Comparing Cousin Kate and The Seduction

Comparing Cousin Kate and The Seduction

In this coursework I will be comparing the two poems ‘Cousin Kate’ by

Christina Rossetti and ‘The Seduction’ by Eileen McAuley. The two

poems have many similarities but there are also some differences

between them. To begin I will give an introduction to both the poems.

Cousin Kate is about a cottage maiden that is tricked into having an

affair with a rich Lord. She is then betrayed by the Lord who decides

to dump her. He then marries her Cousin Kate who is much more

beautiful than her and who has not yet lost her virginity. The Lord

completely forgets about the maid after abandoning her and leaves her

all alone. The maiden later realises that she is pregnant with a baby

boy who is the son of the lord. The poem ends with the cottage maiden

being an outcast because she has got pregnant before getting married

but also with her feeling triumphant because here son will one day be

the heir to the Lord’s lands.

The Seduction is about a 16 year old girl who has a one night stand

with a boy whom she meets at a party. The boy is into bad habits like

drinking and taking drugs. He offers the girls some drinks and once

she is very drunk he takes her to the docks near a river where he

sleeps with her. After that night the girl never sees the boy again

and realises 3 months later that she is pregnant. Her life is

completely destroyed by her pregnancy. She has no more friends and

nobody will ever speak to her again. She feels very bitter as to how

her life has been ruined due to one mistake and how she has become an

outcast. She ends the poem extremely disillusioned with life and how

it has treated her.

There are many differences between the two poems. The two poems took

...

... middle of paper ...

...drinks and fallen into the boys trap.

I prefer the poem Cousin Kate because in this poem the maiden has some

hope for her future in the end because her son will be the heir to the

lord’s estates. She has something to look forward too. She can also

feel triumphant because her Cousin Kate will not have nay children.

The ending of the seduction though is much bleaker with the girl

having no hope for her future and even feeling like committing

suicide.

I think the attitude to teenage pregnancy was almost the same in both

these poems even though they were set in different times. Even today

the attitude to teenage pregnancy is very bad and girls who get

pregnant in their teen years are treated as outcasts by society which

is very wrong. Even if a girl does get pregnant society has to accept

the fact that she has made a mistake and give her another chance.