1. LO: To complete some close analysis of the poem
Outcomes: 1) I will be able to explain what the poem is about. 2) I can articulate what view the speaker has. 3) I can analyse some key poetic techniques.
Christina Georgina Rossetti (5 December 1830 – 29 December 1894) was an English poet who wrote a variety of romantic, religious and children's poems. Many scholars have identified feminist themes in her poetry. She was opposed to slavery, cruelty to animals and the exploitation of girls in under-age prostitution.

2. What is the poem about?
The poem 'Cousin Kate' is about a young cottage maiden who falls pregnant by the 'Lord of the manor‘. She thought he loved her but he didn't and when he found out she was pregnant he 'changed [her] like a glove‘. Now he is marrying her cousin, (Kate) whom he ‘bound … with his ring.' The tone of the poem is angry and anxious. The speaker is confused at the experience she has had to endure. Her emotions are strong and violent and her anger is expressed through her imagination.

3. Cousin Kate by Christina Rossetti
Learning Objectives
To understand how Rossetti has used narrative form and language to explore relationships and evoke sympathy in the reader.

4. Glossary Cottage-maiden: a girl born and brought up in a rural cottage
Flaxen: pale yellow
Woe: sorrow or misfortune
Thereof: of this
Cast me by: throw off
Sport: playing
Rye: cereal used to make bread, biscuits, etc.
Mean estate: poor home/background
Sire: father
Coronet: crown

5. First we’re going to annotate the poem.
Annotations
First we’re going to annotate the poem.

6. “…you were so good and pure.”
LO: To complete some close analysis using the SPIRIT template.
SC: 1) I will be able to explain what the poem is about. 2) I can articulate what view the speaker has. 3) I can analyse some key poetic techniques.
“…you were so good and pure.”
Make annotations in SMALL writing on the poem:
What connotations does the word “good” have? (what does it make you think of?)
And “pure”?

7. S1 – What I was… Poetic Devices Poetic Devices
LO: To complete some close analysis.
Outcomes:1) I will be able to explain what the poem is about. 2) I can articulate what view the speaker has. 3) I can analyse some key poetic techniques.
Poetic Devices
S1 – What I was…
Poetic Devices
1) From what perspective is the poem told? What does this tell us about the power that the speaker has if she is nameless?
2) “Cottage maiden” is juxtaposed with “great lord,” why?
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?
Imagery
3) Look at “contented” and “not mindful”. What does this tell us about the power held by women in Victorian England?
Structure
4) What does the repetition of the question mark tell us about the narrator?

8. S2 – Him and me… Poetic Devices Imagery
LO: To complete some close analysis using the SPIRIT template.
SC: 1) I will be able to explain what the poem is about. 2) I can articulate what view the speaker has. 3) I can analyse some key poetic techniques.
S2 – Him and me…
Poetic Devices
Imagery
3) Why has the poet used the oxymoron “shameless shameful life” to describe the narrator?
1) What does the word “lured” tell us about the lord?
Imagery
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 silken knot, He changed me like a glove; So now I moan, an unclean thing, Who might have been a dove.
2) Annotate the 2 similes in this stanza. What do they tell us about the lord?
Imagery
4) What is “unclean thing” a reference to?

9. S3 – He takes you Imagery Imagery
LO: To complete some close analysis using the SPIRIT template.
SC: 1) I will be able to explain what the poem is about. 2) I can articulate what view the speaker has. 3) I can analyse some key poetic techniques.
S3 – He takes you
Imagery
Imagery
4) This poem is full of contrasts – label two in this stanza and explain why the poet uses so many.
1)How would you describe the language in this stanza (and the rest of the poem)? Simple, complex? How many syllables do lots of the words contain? What effect is created by the language?
O Lady Kate, my Cousin Kate, You grew 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 work among the rye; He lifted you from mean estate To sit with him on high. A B C
Rhyme
3) Label the rhyme scheme in this stanza. Is it regular or irregular in the poem? What effect does this create?
Imagery
2) How do the underlined phrases make the lord sound?

10. S4 – The difference between us
LO: To complete some close analysis using the SPIRIT template.
SC: 1) I will be able to explain what the poem is about. 2) I can articulate what view the speaker has. 3) I can analyse some key poetic techniques.
S4 – The difference between us
Poetic Devices
1) Why is the underlined phrase repeated? What does it highlight about the narrator’s feelings?
Imagery
3) “howl in dust” is an example of vivid imagery; annotate the two words on your poem. We will discuss connotations afterwards.
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
Imagery
Ideas
2) a) In contrast, what do “the neighbours” call the narrator? b) What connotations do these two words contain? c) What does this tell us about Victorian attitudes to love and marriage?
4) What themes and ideas does Rossetti convey in this poem?

12. S5 - If I had been you… Tone / Voice
LO: To complete some close analysis using the SPIRIT template.
SC: 1) I will be able to explain what the poem is about. 2) I can articulate what view the speaker has. 3) I can analyse some key poetic techniques.
S5 - If I had been you…
Tone / Voice
1) Who is the narrator addressing for much of the poem? How would you describe her tone of voice?
Imagery
2) This is a vivid image. What does it tell you about the way the narrator feels?
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'd not have won me with his love Nor bought me with his land; I would have spit into his face And not have taken his hand.
Poetic Devices
3) What tense is the underlined quotation written in? What does this tell you about the power available to women in Victorian society?
NOTE: The lord in this poem is not reproached for the way he behaves, whilst the narrator is.

