Theories of the Mind
GOBLIN MARKET
Christina Rossetti (1862)
1 Morning and evening
2 Maids heard the goblins cry:
3 "Come buy our orchard fruits,
4 Come buy, come buy:
5 Apples and quinces,
6 Lemons and oranges,
7 Plump unpecked cherries,
8 Melons and raspberries,
9 Bloom-down-cheeked peaches,
10 Swart-headed mulberries,
11 Wild free-born cranberries,
12 Crab-apples, dewberries,
13 Pine-apples, blackberries,
14 Apricots, strawberies;--
15 All ripe together
16 In summer weather,--
17 Morns that pass by,
18 Fair eves that fly;
19 Come buy, come buy:
20 Our grapes fresh from the vine,
21 Pomegranates full and fine,
22 Dates and sharp bullaces,
23 Rare pears and greengages,
24 Damsons and bilberries,
25 Taste them and try:
26 Currants and gooseberries,
27 Bright-fire-like barberries,
28 Figs to fill your mouth,
29 Citrons from the South,
30 Sweet to tongue and sound to eye;
31 Come buy, come buy."
33 Evening by evening
34 Among the brookside rushes,
35 Laura bowed her head to hear,
36 Lizzie veiled her blushes:
37 Crouching close together
38 In the cooling weather,
39 With clasping arms and cautioning lips,
40 With tingling cheeks and finger tips.
41 "Lie close," Laura said,
42 Pricking up her goblin head:
43 "We must not look at goblin men,
44 We must not buy their fruits:
45 Who knows upon what soil they fed
46 Their hungry thirsty roots?"
47 "Come buy," call the goblins
48 Hobbling down the glen.
49 "Oh," cried Lizzie, "Laura, Laura,
50 You should not peep at goblin men."
51 Lizzie covered up her eyes,
52 Covered close lest they should look;
53 Laura reared her glossy head,
54 And whispered like the restless brook:
55 "Look, Lizzie, look, Lizzie,
56 Down the glen tramp little men.
57 One hauls a basket,
58 One bears a plate,
59 One lugs a golden dish
60 Of many pounds weight.
61 How fair the vine must grow
62 Whose grapes are so luscious;
63 How warm the wind must blow
64 Thro' those fruit bushes."
65 "No," said Lizzie: "No, no, no;
66 Their offers should not charm us,
67 Their evil gifts would harm us."
68 She thrust a dimpled finger
69 In each ear, shut eyes and ran:
70 Curious Laura chose to linger
71 Wondering at each merchant man.
72 One had a cat's face,
73 One whisked a tail,
74 One trampled at a rat's pace,
75 One crawled like a snail,
76 One like a wombat prowled obtuse and furry,
77 One like a ratel tumbled hurry scurry.
78 She heard a voice like voice of doves
79 Cooing all together:
80 They sounded kind and full of love
81 In the pleasant weather.
83 Laura stretched her gleaming neck,
84 Like a rush-imbedded swan,
85 Like a lily from the beck,
86 Like a moonlit poplar branch,
87 Like a vessel at the launce
88 When its last restraint is gone.
90 Backwards up the mossy glen
91 Turned and trooped the goblin men,
92 With their shrill repeated cry,
93 "Come buy, come buy."
94 When they reached where Laura was
95 They stood stock still upon the moss,
96 Leering at each other,
97 Brother with queer brother;
98 Signaling each other,
99 Brother with sly brother.
100 One set his basket down,
101 One reared his plate;
102 One began to weave a crown
103 Of tendrils, leaves, and rough nuts brown
104 (Men sell not such in any town);
105 One heaved the golden weight
106 Of dish and fruit to offer her:
107 "Come buy, come buy," was still their cry.
