In this Essay I will compare and contrast two poems ‘The Seduction’ by Eileen McAuley and ‘Cousin Kate’ by Christina Rossetti. I will also support my ideas with quotations. Cousin Kate was written in the 19th century and The Seduction was written near the end of the 1900’s. This contributes to one of the differences I will be discussing in my essay
The Seduction is about a teenage girl who goes to a party. She meets a boy and falls head over heels in love with him but she is unable to see that he is using her. He takes her to a depressing run down area in Liverpool, the Birkenhead docks of the river Mersey. She can’t understand that when he takes her there he is not interested in her but in a one night stand. He leaves once he has gotten what he wanted. A few months later she realises she is pregnant and is left to face the harsh reality and prejudice of her neighbourhood. She realises she had been cheated by the fake stories she was told in her teenage magazines.
Cousin Kate is the tale of a cottage maiden that lived a simple life until a powerful lord seduces and whisks her away to his palace home. After the novelty and fun has worn off the maiden is cast aside in favour of her cousin. Everyone looks at her cousin as a good and pure person because she saved herself until marriage but they look at her like an …show more content…
Christina Rossetti uses archaic language in Cousin Kate. The persona in Cousin Kate’s has a jealous rant that makes it obvious to the reader that she has been scorned when she uses words like ‘If you stood where I stand’ and ‘The neighbours call you good and pure, call me an outcast thing’ the poet uses rhetorical questions to show that she was upset, confused, angry and she regretted him choosing her. Her repetition of the phrase ‘find me out’ implies and emphasised on the fact that he pursued