Goblin Market Symbolism, Imagery & Wordplay

This is an obvious one image for "Goblin Market." After all, the poem is about eating fruit and then wanting for more. The poem opens with a list of 29 different kinds of fruit (yes, we counted). W...

For the first hundred years after it was written, "Goblin Market" was read almost exclusively as a children's poem about the importance of sisterhood and sisterly heroism. In fact, you can still fi...

Flowers in "Goblin Market" tend to be associated with delicate, fragile purity, as opposed to the luscious, decadent, and sensual goblin fruit. Flowers, though, can be "plucked," which often repres...

Of course "money" has to be important in a poem with "market" in the title. But even though the market is central to the basic plot of the poem, money only changes hands twice. And the first time,...

The moon is often symbolically connected to women in poetry. But, it can also have to do with cycles and changes, since the moon changes shape throughout the month. The moon makes a couple of appea...

A lot of the action of "Goblin Market" takes place down by the stream where Laura and Lizzie gather water. Most of the detail in "Goblin Market" means something. What about the water and all the im...