108 Laura stared but did not stir,
109 Longed but had no money:
110 The whisk-tailed merchant bade her taste
111 In tones as smooth as honey,
112 The cat-faced purr'd,
113 The rat-paced spoke a word
114 Of welcome, and the snail-paced even was heard;
115 One parrot-voiced and jolly
116 Cried "Pretty Goblin" still for "Pretty Polly;"--
117 One whistled like a bird.
119 But sweet-tooth Laura spoke in haste:
120 "Good folk, I have no coin;
121 To take were to purloin:
122 I have no copper in my purse,
123 I have no silver either,
124 And all my gold is on the furze
125 That shakes in windy weather
126 Above the rusty heather."
127 "You have much gold upon your head,"
128 They answered all together:
129 "Buy from us with a golden curl."
130 She clipped a precious golden lock,
131 She dropped a tear more rare than pearl,
132 Then sucked their fruit globes fair or red:
133 Sweeter than honey from the rock.
134 Stronger than man-rejoicing wine,
135 Clearer than water flowed that juice;
136 She never tasted such before,
137 How should it cloy with length of use?
138 She sucked and sucked and sucked the more
139 Fruits which that unknown orchard bore;
140 She sucked until her lips were sore;
141 Then flung the emptied rinds away
142 But gathered up one kernal-stone,
143 And knew not was it night or day
144 As she turned home alone.
146 Lizzie met her at the gate
147 Full of wise upbraidings:
148 "Dear, you should not stay so late,
149 Twilight is not good for maidens;
150 Should not loiter in the glen
151 In the haunts of goblin men.
152 Do you not remember Jeanie,
153 How she met them in the moonlight,
154 Took their gifts both choice and many
155 Ate their fruits and wore their flowers
156 Plucked from bowers
157 Where summer ripens at all hours?
158 But ever in the noonlight
159 She pined and pined away;
160 Sought them by night and day,
161 Found them no more but dwindled and grew grey
162 Then fell with the first snow,
163 While to this day no grass will grow
164 Where she lies low:
165 I planted daisies there a year ago
166 That never blow.
167 You should not loiter so."
168 "Nay, hush," said Laura:
169 "Nay, hush, my sister:
170 I ate and ate my fill,
171 Yet my mouth waters still;
172 Tomorrow night I will
173 Buy more:" and kissed her:
174 "Have done with sorrow;
