was with me you stooped to talk Laughing and listening in this very lane: To think that by this way we used to walk We shall not walk again!

I let me neighbours pass me, ones and twos And groups; the latest said the night grew chill, And hastened: but I loitered, while the dews Fell fast I loitered still.

Critical Analysis Use the following questions to help guide your own analysis: What is the significance of the ‘pink blossoms’ and why does she put them in her hair? The colour pink is associated with flay fullness, innocence and feminism which shows that Rossetti here empathised with the narrator’s melancholic feelings and harsh treatment by society.

Critical Analysis Use the following questions to help guide your own analysis: How does this poem link to the idea of the ‘Fallen woman’? The term fallen woman 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 woman's chastity.

The Fallen Woman Christina’s personal experiences are mixed in with the fate of a fallen woman – someone who is deemed unworthy by society usually as a result of sexual promiscuity outside of marriage – which is a common theme and something Rossetti was clearly passionate about in her life – restoring the fallen.

The Garden of Eden and the Fallen Woman The significance of apples comes from the Garden of Eden, where the forbidden fruit was consumed. The narrator in this poem however plucks the pink blossoms instead, which can suggest the act of impatience (sex before marriage) or earthly pleasures which is linked with the idea of temptation. The narrator here chooses to capture the beauty of life or emotional happiness rather than sexual pleasures or an attempt to commit sin, however, she is still considered to be seen as a ‘fallen woman’.

Critical Analysis Use the following questions to help guide your own analysis: Consider the theme of pleasure and temptation. What do the apples represent?

Temptation ‘Plump Gertude passed me with her basket full’, whereas the narrator is left with none. At this point we might understand that the apples symbolise knowledge, fertility and joy and that they can only be consumed by married women. The reason for her ‘ basket full’ was because she had a ‘stronger hand’ which could suggest she had the physical support of her husband which is why she was treated better. Rossetti now reflects how society viewed married women in contrast with fallen woman. No matter how strong they were on their own, they always require a ‘stronger hand’ to be seen equally.

Critical Analysis Use the following questions to help guide your own analysis: What links to other poems in the collection can you make? An Apple Gathering appears to be an allegorical fable similar to Goblin Market. There are many various hidden meaning behind the simple sad story of a girl being disappointed just because she could not get any apples.

An Apple Gathering This poem follows a female protagonist through desire, personal loss and the unquenchable renewal of the desire. Using these stories as a metaphor for sexual love, Rossetti seems to indicate that the pleasure derived from physical love is fleeting and ultimately disappointing.

Conclusions Is the narrator a sympathetic character? Who is to blame? What conclusions can be drawn from this poem? What themes can you identify. Is it a typical Rossetti poem?