Deconstructing “Goblin” by Christina Rosetti
1. First Impressions of the title
 We think the title means that goblins are running a market or that they are selling
goblins
 Some goblins have a market
 Market place of goblins - where they all meet up
 Market place where people are selling things
 Such as fruit and vegetables
 Goblins are being sold
 Goblins selling items
 Could be a metaphor for something
 A market that sells goblins
 Black market – sells illegal things
 Not a good/safe type of market
 A rare treasure market, full of valuables.
2. New/ Interesting words
Word
Denotation
Trudged
walking with slow heavy steps
Goblin
ugly mischievous creature
Pellucid
translucent
Wine
alcoholic beverage made of
fermented grapes or other fruits
Scratch (390) tear or dig into with nails or claws
Lashing (398) a whipping, especially as punishment.
Elbowed
(400)
Jostled (400)
Clawed (401)
Stamped
(405)
Dewberries
Veiled
Bilberries
Tendrils
– push with the elbow
to crowd, shove, or push against
scratch or tear something with the
claws or the fingernails.
bring down ones foot heavily on the
ground or something on the ground
European bramble with soft prickles
and edible fruit which has a dewy
white blossom on its skin.
Covered with, or as through with a
veil.
Hardly dwarf shrub closely related to
blueberries with drooping red
flowers and dark blue edible berries.
a slender thread like appendage of a
climbing plant, often growing in spiral
Connotation
to walk laborious or wearily
small, annoying creatures
clear
liquor
To itch or dig into.
hurting her with words or with their
tails.
purposely hit with her their elbows.
– shoving and ganging up on her.
ripped or torn away.
stamped on her foot, leaving a mark
there.
some sort of berry you find in the
morning
Hidden.
another type of berry
tentacle like, something that wraps
around an object
Pellucid
Forbore
Maiden (144)
Cankerous
(484)
Furze (325)
Quaint (553)
Heath (325)
Breast:
Melon
Thrust
Kiss
Squeeze
form and stretching out and twines
around any suitable support.
translucently clear
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unmarried young woman/girl or
virgin
affected with, caused by or like
“canker”
low, prickly European evergreen
shrub
strange or odd in an interesting,
pleasing, or amusing way
– open wasteland, usually having
sandy acid soil and scrubby
vegetation
The front part of the body between
the neck and the abdomen; the
chest.
A large round or oval fruit with a hard
rind, sweet juicy edible flesh and a
central cavity packed with many
seeds.
To press or force the acceptance of
(somebody or something) on or upon
somebody
To touch or press with the lips slightly
pursed
To extract ( liquid, etc.) from
something by pressure
in control
To own/ get there first
Innocent, beautiful, unmarried young
woman
bad
bushes
small, traditional, simple
fire pit
We think of women
Some would think of Breasts
To push
Movement of the lips to show affection
Crushing motion
3. Grammar/ Punctuation
 The author uses punctuation, periods, commas, colons, and quotation marks. Each first
word in a line is capitalized. There are run on sentences, there are no indentations, and
there are many stanzas.
 Uses lots of run on sentences so you can’t pause until a comma or period.
 She uses commas, periods, semi colons, colons, brackets, quotation marks, question
marks, dash, exclamation mark.
 No indentations
 Commas at the end of mostly every line
 27 stanzas
4. Devices
Allegory: because Laura represents Eve, the first person to eat the forbidden fruit and Lizzie acts
as a Christ figure by forgiving her for her actions.
Alliteration: “Look, Lizzie, look, Lizzie,” (54) “She sucked until her lips were sore” (136) The
three “S” sounds.
Allusion: “Or like a flying flag when armies run.” (506)
“Like two wands of ivory tipped with gold for awful kings.” (190-191)
Ambiguity: stamped (405), tears (486) Cherry” (354) and “Melons” (8) They’re both fruit but
have references to female genitalia
Animism – “Bloom-down-cheeked peaches,/Swart-headed mulberries,/Wild free-born
cranberries,” (9-11); “Her locks streamed like the torch borne by a racer at full speed, or like the
mane of horses in their flight, or like an eagle when she stems the light straight toward the sun,
or like a caged thing freed, or like a flying flag when armies run.” (500-506)
Assonance: kick and knocked her, mauled and mocked her (428-429)
Consonance: “Pluck them and suck them” (361) Because of the “K” sounds.
Hyperbole: “Counted her pulse’s flagging stir,” (526)
Imagery: Lashing their tails . . . Stamped upon her tender feet (398-405), Which an earthquake
shatters down, like a lightening-stricken mast (515-516); “But when the first birds chirped about
their eaves,” (530)
Juxtaposition: Flung back her penny, kicked her fruit (439) The comparison between Goblin and
men based on their sex. Because the Goblin’s in both Lizzie and Laura’s mind that they are
ungentle man like.
Metaphor: A metaphor is used throughout lines 120 to 127 talking about gold. Laura says that
the only gold she has is the golden flowers that grow on the furze. The goblins point out that if
the gold on the furze counts why not the gold on her head, which is her blonde hair, she makes
this metaphor literal when she snips off a piece of her “golden” hair to use as money. This is
sinful because money is the root of all evil, and this story has to do this sin and following the
story of Adam and Eve in the bible.
“That juice was like wormwood to her tongue,” (494)
Onomatopoeia: purring (391), jingle (452) The word “Suck” (136) The word sounds like their
meaning
Point of view – third person / Omniscient because the reader knows the mind of both Lizzie and
Laura.