175 I'll bring you plums tomorrow
176 Fresh on their mother twigs,
177 Cherries worth getting;
178 You cannot think what figs
179 My teeth have met in,
180 What melons icy cold
181 Piled on a dish of gold
182 Too huge for me to hold,
183 What peaches with a velvet nap,
184 Pellucid grapes without one seed:
185 Odorous indeed must be the mead
186 Whereon they grow, and pure the wave they drink
187 With lillies at the brink,
188 And sugar-sweet the sap."
190 Golden head by golden head,
191 Like two pigeons in one nest
192 Folded in each other's wings,
193 They lay down in their curtained bed:
194 Like two blossoms on one stem,
195 Like two flakes of new-fall'n snow,
196 Like two wands of ivory
197 Tipped with gold for awful kings.
198 Moon and stars gazed in at them,
199 Wind sang them to lullaby,
200 Lumbering owls forbore to fly,
201 Not a bat flapped to and fro
202 Round their rest:
203 Cheek to cheek and breast to breast
204 Locked together in one nest.
206 Early in the morning
207 When the first cock crowed his warning,
208 Neat like bees, as sweet and busy,
209 Laura rose with Lizzie:
210 Fetched in honey, milked the cows,
211 Aired and set to rights the house,
212 Kneaded cakes of whitest wheat,
213 Cakes for dainty mouths to eat,
214 Next churned butter, whipped up cream,
215 Fed their poultry, sat and sewed;
216 Talked as modest maidens should:
217 Liizie with an open heart,
218 Laura in an absent dream,
219 One content, one sick in part;
220 One warbling for the mere bright day's delight,
221 One longing for the night.
223 At length slow evening came:
224 They went with pitchers to the reedy brook;
225 Lizzie most placid in her look,
226 Laura most like a leaping flame.
227 They drew the gurgling water from its deep;
228 Lizzie plucked purple and rich golden flags,
229 Then turning homewards said: "The sunset flushes
230 Those furthest loftiest crags;
231 Come, Laura, not another maiden lags,
232 No willful squirrel wags,
233 The beasts and birds are fast asleep."
234 But Laura loitered still among the rushes
235 And said the bank was steep.
237 And said the hour was early still,
238 The dew not fall'n, the wind not chill:
239 Listening ever, but not catching
240 The customary cry,
241 "Come buy, come buy,"
242 With its iterated jingle
243 Of sugar-baited words:
244 Not for all her watching
245 Once discerning even one goblin
246 Racing, whisking, tumbling, hobbling;
247 Let alone the herds
248 That used to tramp along the glen,
249 In groups or single,
250 Of brisk fruit-merchant men.
251 Till Lizzie urged, "O Laura, come;
252 I hear the fruit call but I dare not look:
253 You should not loiter longer at this brook:
254 Come with me home.
255 The stars rise, the moon bends her arc,
256 Each glowworm winks her spark,
257 Let us get home before the night grows dark:
258 For clouds may gather
259 Tho' this is summer weather,
260 Put out the lights and drench us thro';
261 Then if we lost our way what should we do?"
263 Laura turned as cold as stone
264 To find her sister heard that cry alone,
265 That goblin cry,
266 "Come buy our fruits, come buy."
