Forbidden Fruit: Literally and allegorically, because Laura's consumption of the fruit can be seen as a retelling of the Christian narrative of the fall.Food Porn: Did we mention the mouth-watering detail with which Rossetti describes the fruit?.Food Chains: Don't eat the fruit, okay?.Feminist Fantasy: Another interpretation, or rather, a feminist religious allegory, about a female savior who redeems the fallen.It tastes horrible, but she ultimately recovers. She returns, drenched in juice and pulp, to her sister, who eats the pulp and juice. Earn Your Happy Ending: The goblin merchants try to force Lizzie to eat their fruit, but she does not consume any of it.It's pretty common to read the fruit as some kind of sexual metaphor. Does This Remind You of Anything?: If it does, you're not alone.Coming of Age Story: One interpretation of the poem is that it is about the transition from childhood to adulthood.Bazaar of the Bizarre: The all-encompassing danger is an enchanted fruit-stall run nightly by animal-featured goblins.Babies Ever After: We don't know anything about the fathers (marriage isn't the most important relationship here) but the babies are there and it's a happy thing.An Aesop: The poem ends with a clear Aesop about sisterhood, but there might be other morals present.Alliterative List: 'Chuckling, clapping, crowing'.Added Alliterative Appeal: Alliteration appears in some parts of the poem, like 'They stood stock still upon the moss'.You can read the poem here this page includes D.G. Some of the songs can be found on Youtube. Goblin Market was adapted into a musical by Polly Pen and Peggy Harmon. Dante Gabriel Rossetti, her brother and founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, provided illustrations for the poem. The poem debuted in Rossetti's first volume of poems Goblin Market and Other Poems. It's the sort of poem that benefits from being read aloud. The poem makes heavy use of alliteration, musical rhyme, and mouth-watering detail. Allegorical interpretations vary widely, ranging from the power of sisterhood, temptation and redemption, or even feminine sexuality. It can be read 'straight' as a poetic fairy tale or fantasy narrative (as expressed by William Michael Rossetti, her brother), but it can also be read as an allegory.

Simply put, it tells the story of a girl who eats some forbidden fruit (sold by 'goblin men') and suffers as a result, until her sister comes to her aid. Goblin Market is a Narrative Poem by British Victorian poet Christina Rossetti, originally published in 1862.

Who knows upon what soil they fed, their hungry thirsty roots?' 'We must not look at goblin men, we must not buy their fruits.

The goblin market