Repetition – “Come buy, come buy:” (4), “She sucked and sucked and sucked the more” (134),
“half their bloom would fly, half their dew would dry, half their flavor would pass by” (375)
Rhyme – “Apples and quinces/Lemons and oranges,/Plump unpecked cherries,…” (3-14) “Our
grapes fresh from the vine,/Pomegranates full and fine,” (20-21)
Simile – “One crawled like a snail,/One like a wombat prowled obtuse and furry,/One like a ratel
tumbled hurry-skurry.” (74-76) “Laura stretched her gleaming neck/Like a rush-imbedded
swan,…” (81-85) “Like two blossoms on one stem” (188) A sexual reference to the male
genitalia.
Symbol- “One began to weave a crown” – a symbol of power
Speaker: The writer takes on as the narrator of the story
5. Paraphrase
 This poem is about a girl named Laura who bought fruit from the goblin market after
they had called out to her. Her sister lizzie told her to ignore them, but Laura went
ahead and traded her hair for some fruit. When she got back, her sister reminded her
about Jeanie who had ate the fruit, searched for more until her hair turned grey, and
then died. Laura looked for the goblin market for days and nights until her hair turned
grey. Her sister Lizzie goes out to try and cure her sister, and the goblins try to make her
eat the fruit, but the juice gets all over her instead. Lizzie goes home and Laura kisses
the juice off of her sister, and she is cured. They both become wives and mothers, and
tell their children about the goblin market.
 Goblins have many temptations and don’t know how to control them, so two girls show
up they lure them in. They give them the fruit which makes the girls more prone to
accepting what the goblins want from them. Laura takes the fruit even though she
knows she shouldn’t and the goblins take advantage of her. Laura is now in bad shape
and Lizzie goes to find the goblins to see what they had done to her sister. The goblins
then try to seduce Lizzie as well but she resists all of their attempts and struggles
through the abuse and manages to escape. When Lizzie returns home, Laura is
enlightened by how brave her sister is and she is then inspired to get better by the
courage of her sister. They then both move on to becomes wives and mothers and
remember how each other’s strength got them through tough times to be able to live
the life they have today
 The poem is about a girl named Lizzie, who represents Eve in this story how the first
person to cross the line and eat the forbidden fruit, like the story in the bible. Laura is
like god, who forgives her for the sin anyhow. The goblins with the fruit in the poem
represent the snake in the story, as the devil going against god. And this all ties together
as sin, because that was the first “sin” in the bible.
 First page:Explained the goblins, and how they try to get Lizzie and Laura to buy their
fruit. Suggested Laura was interested in the goblins or their fruit, despite Lizzie’s
warning.
Second page: Laura ended up eating the goblins’ fruit. Lizzie tells her she made a
mistake. They go to bed. Third page
Implying Lizzie and Laura sleep in the same bed (198)
Lizzie and Laura wake up and do their chores
Laura noticed the goblins weren’t around anymore
Lizzie hears the goblins, but Laura doesn’t
Fourth page
Laura is dying from eating the goblins’ fruit, and Lizzie tries to help her by going to the
goblins to buy their fruit
Goblins explain what they have, they ask Lizzie to stay Fifth page
The goblins attack Lizzie
They laughed and left
Lizzie got up and left to save her sister
Lizzie gets Laura to drink the goblin fruit juice

Sixth page
Laura is worried Lizzie will turn into what she turned into
The fruit juices cure her
Lizzie and Laura both end up getting married years later
Laura tells her children to not trust goblin men
All times of the day you can hear Goblin’s shouting come buy our goods. During the
evenings Laura and Lizzie go down to the Brookside. Laura and Lizzie then hear the
Goblins cry and Laura gets tempted to follow them. Lizzie begs her not to but Laura goes
anyway. After Laura eats the Goblins fruit she can no longer hear the Goblins cries.
Afterwards Laura acts like she has a secret she doesn’t want Lizzie to know. For Laura’s
sake and health Lizzie set off to buy some of the Goblin’s fruit. The Goblin’s won’t let her
take the fruit back to Laura so they beat her. Lizzie runs away and returns home with
some of their fruit. She gives the fruit to Laura and by the next morning everything is
back to normal. As the years pass Laura tells the children not to follow the Goblins
because they were bad people.
6. Mood/Tone
Tone: The author seems upset with the events in the poem towards the violence, which is
mostly from the goblins towards Lizzie.
Mood: Feel sad towards the girls who were abused, and a bit angry.
The tone of the poem is trying to teach a lesson. Lizzie almost died when she ate the fruit she
badly wanted to eat. It sets a tone of awareness and sadness because she almost died because
of her ignorance to her sister.
The tone of the poem is dark, but the writer put the content in lighter words
The mood of the poem is disturbing, and also confusing with many possible hidden messages.
Even though the poem has a dark meaning (the Goblins lure and beat women if they refuse the
fruit) it is portrayed as a happy, lighthearted poem.
7. Thoughts on title after deconstruction:
 Goblin Market = a place where men abuse women or girls by luring them in with
valuable things and false promises.
 The goblins were the devil, selling her soul and tempting the main girl in the poem with
their fresh fruit at the market.
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The goblin market could represent the danger the two sisters were faced with,
considering markets are usually supposed to be fun and safe places. The goblins that ran
the market saw the women as easy targets (naïve) and took advantage of the fact that
they were women.
Lizzie and Laura were portrayed as naïve by always going back to the goblins even after
they showed they could be dangerous
This can be considered a stereotype towards women by saying they are easily tricked
and see the good in everything
Also shows the bond women can make and hold onto even when times get tough,
whether they’re sisters or just friends
We think the title of the poem has a secret meaning. Which is that the Goblins are
basically sexual predators who prey on women. While Lizzie and Laura are tricked into
the “trade.” We think the Goblins run a sex trade business and Laura and Lizzie get lured
into the business by the Goblins who are using the fruit as bait to get the women.