267 Must she then buy no more such dainty fruit?
268 Must she no more such succous pasture find,
269 Gone deaf and blind?
270 Her tree of life drooped from the root:
271 She said not one word in her heart's sore ache;
272 But peering thro' the dimness, nought discerning,
273 Trudged home, her pitcher dripping all the way;
274 So crept to bed, and lay
275 Silent till Lizzie slept;
276 Then sat up in a passionate yearning,
277 And gnashed her teeth for baulked desire, and wept
278 As if her heart would break.
280 Day after day, night after night,
281 Laura kept watch in vain
282 In sullen silence of exceeding pain.
283 She never caught again the goblin cry:
284 "Come buy, come buy;"--
285 She never spied the goblin men
286 Hawking their fruits along the glen:
287 But when the moon waxed bright
288 Her hair grew thin and gray;
289 She dwindled, as the fair full moon doth turn
290 To swift decay and burn
291 Her fire away.
293 One day remembering her kernal-stone
294 She set it by a wall that faced the south;
295 Dewed it with tears, hoped for a root,
296 Watched for a waxing shoot,
297 But there came none;
298 It never saw the sun,
299 It never felt the trickling moisture run:
300 While with sunk eyes and faded mouth
301 She dreamed of melons, as a traveller sees
302 False waves in desert drouth
303 With shade of leaf-crowned trees,
304 And burns the thirstier in the sandful breeze.
305
306 She no more swept the house,
307 Tended the fowls or cows,
308 Fetched honey, kneaded cakes of wheat,
309 Brought water from the brook:
310 But sat down listless in the chimney-nook
311 And would not eat.
313 Tender Lizzie could not bear
314 To watch her sister's cankerous care
315 Yet not to share.
316 She night and morning
317 Caught the goblins' cry:
318 "Come buy our orchard fruits,
319 Come buy, come buy:"--
320 Beside the brook, along the glen,
321 She heard the tramp of goblin men,
322 The voice and stir
323 Poor Laura could not hear;
324 Longed to buy fruit to comfort her,
325 But feared to pay too dear.
326 She thought of Jeanie in her grave,
327 Who should have been a bride;
328 But who for joys brides hope to have
329 Fell sick and died
330 In her gay prime,
331 In earliest Winter time,
332 With the first glazing rime,
333 With the first snow-fall of crisp Winter time.
335 Till Laura dwindling
336 Seemed knocking at Death's door:
337 Then Lizzie weighed no more
338 Better and worse;
339 But put a silver penny in her purse,
340 Kissed Laura, crossed the heath with clumps of furze
341 At twilight, halted by the brook:
342 And for the first time in her life
343 Began to listen and look.
345 Laughed every goblin
346 When they spied her peeping:
347 Came towards her hobbling
348 Flying, running, leaping,
349 Puffing and blowing,
350 Chucking, clapping, crowing,
351 Clucking and gobbling,
352 Mopping and mowing,
353 Full of airs and graces,
354 Pulling wry faces,
355 Demure grimaces,
356 Cat-like and rat-like,
357 Ratel- and wombat-like,
358 Snail-paced in a hurry,
359 Parrot-voiced and whistler,
360 Helter skelter, hurry scurry,
361 Chattering like magpies,
362 Fluttering like pigeons,
363 Gliding like fishes,--
364 Hugged her and kissed her,
365 Squeezed and caressed her:
366 Stretched up their dishes,
367 Panniers, and plates:
368 "Look at our apples
369 Russet and dun,
370 Bob at our cherries,
371 Bite at our peaches,
372 Citrons and dates,
373 Grapes for the asking,
374 Pears red with basking
375 Out in the sun,
376 Plums on their twigs;
377 Pluck them and suck them,
378 Pomegranates, figs."--
380 "Good folk," said Lizzie,
381 Mindful of Jeanie:
382 "Give me much and many:"--
383 Held out her apron,
384 Tossed them her penny.
385 "Nay, take a seat with us,
386 Honour and eat with us,"
387 They answered grinning:
388 "Our feast is but beginning.
389 Night yet is early,
390 Warm and dew-pearly,
391 Wakeful and starry:
392 Such fruits as these
393 No man can carry;
394 Half their bloom would fly,
395 Half their dew would dry,
396 Half their flavour would pass by.
397 Sit down and feast with us,
398 Be welcome guest with us,
399 Cheer you and rest with us."--
400 "Thank you," said Lizzie: "But one waits
401 At home alone for me:
402 So without further parleying,
403 If you will not sell me any
404 Of your fruits tho' much and many,
405 Give me back my silver penny
406 I tossed you for a fee."--
407 They began to scratch their pates,
408 No longer wagging, purring,
409 But visibly demurring,
410 Grunting and snarling.
411 One called her proud,
412 Cross-grained, uncivil;
413 Their tones waxed loud,
414 Their looks were evil.
415 Lashing their tails
416 They trod and hustled her,
417 Elbowed and jostled her,
418 Clawed with their nails,
419 Barking, mering, hissing, mocking,
420 Tore her gown and soiled her stocking,
421 Twitched her hair out by the roots,
422 Stamped upon her tender feet,
423 Held her hands and squeezed their fruits
424 Against her mouth to make her eat.
425 White and golden Lizzie stood,
426 Like a lily in a flood,--
427 Like a rock of blue-veined stone
428 Lashed by tides obstreperously,--
429 Like a beacon left alone
430 In a hoary roaring sea,
431 Sending up a golden fire,--
432 Like a fruit-crowned orange-tree
433 White with blossoms honey-sweet
434 Sore beset by wasp and bee,--
435 Like a royal virgin town
436 Topped with gilded dome and spire
437 Close beleaguered by a fleet
438 Mad to tug her standard down.
440 One may lead a horse to water,
441 Twenty cannot make him drink.
442 Tho' the globins cuffed and caught her,
443 Coaxed and fought her,
444 Bullied and besought her,
445 Scratched her, pinched her black as ink,
446 Kicked and knocked her,
447 Mauled and mocked her,
448 Lizzie uttered not a word;
449 Would not open lip from lip
450 Lest they should cram a mouthful in:
451 But laughed in heart to feel the drip
452 Of juice that syrupped all her face,
453 And lodged in the dimples of her chin,
454 And streaked her neck which quaked like curd.
455 At last the evil people
456 Worn out by her resistance
457 Flung back her penny, kicked their fruit
458 Along whichever road they took,
459 Not leaving root or stone or shoot;
460 Some writhed into the ground,
461 Some dived into the brook
462 With ring and ripple,
463 Some scudded on the gale without a sound,
464 Some vanished in the distance.
466 In a smart, ache, tingle,
467 Lizzie went her way;
468 Knew not was it night or day;
469 Sprang up the bank, tore thro' the furze,
470 Threaded copse and dingle,
471 And heard her penny jingle
472 Bouncing in her purse,
473 Its bounce was music to her ear.
474 She ran and ran
475 As if she feared some goblin man
476 Dogged her with gibe or curse
477 Or something worse:
478 But not one goblin skurried after,
479 Nor was she pricked by fear;
480 The kind heart made her windy-paced
481 That urged her home quite out of breath with haste
482 And inward laughter.
484 She cried "Laura," up the garden,
485 "Did you miss me?