13. S6 – What I have left Imagery 1) What is “gift” a metaphor for?
LO: To complete some close analysis using the SPIRIT template.
SC: 1) I will be able to explain what the poem is about. 2) I can articulate what view the speaker has. 3) I can analyse some key poetic techniques.
S6 – What I have left
Imagery
1) What is “gift” a metaphor for?
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
Tone / Voice
2) This stanza symbolises a shift in tone and mood for the narrator – how is this reflected in the line “I’ve little doubt you fret”?
Poetic Devices
3) What does the alliteration tell us about the speaker?

14. Themes… LOVE MOTHERHOOD WEALTH EMPLOYMENT PROPERTY MARRIAGE
SOCIAL STATUS 

15. S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6 What happens in this stanza Tone and ‘quote’
The narrator describes her poor and care-free life and how a lord pursued her to be his.
The tone is one of regret as she has changed from being ‘contented’ to filled ‘with care’. S2 S3 S4 S5 S6

16. WEALTH
PAIN AND DIRT

17. How to write about ‘Cousin Kate’
L.O. To develop skills to enable a response to the poem,

18. Starter- images and imagery
Given Rossetti’s use of imagery and images, this is a very visual poem.
The similes in the poem work well in expressing the cottage maiden's emotions and help to create an angry and sad mood to the poem.
Can you identify any examples of imagery (similes/metaphors) in the poem and explain their effect? Here are some examples for you…
The simile 'he wore me like a silken knot' links the treatment of the cottage maiden with treatment of discarded clothing.
The simile 'he changed me like a glove' shows how quickly and easily the Lord 'dumped' the Cottage maiden for her cousin.

19. Simile or metaphor quote
Effect
‘wore me like a silken knot’
She is treated like an item of clothing, not a person.
5 mins

20. Simile or metaphor quote
Effect
‘wore me like a silken knot’
She is treated like an item of clothing, not a person.
‘changed me like a glove’
More use of clothing imagery show how unimportant she was.

21. ‘wore me like a silken knot’
Exploding a quote
Used her to decorate himself/wore her out
Something soft and easily manipulated/something attractive and for show
‘wore me like a silken knot’
Knotted her up as if he trapped her/wrapped her round himself/idea of imprisonment and unable to escape
10 mins

22. Your turn – unpicking the language
Taken one of the images and explode the quote – write down all of the connotations and associations that the individual words have for you.

23. Contrast: A technique poets often use is that of contrast
Contrast: A technique poets often use is that of contrast. This is where two (or more) things are compared and linked in order to show similarities and differences.
This is a poem about relationships and the change between the three main characters: the cottage maiden, Cousin Kate and the lord. The reader is presented with a love triangle. It is a poem full of differences, with particular focus on the differences between both women, as the narrator questions and wonders whether this is the reason for her ‘casting away’. However, it is not only a poem with contrast between both women. Throughout the poem, Rossetti presents a variety of contrasting images.
copy

24. Two women are described in the poem – the narrator and her cousin, Kate.
Copy and complete the grid below, finding information about each girl and her behaviour. Make it clear whether it is a similarity or difference between the girls

25. The narrator Cousin Kate Similarity Difference
She is described as ‘hardened by sun and air’
She is described as:
‘You grow more fair than I’
Cousin Kate is described as being more attractive than the narrator. The narrator is suggested as being perhaps older, or that exposure to the weather has slightly faded her beauty.
The narrator has been treated badly by the lord, but her cousin has received marriage and great riches.
15 mins

26. Structure/Form
The poem is in the form of a ballad. Ballads were often spoken aloud as a form of storytelling and frequently relate to tragic events. They often have a particular rhyme scheme.
What do you notice about the structure of the poem?
Why do you think that Rossetti decided that the ballad form was the best for presenting her ideas?
What do the rhythm and rhyme add to the poem?

27. Re-read ‘Cousin Kate’. Choose one other poem from the Conflict anthology. Compare how the idea of control is presented in the two poems.
In your answer, you should consider the:
• poets’ use of language, form and structure
• influence of the contexts in which the poems were written.
(Total for Question 10 = 20 marks)

28. Rossetti uses different techniques to emphasise the contrast in the way the lord treats the two women. At the beginning of the poem we are told by the narrator that the lord did ‘find me out’ and this is repeated as a question within stanza 1. This insistent questioning gives the reader the sense that the narrator is genuinely puzzled as to why she has been used in this way. We are told that she was ‘contented’ and a ‘maiden’ so the inference is that she was completely innocent. However, ‘lured’ at the start of stanza 2 tells us that she was exploited by the lord. This treatment contrasts with the more measured and gradual verbs ‘saw’, ‘chose’ and ‘watched’ to describe how Kate was selected. The reader can see that Kate has been used and discarded which makes us sympathise as Rossetti makes clear that she has been a victim.
Point
Evidence
Explain /Analyse
(AO2)
Evaluate – effect on reader