Goblin Market Analysis

Welcome to the land of symbols, imagery, and wordplay. Before you travel any further, please know that there may be some thorny academic terminology ahead. Never fear, Shmoop is here. Check out our...

IrregularThe meter and rhyme scheme are irregular in "Goblin Market." The poem generally follows an ABAB rhyme scheme, but not always. In fact, sometimes there's a long gap between a word and its r...

There is no first-person narrator in "Goblin Market" like in many other poems. There's no "I." Instead, there's an omniscient third-person narrator like you'd find in most novels or short stories....

"Goblin Market" seems to take place in some kind of fantasy parallel universe with several important differences from our own world. First of all, there are goblins, and they have a traveling fruit...

Christina Rossetti always insisted that "Goblin Market" was a children's poem, and it definitely sounds like one. The short lines, vivid imagery, and frequent repetitions and lists make it sound si...

The title of our poem is self-explanatory: "Goblin Market." It's about the fruit market run by goblins. It doesn't seem too tricky … or is it? Like the poem itself, the title "Goblin Market"...

Intense and Vivid DetailLike all members of the Pre-Raphaelite movement of poets and artists, Christina Rossetti was interested in providing the nitty-gritty detail of everything she described. "Go...

(3) Base CampThe language is relatively easy (aside from the occasional unfamiliar fruit or animal), and the basic story of the poem isn't too hard to get our heads around. But you could spend your...

Christina Rossetti often served as a model for her brother, Dante Gabriel's paintings and sketches. (Source)Christina Rossetti was deeply religious, and broke off at least two marriage engagements...

PG-13Most of the sexy stuff in "Goblin Market" is implied, rather than explicitly described. There are some lines that are almost ludicrously erotic – they're so over-the-top that it's hard n...

Literary and Philosophical ReferencesThe Bible, Genesis 1: the whole "forbidden fruit" plot in "Goblin Market" is often read as an allusion to Adam and Eve's eating of the fruit from the Tree of th...