486 Come and kiss me.
487 Never mind my bruises,
488 Hug me, kiss me, suck my juices
489 Squeezed from goblin fruits for you,
490 Goblin pulp and goblin dew.
491 Eat me, drink me, love me;
492 Laura, make much of me:
493 For your sake I have braved the glen
494 And had to do with goblin merchant men."
496 Laura started from her chair,
497 Flung her arms up in the air,
498 Clutched her hair:
499 "Lizzie, Lizzie, have you tasted
500 For my sake the fruit forbidden?
501 Must your light like mine be hidden,
502 Your young life like mine be wasted,
503 Undone in mine undoing
504 And ruined in my ruin,
505 Thirsty, cankered, goblin-ridden?"--
506 She clung about her sister,
507 Kissed and kissed and kissed her:
508 Tears once again
509 Refreshed her shrunken eyes,
510 Dropping like rain
511 After long sultry drouth;
512 Shaking with aguish fear, and pain,
513 She kissed her and kissed her with a hungry mouth.
515 Her lips began to scorch,
516 That juice was wormwood to her tongue,
517 She loathed the feast:
518 Writhing as one possessed she leaped and sung,
519 Rent all her robe, and wrung
520 Her hands in lamentable haste,
521 And beat her breast.
522 Her locks streamed like the torch
523 Borne by a racer at full speed,
524 Or like the man of horses in their flight,
525 Or like an eagle when she stems the light
526 Straight toward the sun,
527 Or like a caged thing freed,
528 Or like a flying flag when armies run.
530 Swift fire spread thro' her veins, knocked at her heart,
531 Met the fire smouldering there
532 And overbore its lesser flame;
533 She gorged on bitterness without a name:
534 Ah! fool, to choose such part
535 Of soul-consuming care!
536 Sense failed in the mortal strife:
537 Like the watch-tower of a town
538 Which an earthquake shatters down,
539 Like a lightning-stricken mast,
540 Like a wind-uprooted tree
541 Spun about,
542 Like a foam-topped waterspout
543 Cast down headlong in the sea,
544 She fell at last;
545 Pleasure past and anguish past,
546 Is it death or is it life?
548 Life out of death.
549 That night long Lizzie watched by her,
550 Counted her pulse's flagging stir,
551 Felt for her breath,
552 Held water to her lips, and cooled her face
553 With tears and fanning leaves:
554 But when the first birds chirped about their eaves,
555 And early reapers plodded to the place
556 Of golden sheaves,
557 And dew-wet grass
558 Bowed in the morning winds so brisk to pass,
559 And new buds with new day
560 Opened of cup-like lilies on the stream,
561 Laura awoke as from a dream,
562 Laughed in the innocent old way,
563 Hugged Lizzie but not twice or thrice;
564 Her gleaming locks showed not one thread of grey,
565 Her breath was sweet as May
566 And light danced in her eyes.
568 Days, weeks, months, years
569 Afterwards, when both were wives
570 With children of their own;
571 Their mother-hearts beset with fears,
572 Their lives bound up in tender lives;
573 Laura would call the little ones
574 And tell them of her early prime,
575 Those pleasant days long gone
576 Of not-returning time:
577 Would talk about the haunted glen,
578 The wicked, quaint fruit-merchant men,
579 Their fruits like honey to the throat
580 But poison in the blood;
581 (Men sell not such in any town:)
582 Would tell them how her sister stood
583 In deadly peril to do her good,
584 And win the firey antidote:
585 Then joining hands to little hands
586 Would bid them cling together,
587 "For there is no friend like a sister
588 In calm or stormy weather;
589 To cheer one on the tedious way,
590 To fetch one if one goes astray,
591 To lift one if one totters down,
592 To strengthen whilst one stands."